The Lumpy’s Tone Shop 7 Series Lemon Drop Overdrive is a fantastic but unusual overdrive. It’s great for what it does but it’s not for everyone.
There are so many overdrives out there; it’s very difficult to figure out the difference between each, let alone which to choose. Broadly speaking, the most popular categories of overdrives are (there are definitely other categories but I’ll keep it simple):
– Tube Screamer based
– Transparent (Klon, Timmy, etc.)
– Amp-in-a-box (Marshall, AC30, Fender Tweed, Dumble, etc.)
But even in those categories … and then, sub categories there are so many to choose! Each will sound very similar in all honesty. It sometimes feels like having to choose between a black car and a charcoal colored car of the same make.
The Lemon Drop is at its core an Amp-in-a-box but it’s one for an extremely rare and relatively unknown 1960’s Vox amp. It’s surprising because many known bands have used them, notably: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Ever wondered how the Beatles got the tone for Paperback Writer? Ever wondered how Jimmy Page got his sound on Whole Lotta Love and most of the Led Zeppelin II album? Both bands are known to have used Tone Bender fuzzes to achieve their gritty sound. On Paperback Writer and certain songs from Revolver and Whole Lotta Love and most songs on Led Zeppelin II that gritty overdrive sound is too articulate for a fuzz pedal to ever achieve. Both bands used a then new generation Vox amp that combined a tube power amp with a solid state preamp with a built-in fuzz circuit. This allowed the amp to achieve an open sounding articulate fuzzy overdrive: The Vox 7&4 Series Amps.
This is the amp the Lumpy’s Tone Shop 7 Series Lemon Drop Overdrive pedal emulates (the name is a reference to the Lemon Song on the Led Zeppelin II album).
The Sound:
It’s not smooth; it can’t. It’s not mid-heavy. It’s not “squishy”. It’s not saggy. It’s not transparent. But it is very dynamic. You will still “hear” and “feel” your guitar and amp when you turn it on. There is just no way your tube amp and guitar alone will ever sound like the Lemon Drop (unless you have one of those rare Vox 7&4 Series it emulates obviously). It’s its own thing really. It’s very open sounding. There’s great string-to-string definition when you play chords. It’s articulate like a transparent overdrive usually is but has that gritty, fuzzy note decay that most fuzzes have. The grainy decay is beautiful. The harmonics are so dirty. It sounds like a broken amp with a torn speaker. A Fender tweed amp sounds greasy. A Supro is explosive. The Lemon Drop is more in the line of a Supro without the amp sag but with the fuzzy quality. It’s a beautiful rhythm machine but it sounds equally great on single note riffs and leads. Although it is designed to sound like a very specific amp the applications are countless. The Beatles and Led Zeppelin are two incredibly different sounding bands; surely you will find a way of using it and get creative! It stacks well with other overdrives and fuzzes; it will get your sound to another level of anger and aggression. It might get a little out of hand but any dirt pedal stacked into another dirt pedal can get that way. Try it with modulation and it’ll get really gnarly in the best way.
I love my overdrive pedals but I always wanted them to be hairier, dirtier and less polite without losing its overdrive-ness. As for my fuzzes, I always wanted them to be more focused, stand out in the mix and sound similar when playing close to and further than the 12th fret (hopefully you understand what I mean by that)… without losing its fuzzy-gritty-ness. This is the pedal I was looking for. To me the tone sits nicely between a transparent type overdrive and a Tone Bender type fuzz.
The Controls:
– Volume: This needs no description… More volume clockwise, less volume counter clockwise.
– Filter: This is quite the knob. Turning it counter clockwise adds bass, fullness and removes highs. It can get real thick. Turning it clockwise adds treble, openness, thins the sound, improves string-to-string definition and removes bass. It can get pretty thin. All settings are musical and playable. It never sounds muddy and never sounds piercingly high and “hurtful”. It is a bright pedal though even when fully counter clockwise. I use the tone knob on my guitar to remove some highs sometimes. Again it doesn’t have “hurtful-to-your-ears-highs”. The Filter Knob is interactive with the Drive Knob; the more counter clockwise you turn the pedal the more drive the pedal seems to have. Having only one knob for shaping the tone is limited like in any dirt pedal, but at least there’s absolutely no setting that’s unusable or horrible sounding. It always sounds great.
– Drive: Well, it adds more gain. This is a “true” overdrive, so when the knob is completely counter-clockwise, it’s not clean. It’s dirty clean. The more clockwise you turn the knob, the more sustain, grit, decay, fuzz, overdrive and thickness you get. Like I said before it doesn’t sag more. There isn’t a lot of compression when you turn the knob clockwise either. The overall character of the drive is fuzzy but not quite fuzz. At its most clockwise, it will get you in almost-fuzz territory. Again, for me it’s too articulate for it to be a fuzz. This does not “feel” like a fuzz. Since it is based on a late 60’s Vox amp, it is not a high gain monster like many modern pedals and fuzzes. It’s a mean light to medium overdrive. If more gain is needed stacking another dirt or boost pedal does the trick very well.
Lumpy’s Tone Shop is a one man show owned and operated by Tommy Castellucci in Pennsylvania. All of his pedals are handmade and most are made-to-order. The pedal’s guts are all point-to-point. It’s beautiful. There’s power input so you can you use an AC adapter or daisy chain the pedal and also there’s the possibility of using a 9 volt battery. It’s cleanly made too. Overall, it is a very well built rugged pedal. Thanks to all of this, the pedals are highly customizable (multiple color choices, top mount or side mount jacks and additional tone shaping pre-gain or treble knobs are available by request, all at the same price!) The three knob yellow regular version is already fantastic. There’s also a pedal board space saving Mini Lemon Drop version available that has the exact same circuit as the full sized version minus the possibility for a 9 volt battery. Tommy has many amp-in-a-box, overdrive, fuzz and boost pedals available. Some of his pedals go in and out of regular production. He has dabbled in compressors and modulation pedals also. He can also take custom requests to a certain extent. His pedals are incredibly inexpensive compared to other boutique pedal makers. Tommy offers great customer service and will respond quickly to any questions customers have. You can describe to him what you are looking for in a pedal and he’ll take the care and time to answer your questions and suggest incredibly accurately what pedal he has that can give you THAT tone. His pedals are only available through his website and he currently has no distributors. In a way it’s a blind buy but you can definitely trust what Tommy tells you.
Overall, if you want a non-ordinary distinct sounding fuzz-overdrive hybrid pedal. The Lumpy’s Tone Shop 7 Series Lemon Drop Overdrive is worth a look at. No regrets.
Submitted by Laurent, Instagram
