Boost pedals have slowly become an essential part of every pedalboard we build, and when they’re combined with an excellent Overdrive, it’s a hard combo to beat. The RFO Electronics Tone Star Custom Overdrive/Boost Combo is a dual workhorse, smashing a wicked drive circuit into an enclosure with a powerful, tasty boost, along with some fun switching options and overall tonal bliss. Fasten those seatbelts, here we go…
The Tone Star Custom contains RFO Electronics’ El Mo Overdrive circuit, along with a fairly aggressive two-transistor boost circuit used in their Rocket Boost. It provides both treble and bass controls, as well as the normal gain and level controls, making it very easy to dial in the SRV/Texas Blues tones, among others. Using asymmetric diode clipping and a four-stage op-amp, it maintains a tight bass response and has a slightly scooped midrange. Think Blackface Fender tones, sounding like a “dimed Super Reverb”. The boost portion can nicely drive an amplifier into breakup on its own, or provide more aggressive overdrive when used in conjunction with the overdrive portion of the pedal.
The Tone Star provides the user with four on the fly combination options. The effects are usable individually, or can be stacked in either combination. The use of a single effect can be swapped to the other with one switch. If two effects are stacked, the stacking order can also be changed with one switch. The stacking order is also retained for user convenience, so if an effect order is desired, switching one effect off and then back on does not change the stacked order.
We just love all that you can achieve with the Tone Star Custom Overdrive/Boost Combo. The silent switching makes for effortless and seamless tonal exploration, the the wide spectrum of sounds from the controls make it a pedal that provides something for everyone, regardless of musical genre. Boost a clean signal, drive an amp or dirty up some dirt – the choices are vast and full here. Cheers to RFO Electronics on combining two wonderful circuits into one intuitive and adventurous effect – we’ve got more to come from them, too, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check them out on Reverb, and hear the awesome Tone Star Custom in our demo video below…
For direct sales, contact RFO Electronics at rfoelectronics@gmail.com or through their Instagram account!
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