Adag Audio delivers beautifully balanced High Headroom take on the Vemuram Jan Ray - courtesy of its Seagull Transparent Overdrive
Despite my many years of trail-blazing active duty within the guitar pedal arena - there are still seemingly some brands out there that that are suspicious or guarded about my motives - where I’m simply a pedal enthusiast / pedal pathfinder and imaginative content creator - just looking to shine a light on new and interesting pedals and everything else that impacts that ecosystem. Most people seem to like it - with now 1.3+ million annual visitors to this Site / ’The World’s Best Loved Pedal Blog’.
I very deliberately look for the best in everything, and if and when I encounter something I actively don’t like - I will simply exclude it from being featured - not seek to trash anyone’s reputation! I don’t pander to cynicism or negativity - my purpose is simply to help you identify your pedal options and choices - and to help you navigate a path through those - as best fits your own sensibilities and preferences. I don’t expect you to like everything that I like and recommend - we all have individual tastes, and very different rigs - where not every pedal is fully compatible with a specific or particular rig - as well exemplified by the Hot Cake overdrive - which pairs spectacularly with a Vox AC30 Amp, but whose ’mileage’ is vey different with the other mainstream amp brands.
There are many possible pedal pathways to be discovered - and hopefully I can help you navigate through the quagmire - to put you in a position where you can make better informed, and more salient and meaningful decisions. There’s a lot of superficial nonsense out there in the world that I’m consistently trying to cut through!
A great example of the difficulties I encounter in getting an article out - is this very feature, where I’ve reached out to said company, but they’ve not been forthcoming with answers (possibly on vacation!). I’ve had to do quite a bit of sleuthing to identify this as an Indonesian company - which has been active since 2016, and consists of small batch manufacture with just one or two pedals presented at a time, but several more discontinued in the past.
The main principal and engineer seems to be one Anjang Iwan - who according do some sources is now decamped to the USA since around 2022.
At one stage his pedals were sold by the Berlin-based Swarapedal store which now seems defunct or inactive. Anjang’s pedals have been mostly available on far-East Asian webstores, but occasionally they pop up on Reverb.com too.
Even though none of the demoers mention it - this is very much based on the venerable Vemuram Jan Ray - where there are a number of clues that give the game away - none more than the side-mounted ’Saturation’ Trimpot, which matches the one that you typically find on the rear of a Jan Ray pedal!
Anjang describes his pedal as follows :
"High Headroom Transparent Overdrive"
"The Seagull was designed to recreate a punchy clear tone. And easy-to-handle overdrive, keeping the characteristic of the guitar, with great sustain without any unnatural compression."
You can try contacting him on Instagram - and hopefully you have more success than me - I was never able to ascertain current draw or actual pricing - while there is clue to the pricing too - in that Pedal of the Day sold their 2021 ex-demo unit for $110 on Reverb.com. I don't know whether it's still a budget buy - where I would estimate it currently to be around the $149-$199 mark, which is only around 1/2 of what the Jan Ray would set you back ($375).
Regardless of its origins - it's a fine sounding and beautifully balanced overdrive - which I find rather fetching in this black colourway - which is far more appealing than the original Tan coloured version - which was first announced in 2019, but didn't properly materialise until 2020. Pedal of the Day demoed it in 2021 but with minimal impact - it's the recent Brett Kingman demo that's aroused interest now - but is seems Anjang is not around currently to make the best of that opportunity!
Interestingly there was an earlier Paul's Drive III Adag Audio take on the Jan Ray forebear - of course the Paul Cochrane Timmy! So that evidently came first, but was then latterly ousted by the Seagull Jan Ray take!
There is actually an Adag Audio Reverb.com Store - but where there is currently nothing listed - bar "Adag Audio is currently away!" - so hopefully we will see some Black Seagulls on that store fairly soon!
I'm certainly a fan of how it sounds in the Brett Demo below - and would definitely not mind owning one of those!
Surely one to check back in on - once Anjang returns to active duty!
Demos
