For those of you who don’t already know, we’re crazy Star Wars fans here at Pedal of the Day, so when the chance arose to check out a pedal with an semi-iconic robot plastered on its enclosure, we knew we’d be in for a treat, regardless of how it sounded. Fortunately, it didn’t disappoint in the sonic category, either, making it a definite Win-Win for us, and really for anyone who plays this pedal, if they like Star Wars or not (which we just can’t fathom, but whatever). The -D4 Distortion from IdiotBox effects is a simple pedal, with simple controls, containing anything but simple sounds.
As the statement on their website says, IdiotBox is not concerned with this distortion box being “booteek” or transparent or any of the other keywords that float around in this industry all too often. The -D4 is a basic power distortion box, capable of doing crunchy, overdriven tones, as well as balls-out, fuzzy distortion with ease. The Volume, Tone and Gain control knobs allow you to harness a number of killer sounds, from a little bit of Muff-type tones, to searing RAT-esque sonic blasts, to some serious metal vibes, ala a Marshall JCM800 amplifier. The True Tone knob also works harder than a lot of tone knobs, really letting you boot the high or low ends as you see fit.
The name is based off of the red astromech droid R5-D4 in ‘A New Hope’, the one with the bad motivator the Jawas tried to sell to Luke and Uncle Owen, and whose depiction you see on the pedal itself. Luckily, the gear at IdiotBox Effects is all built like a tank, so there’s a minuscule chance you’ll have to swap this out for an R2-D2, or any other piece of machinery.
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