to break free from the suffocating,
bandwidth-constricted confines of the
Tube Screamer.
COLORSOUND OVERDRIVER:
Released around 1970, the Colorsound
Overdriver was one of the first true
overdrive pedals, with tones that ranged
from robust, uncolored boost, to amplike drive, to near-Fuzz Face sounds. Its
zesty, lyrical tones were a major
component of Jeff Beck’s ‘70s-era lead
sound, and it also famously fell under the
feet of classic rock icons from David
Gilmour (who paired it with a Big Muff)
to Marc Bolan. In short, it was an
uncommonly flexible overdrive that, in
hindsight, probably should’ve been a lot
more popular than it was. History has
been kind to it, though, and today a
vintage Colorsound Overdriver can cost
you up to 600 smackers. Obviously, that
is a ridiculous price to pay for an
overdrive pedal, so I would recommend
any of the fine copies of this circuit that
are floating around today: The Throbak
Electronics Overdrive Boost is an
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TONE TALK //
excellent, and highly regarded,
improvement upon the Colorsound
circuit, the bad news being that it isn’t
really much more affordable, selling for
around three hundred dollars new.
Other,