10 Favourite Mad Professor Compact Gain Pedals
I’ve long been a fan of Mad Professor’s gain pedals - which of course mostly owe a lot to Björn Juhl - bar the Simble Overdrive (Dumble) by Lassi Ukkonen. Which by coincidence happened to be my very first Mad Professor pedal several years ago - and in fact my very first Dumble style overdrive - of which I have several now.
So the Simble was my first Mad Professor - and the Custom Stone Grey Distortion the most recent - alongside the 20th Anniversary Royal Blue Overdrive. The Royal Blue came about because of my recent Blues Driver-ology article - where one of my readers recommended the Royal Blue as another excellent Adjacent type. I had had the Royal Blue on the wishlist for a long long time - so that seemed ripe for acquisition.
Then instead of just doing a solo article on the Royal Blue - I thought I should rather do a rundown on my favourite Mad Professor gain pedals. And I drew up the following list os 10. I currently have 8 of these 10 - while I’ve yet to come across the Bluebird and Sky Blue at reasonable prices - at least recently! I had a few opportunities to grab the Sky Blue at a very decent price - but had other priorities at the time - and those pedals got snapped up by someone else. I’m currently scouring the Interweb opportunistically for well-price Bluebird and Sky Blue pedals - as same as similar for the Victory V1 Copper. While right now there are no bargains to be had!
Unlike my recent Greer episode - where I was able to secure all my targets with relative ease - some of my current missions are proving rather more tricky. I always have a hundred or more tasks that I’m juggling - and hundreds of wishlist pedals on the map - all in service of the GPX blog. A lot of this involves extreme patience, concentration, and no small amount of luck!
Here is the overview of the 10 pedals :
- Amber Overdrive - €219
- Bluebird Overdrive + Delay - Discontinued - €227
- Golden Cello Overdrive + Delay - Discontinued - €227
- Little Tweed Drive - Discontinued - €205
- #1 Distortion + Reverb - €265
- Royal Blue Overdrive 20th Anniversary Edition - €229
- Simble Overdrive (Dumble) - Discontinued - €219
- Sky Blue Overdrive / Distortion - €369
- Stone Grey Distortion Custom Edition - Discontinued - €239
- Sweet Honey Overdrive Deluxe - Discontinued - €199
I was surprised to see that so many of these are now retired / discontinued - or way over a half.
These pedals were procured very opportunistically from every direction - with pedals coming from - Andertons, Ebay, Hot Rox, Juno, Peach Guitars, Reverb.com and Thomann!
As mentioned, just a couple still to get - hopefully this year!
Here follow the usual individual details :
Amber Overdrive (Hint of Fuzz) - €219
Controls - Volume, Drive, Tone.
Fat and juicy overdrive sounds with a hint of fuzz. Produces the much sought after thick tone, even when played into a clean amplifier. This is essentially the Golden Cello minus the Delay - and with a little more on the output side. There is a Custom Midas Touch Overdrive version of this too - which I think I need to get - as that further increases the harmonics and presence of the pedal - for an even more searing lead.
Bluebird Overdrive + Delay - Discontinued - €227
Controls - Delay, Distortion, Volume, Tone.
Actually a fantastic concept - as it has by default that lovely searing complementary delay-accentuated touch-sensitive overdrive tone which is so sought after - and here you can just stomp it in all at once - in a single master-stroke!
Golden Cello Overdrive + Delay - Discontinued - €227
Controls - Delay, Drive, Volume, Tone.
Another delay augmented overdrive with beautiful singing string-like texture - smooth and sustaining - and early favourite Mad Professor pedal for me!
Little Tweed Drive - Discontinued - €205
Controls - Volume, Drive, Bass, Treble.
The punchier of Mad Professor's 2 Tweedy Drives with an extra sweet midrange. Overall slightly better balanced tonal profile for me than the Big Tweedy Drive alternative.
#1 Distortion + Reverb - €265
Controls - Reverb, Brown (Distortion), Level, Presence.
Smart take on EVH's Brown Sound - with his Plate Reverb voicing in tow on the same pedal - for immediate searing impact. This pedal has been retied for a while - but it's coming back again in June it say on the site! Not sure whether it means last June - or this forthcoming one!!
Royal Blue Overdrive 20th Anniversary Edition - €229
Controls - Volume, Drive, Bass, Treble.
I believe this materialised first in and around 2002 - a quite superb dynamic overdrive - somewhat adjacent to the Boss BD-2 Blues Breaker - has that same sort of playing dynamics and superior guitar volume gain cleanup.
Simble Overdrive (Dumble) - Discontinued - €219
Controls - Level, Sensitivity, Contour, Accent.
My very first Mad Professor pedal - and still one of my very favourites. Has a wonderful sort of resonant woody tone and timbre to its Dumble style profile - I really used to love playing this - probably time it went back on the board again for a rotation or two!
Sky Blue Overdrive / Distortion - €369
Controls - Volume, Distortion, Z (Upper Resonant Peak), Texture.
I've lost count on the amount of times I had the opportunity to pick this up at a good price - really should have picked up one of those. A fantastic harmonic style overdrive with plenty of 'bark' and with tonnes of range across some fantastic playing dynamics!
Stone Grey Distortion Custom Edition - Discontinued - €239
Controls - Volume, Distortion, Tone.
Amazingly textured high gain distortion aimed squarely at Hard Rock. Slightly fuzzy undertones make for a quite superb timbre on this pedal. The Custom Edition comes with a tweaked and augmented gain profile.
Sweet Honey Overdrive Deluxe - Discontinued - €199
Controls - Volume, Drive, Bass, Treble, Focus.
I have several of the Björn Juhl Honey Bee / Drive pedals across his different associated brands - while this is one of my favourites - in particular in terms of range and dial-in-ability. All the Honey Bee style overdrives sound pretty great for those smooth mellifluous tones!
12 Degrees of Saturation 2023 Compact Edition
