The Backstory

Don’t let the simple four knob construction of the Paradrive fool you. This is not another clone or another TS knockoff with an extra tone control. It's a combination of elements from some of our favorite obscure devices, the result is wholly unique...and totally rad!

To start this adventure we dug into Eben’s massive vintage pedal collection and borrowed elements from some of the favorites, adding and tweaking, removing and amending as we went. Some of the favorites were the “Yellow” DOD OD-250, the “Brown” Ross Distortion, and much to our amazement, the ultra obscure Pearl OD-5, or at least the EQ side of that pedal. And it is this wonderful cocktail of inspiration that led us to the “Paradrive”.

The simple two knob gain structure is quite familiar and user friendly. If you are looking for a doom death sledge core tone (is that a thing?), this probably isn’t the pedal for you. If you are looking for touch sensitivity, medium gain overdrive, with crazy tonal options, then this IS the pedal for you. It’s all sweet spot baby! Driven by a dual FET Burr Brown/TI OPA2604AP chip, these little work horses have been prized by audiophiles and pedal geeks since the 70’s. The switch features 4 1N914 Diodes on the left, and 2 BAT41 Diodes on the right. While the differences are subtle, you will notice more variation at higher volumes and with hotter signals. This is especially useful when using other pedals in front of the Paradrive, or with lower gain amps.

The Paradrive gain stage sounds so good we recommend starting out with the “EQ Gain” at zero. This takes the EQ out of the mix and is pure gain stage. But the real fun comes when you start tweaking the “Parametric EQ”. This gem of a circuit allows you to pinpoint any frequency from 100Hz to 4kHz and boost, or cut, that frequency by as much as 15dB. This means you can do a classic treble boost, find and kill a frequency that wants to feed back, do a killer metal mid range hump, or even a cocked wah kind of vibe. The tonal possibilities are really astounding with this circuit!

Specs

• Enclosure: 125-B size, 4.8 x 2.6 x 1.56" (122 x 66 x 39mm)
• Finish: Polished Aluminum with handsomely Engraved Graphics
• Jacks: Side Mount
• Switch: True Bypass
• Power: 9-volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel
• Input Impedance: 1M Ohm +/-
• Output Impedance: 10k Ohm +/-
• Enjoyment Factor: Very High