OVERDRIVE/FUZZ- SPELLCASTER FX Helmut Fuzzstortion___NEW___ a Fuzzy-Drive

 spellcasterFX  

Helmut

FUZZSTORTION 

$165.00 USD

A Fuzzstortion also called a Fuzzy-Drive is a high gain OD circuit blended with a Fuzz. The concept is just that. It is not just a thing 

you can do one way. In short one guy did not invent one and all 

others are clones of it.

That said companies like Way Huge have had one for years so it 

like any could be cloned.

The company is from Portland Oregon. They make dirt pedals 

and with prices all under $175.00 USD they are a welcome 

newcomer.

The layout is Volume,Tone & Gain with Range adding more gain. 

A second footswitch adds a boost. 

˃˃˃˃˃

      CONCLUSION__

Well first thing is the pedals old school enclosure is dead cool. The price tells me it is likely an OpAmp hard clipper 

using a blend of softer or harder sounding clipping diodes. 

The tone is very dark and bloated. In my book it is simply 

muddy. It lacks bite and note definition. That 

said I have a few pedals That are too dark 

but I stack on other pedals to fix it. 

BOOSTER- FENDER Hammertone Boost ___NEW___ unusually good!!

$105.00 USD

FENDER| HAMMERTONE 

 B O O S T 

Most Boost pedals as effective as they may be are beyond boring. 

This pedal too has a nice clean OpAmp if you need that boring 

but a very useful tool, lol. However, with just a click of a toggle 

you are switched over to a second circuit borrowed from the 

preamp of the old V.2 EchoPlex Tape Echo machine,

The layout is Treble, Bass and Volume. A toggle lets you choose 

between FET transistors with their tube like vibe or go for a dead 

clean OpAmp. You can run the pedal off of 18 volts if you want a 

big open sound with lots of headroom.

CONCLUSION __  

What impresses me is you can use for a very, very big
and open low gain overdrive. You can easily get that 

just before breakup sound that is often the sound of 

your clean in a high end gourmet tube amp. In short 

it could end up being your always on pedal. 

...the Boost demo is at 4:30 on the video

OVERDRIVE- FENDER Hammertone Breakup Drive___NEW___ a good start ...it has FETS

FENDER|HAMMERTONE 

BREAKUP DRIVE 

$105.00 USD

A new Hammertone is long overdue. Fender have a massive following so only your grandad buys one to pass the time in his retirement than they will sell by the thousands. Having reviewed them all. I find all are passable, a few are good and one for certain is damn impressive.

What we get is a medium gain slightly transparent OD. The good news is it uses FETS. FETS are the transistors that function like a tube. The best OD's that clone a classic amp like a Marshall use them. It is a pricey way to make an OD. The layout is Volume, 

Tone and Gain. A toggle increases the gain. Another toggle

is a mids scoop.

            CONCLUSION ___

It sounds good but not earth shattering. If I had 

to guess it could be a knockoff of some brand of 

Dumble or a take on an old Bassman.

       

thefineprint

..since you asked the best in the line is the Fuzz. 

It is a clone of the Vahlbruch Octavia. Fender 

even borrowed the purple color.

OVERDRIVE- MXR Custom Badass '78 ... Marshall Guv'nor clone

MXR

C U S T O M  B A D A S S     

'78 distortion  ↩ 

$130.00 USD

Steve Grindrod who worked on the Vox AC30 and was a big part 

of the JCM800 was asked to design a JCM800-in-a-Box. 

He came up with the Guv'nor. Named after the title that everyone 

address Jim Marshall by. It was the first in a whole line of pedals 

he designed. It was the hottest in its day. The least successful 

was his BluesBreaker, lol.  Yes ...the pedal everyone clones.

MXR decided to revive the Guv 12 years ago and although 

it is still made it too has slipped under the radar. 

The layout is Volume, Tone and Gain with a button to change 

the voice from near breakup to Crunch.

      CONCLUSION __

It is technically what is referred to by its topography a hardclipper distortion. It is really not a MIAB but the an impression of a dimed stack with Tone Bender Fuzz 

smashing the front end. But WTF!!! Check the boxes. 

It has, punch and balz to spare and not just fat but

super jumbo extra large, LOL. I totally love it. 

Best of all it is not over priced!

OVERDRIVE- SEYMOUR DUNCAN 805 Overdrive ...10 years later & still loved???

Seymour Duncan || 

805 OVERDRIVE

$180.00 USD

When any brand makes a line of pedals 99% of the time they have a 

Tube Screamer on offer. Some freely admit it but most give it their own 

label and pretend they have just reinvented the wheel, LOL.

The design of the original is both elegant, very effected and best of all 

cheap to make. One really has to work at making one that is a disaster. Perhaps not the first but giving the pedal a full range EQ of Bass, Mids 

and Treble is definitely a bonus.

     CONCLUSION __

Duncan has done very, very little to keep in the pedal game. 

Outside of their several pedal board amps, they have made squat for years. Putting an amp on the floor is hardly rocket science. Worse yet they are type D digital amps. No balls 

and in their case the prices are criminal. But I digress. 

This ts uses a NOS vintage 808 OpAmp. It can however oddly be pushed into a breakup with noticeable growl. It is not 

your grandads transparent OD, LOL. If nothing else it is as good  

as any and after 10 years of no more than word of mouth says 

a lot for its no nonsense function and robust build. 

Final word? it is the very best of the  boring ol' ts pedals, lol   

 

OVERDRIVE- DONNER Dumbal Drive ...a Hermida Audio Zendrive clone?

$40.00 USD

_ DONNER _

DUMBAL DRIVE 

Donner have never made pedals. They had for years simply got 

Mooer or NUX to rebrand those pedals with the Donner name. 

This however by the look of the enclosure is made at the 

Mosky Factory. The parent company of Mosky is Mogoo. 

They also do the DemonFX and the Ginean brands.

            CONCLUSION __

It does the 'thing' but for the money you can 

get the Demon FX Z-Drive. It's the exact spec

to the Hermida Zendrive. Part for exact part. 

I have the DemonFX and love it.

OVERDRIVE- MXR M294 sugar drive ...a Klon clone, to keep your ts & BB company, lol

MXR  sugar drive  

$140.00 USD

What we have here is one of hundreds of Klon clones. The secret to any Klon 

is not its distortion circuit but a separate clean boost attached in front of that circuit. It is only audible between 7 and 10 o'clock on the Gain knob. That tone is created by a now obsolete diode. That diode gives the pedal an exaggerated glassy sound. Substituting that part can get close enough to give a pedal a similar experience just like any Tube Screamer clone can sound similar. Once past 9 o'clock on even the original Klon the distortion starts to get extremely pedestrian and mediocre.

Ten years ago I watched every video I could of a guy doing a demo of the real Klon. I soon noticed no one had the gain higher than 10 o'clock. In short they only used the boost part of the unit.

                   CONCLUSION __ 

This one has been around for 7 years. 

It is now very average but also very 

usable. 

 

thefineprint

Since you asked. I went down the rabbit hole with Klons years ago.

I only recently found one I like. I have the $50.00 USD 

Sonicake Trio Rider. There were 3 real Klons over its life time. 

The Gold and then for 3 months the Silver and finally a completely 

different version the Red or KTR. This has all 3. The Silver was 

the one with the most clean Boost mixed into the circuit. I only use it.

But all 3 are totally usable. The unit also gives you a lot more level 

than you could ever use but WTF you can turn it down, LOL.

MODELER- FRACTAL AM4 ___NEW___ PT. 2 ...First Impressions

FRACTAL AM4 Amp Modeler

WHY BUY IT ???   WHY NOT ???

        See PT. 1 from Nov.25. 2025

$700.00 USD

In short if you make a list of every amp you always wished you owned. It is in here. It is also a dead 

match to that real amp. Or at the very worst gets 

a 9.9 for accuracy.

If you just want to have a short learning curve

and get on with playing. Done!

If you need more ...then prepare to not have a life. 

If you LOVE more ...then get a job as a product 

specialist with one of the big companies. LOL