We reviewed a couple of effects from Kenny B Pedals a few years ago, and are excited to jump back in and check out some more of his gear today. The William Overdrive is a seemingly simple 3-knob, 1-toggle affair, but beneath the surface lies a powerhouse boost overdrive distortion that’s just waiting to unleash itself on the world. Let’s see what’s in store for us, shall we?
Inspired by the Prince of Tone, the William Overdrive is a modified blues breaker circuit, and a modified version of “half” of the famous King of Tone. The three knobs (Volume, Tone & Drive) interact with the external 3-way toggle switch to change gain modes, and there’s even an internal trimmer “treble/presence” control for you to tweak your pedal to your liking. The switch in the top position is normal Overdrive. In the middle position, it’s a clean Boost with a little overdrive, with less compression than the Overdrive mode. In the bottom position, the pedal is in Distortion mode. This mode is more compressed with a bit of hard distortion.
If you are looking for a great transparent type pedal this may be it. It utilizes a JRC4580D chip, along with 1N4148 and 1N4001 diodes, for classic dirt tones with a wide range to experiment with, and features true bypass switching. Basic knobs, basic labeling, one switch – TONS OF TONE. We can tend to get wrapped up in overly flamboyant graphics and 1,000 controls for each pedal – sometimes, it’s nice to kick back and just focus on a great, simple sound. Cheers to Kenny B Pedals on keeping it down-to-earth while still creating great gear – check out our demo below, and visit him over on Reverb as well!
GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES, CONTEST INFO, SEE OUR LATEST DEMO VIDEOS AND MORE:
