7 of the Best Dual Channel Blues Breaker Derived Overdrive Pedals
Back in March of 2020 I did a piece on leading Blues Breaker derived Dual-Channel Overdrives - where I only owned one of the ones featured - namely the JHS 4-Star Mod Edition of Analog.Man King of Tone. In the interim period I have managed to collect 5 more in a fairly happenstance sort of manner - so that the only one in the above visual that I’ve still to land is the Browne Amplification Protein Dual Overdrive.
Of all the ones I have - all are special and / or limited editions apart from the Matthews Effects Broker which is wholly standard. For the remaining target - I’m waiting for some sort of special edition of the Protein to emerge - besides a limited colourway - where I would otherwise be quite happy with a white edition probably. Standard colourway is army green - which just doesn’t particularly appeal to me in this context (Green Russian Big Muff!) - Browne Amplification had a yellow summer edition out this year - which didn’t really appeal to me either - I still want the Protein of course - and I may just settle for the white - but I will give it a little more time before I fully make up my mind.
Although these are mostly based on a similar concept - being dual-channel overdrives with a Blues Breaker derivation on at least one of the channels - each of these has individual differences, and they all sound pretty distinct to me - especially in timbre, texture and character - where they have a different core feel typically too.
Obviously I’m most familiar with the KOT as that’s the one I’ve had the longest - while each of these is capable of truly great and varied tones right across the gain scale - from clean boost, to breakup, crunch, mid-gain and beyond.
I’m quite the fan of extended range pedals - which is why I gravitate more towards special editions rather than limited editions - where you get additional controls to wring every ounce of tone and texture out of said device.
Now is definitely the time to get The Duellist as the newly externalised controls kind of put it in a category of its own. I love my edition of KOT too as I don’t have to take the back off to flip between modes or to adjust the secondary treble trimmers / presence dials.
The Duellist is top of the tree in granularity with no less than 15 controls now (8 front-facing + 7 on the side), next is my 4-Star KOT with 12, then the Teras with 9, D&M Drive with 7, and The Broker, Protein and Royal Flush with the standard 6 knobs of 2 x Volume, Gain, and Tone per side equivalents.
I obviously love all of mine - each for slightly different reasons and each for somewhat different applications. I’m not saying you need to own them all - but I certainly do! There’s also further examples of this available form other Pedal brands - like say JHS’s Double Barrel (10 controls) - but I think once I’ve gotten all 7 listed here I should be about covered! I might still track down a Double Barrel eventually should I feel it necessary!.
The most recently arrived is Matthews Effects The Broker which I had to order in from the USA - as Matthews Effects no longer seems to be actively stocked in the UK! I was waiting for it to arrive on this side of the pond - but it’s been quite a few months now and it looks increasingly unlikely to happen - which is why I thought it was time I pulled the trigger.
JHS has long since stopped modding pedals and I feel only relatively few 4-star Mod editions were made - I very fortunately and latterly came across one immaculate such on Reverb.com. The 3 Demiurge Teras made were one-offs, and the D&M Drive and Golden Royal Flush were limited editions - now mostly sold out but with still the occasional straggler in the wild. The Broker, Duellist and Protein are all relatively widely available - and more so in the USA - while each of these is rather limited here in the UK!
Here follow the usual individual details :
Analog.Man King of Tone JHS 4-Star Mod with fully externalised controls (2 x BB) - c$365 when new
Controls - 2 x Volume, Drive, Tone, Additional Treble Trimmer / Presence Knob per Side, and Externalised Dip-switch pairs - Dips 1 & 3 are Boost / Overdrive, Dips 2 & 4 are Distortion On / Off, dual footswitches.
I acquired my KOT back in 2018 - a year or so after Josh Scott did a Modded batch of these i.e the 4-Star Mods - not sure how many were done in total - while I believe they cost around $365 at the time - where I paid $550 for mine off Reverb - in Mint condition. I was flush with birthday money at the time and had never comes across one of these in the wild before so it seemed the right thing to do at the time - and indeed it was! All the mods do is to externalise the formerly internal secondary Treble Trim-pots and 4 internal Channel Gain Type Dip-switches. Funnily it's sort of exactly what King Tone have done just recently with their Duellist - which encouraged me to get that too! The King of Tone is of course the original of this Blues Breaker inspired dual-channel format - going back to 2003, while the other candidates here are much more recently materialised - with several first appearing in 2015, and a few even more recently than that. The current waiting list on the KOT is supposedly 3 years - so I suggest that if you have the means - try to snag a well-priced second-hand one off Ebay or Reverb.com - or else get one of these other ones to tide you over in the interim. The KOT is still still pretty unique and well worth it for me - while some feel it's somehow too soft / subtle / nuanced and that they get more out of some of these others. It all really depends what you're looking for - as I mention in the intro - each of these sounds and feels slightly different and in terms of historic pedigree this is still the one to get in many ways. While The Duellist in its latest incarnation is incredibly potent and really sets the pace for these others to follow. I still think the KOT is an all-time great and everyone should have one - it's pretty fairly priced overall at $265 - it's just my limited edition that is pricier! This has a particularly soft and elegant rendition of Blues Breaker derived overdrive which I'm still very partial to - and stacking the boost and overdrive always sounds amazing!
Browne Amplification Protein Dual Overdrive (BB + ODR) - $359
Controls - 2 x Level, Gain, Tone, dual footswitches.
This differs from the others in having an ODR-1 derived circuit on the fist channel - while I'm not sure it carries across that one's specific Spectrum Tone-stack. It's 6 controls are very straight forward at the classic 3 per side. Lots of players get really great tones out of this - and I would really want to add one of these to the collection too - while most of these acquisitions for this selection have been triggered by some special occasion or release event - so I'm waiting for a similar episode here before I pull the trigger on one of these - it will surely happen some day relatively soon. For those who consider the KOT too soft and 'bland' even - they seem to prefer the greater articulation of this overdrive. For me personally - I like the KOT's softness - but then I'm entirely a variety pack kind of person - where I like having different tones and textures at my disposal - and I really don't expect every pedal of the same or similar genre type to sound the same. The beauty of this selection is that all of these are pretty individualistic and distinct - even though they have a significant overlap on their Blues Breaker inspired voicings.
Demiurge Teras DLST-type Dual Channel Overdrive (TS + BB) - N/A
Controls - STINGER } Level, Tone, Gain, Body, Voice : Fat / Stock / Glass, BREAKER } Level, Tone, Gain, Voice : Fat / Stock / Glass, dual footswitches.
Mr Demiurge - Joseph Maxwell made just 3 of these Duellist derived compact dual channel overdrives - one for himself and two of his friends - where I just happened to be one of those. This differs from the Duellist in having the 4K Soloist on the Stinger Channel with extra 'Body' knob, while otherwise these are largely the same controls as on the V2 Duellist. The V3 Duellist is of course the recent 2022 External Dip-switches edition. All of Joseph's pedal's sound fantastic - and this is quite the engineering achievement in cramming in all those components and controls into a compact enclosure - too fiddly by far for him to want to do a production model of this. I feel very privileged and lucky to own one. As with many pedals of this ilk - and including The Broker which follows a similar LED colour scheme - I would have preferred the TS side to have green LED as well as the BB side being Blue! Other than that tiny quibble this is a really magnificent pedal. No official demo was ever made for this pedal - which is academic really as it's rather pretty unobtanium. It's essentially an exceptional take on The Duellist in magnificently compacted format!
Keeley Ltd Edition Altered History Ninazu Purple D&M Drive - (KLN + BB) - $259
Controls - 2 x Volume, Drive, Tone, Channel Order Switch, dual footswitches.
I had long been after a D&M Drive which has had a number of limited editions variants released - where initially I wanted it in its stealth black edition - but when these Modded Altered History editions appeared with vibrant metallic paint jobs, antique inspired artworks, and a couple of circuit tweaks - I just had to have one. The internal changes are pretty minor - "all that is different with the Altered History D&M Drives, is that the Boost has an A-taper pot for the volume, and the drive side has a 1Meg gain control instead of a 500K potentiometer". Unlike the recent J Mascis EHX BMP - this is what a 'Special' or 'Limited Edition' should be. One side here is Klon based, and the other is the Robert Keeley take on the classic Blues Breaker - where most of these are typically more TS + BB. Wampler obviously has its Pantheon Deluxe Dual Drive - which is closer in concept to the KOT. TSP's Dan & Mick who essentially sort of commissioned / inspired the original D&M drive very much modelled the earlier development of that on the KOT - which was much loved by the pair of them. This is a somewhat different core voicing - and is not quite as soft as the KOT or some of these other variations - but obviously still sounds amazing! And of all the BB-size boxes - this is the only one that takes on the more pedalboard-friendly vertical orientation to its BB-size enclosure. Note that no official demos were done for the Altered History variants - so I've simply referenced the original launch video.
King Tone The Duellist Dual Overdrive 2022 Silver External Dip-switches Edition (TS + BB) - $350
Controls - String-Singer Side-A } Drive, Volume, Tone, Voicing : Fat / Stock / Glass, Side-A Footswitch, Side-B } Drive, Volume, Tone, Voicing : Fat / Stock / Glass, Side-B Footswitch, Dip-switches : Side-A : Vintage TS / SRV Mod, Classic / Amp-Like, Symmetric / Asym-Clip, Side-B : Classic / Amp-Like, Distortion / Overdrive, Symmetric / Asym-Clip, Channel Order : A-B / B-A, dual footswitches.
This was another that was always on the list - for a period the high level competition in this niche was mostly between The Duellist and KOT - where the latter mentioned had a significant first-mover advantage. While The Duellist has steadily been picking up fans through the years. It's always been a nice-to-have for me until this year's V3 edition which includes those 7 additional external switches - to wring every possible nuance of tone out of this box. With the extended features / additional controls I think in many ways - this is the one to beat now. And the Silver Edition with its wood-surround knobs - as I have - is particularly appealing. With all those extras it's even more granular than my JHS 4-Star Modded KOT. Those Voicing switches on each side are incredibly handy too - everyone should do that! This is the classic TS + BB type with considerable extended range - in a really attractive package - surely the one to get right now. It's one of the softer ones - alongside the KOT and Royal Flush - but you can easily increase articulation via smart deployment of the voicing and side dip-switches. I feel that this is very much on par with my version of KOT - and perhaps delivers even a little more.
Matthews Effects the Broker Duality Overdrive (TS + BB) - $200
Controls - 2 x Volume, Tone, Gain, Hold down lower footswitch to change order, dual footswitches.
As mentioned in the intro - this is the most recently arrived of this selection. It has a superb Blues Breaker voicing, really potent - while for me the TS side is somewhat noticeably under-powered on the volume - not sure why that would be - I can get away with having the Blues Breaker side @ 2 o'c, but even fully maxed out on max gain too - the TS side won't get close to that preferred level - which seems like something of a flaw to me. Otherwise a really smart quality pedal - which sounds great - especially on the Blues Breaker Channel. Apart from the volume niggle, I also feel that the while the Blues Breaker channel is correctly indenitifed with Blue LED, the TS side should really have Green LED - vs the Red one it does have - for smarter contextual association. Its smartest trick is how pressing and holding the lower footswitch swaps the order of the two channels and the two LEDs flip over and change position. This is also not quite as potent as the similar Demiurge Teras whose controls are somewhat better balanced / tapered and obviously a touch more granular. I think I may need to have this pedal modded in some way to boost the volume of the TS channel as I find the disparity between the two volumes really rather annoying. It's one of my main pet peeves with pedals when their output volume is under-powered. Odd that there should be such a disparity in output - makes the whole project seem somewhat unrefined. I'm in something of a quandary here as to what to do next!
VS Audio Limited Gold Edition Royal Flush Dual Overdrive (TS + BB) - €220
Controls - 2 x Volume, Gain, Tone, dual footswitches.
Last listed - just by quirk of the alphabet - where this is rather another really fine example of this genre - with the TS channel wonderfully soft and expressive in particular - in fact one of my very favourite Tube Screamer voicings. It doesn't have as many bells and whistles as some of these others but sounds every bit as gorgeous as it looks in its limited Gold edition. The Royal Flush has superbly even and predictable tapers on those controls and is just the easiest overdrive to dial in quickly. I'm particularly enamoured by its first TS style channel. All of these have pretty decent Blues Breaker voicings - where the dividing and differential factor is often the quality of the first channel voicing. I so like this pedal that I really want the compact Straight Flush edition too - but am waiting for that to hit some sort of special edition - be nice to have that in Gold too - so I can complete the pair!
Final Thoughts
I always get asked as to if I could only have one of these - which one would it be? While it's particularly difficult with this selection as they can all sound pretty distinct - and while each has a superb Blues Breaker channel voicing - the other channel can render quite differently and distinctly. It's not my way typically to rank and order these by merit - except when I do my 3-way Pedal Roulette articles. I've given you lots of info here and clues even to help you come to your own conclusions and do your own rankings if you wish.
The only one here which has a weakness is The Broker with its low output of its first channel - otherwise all of these sound and react pretty amazingly. Some are softer - like the KOT and Royal Flush in particular, and others are more articulate like say the Protein and D&M Drive. Some players will for sure like one over the other and I've seen far too many who don't seem to like the KOT for whatever reason - where that one is still a bona fide classic for me and mostly worth the 3 year wait!
In this instance there are lots of different variables you have to weigh up. 3 of these are very difficult to get - in fact the Demiurge Teras is proper unobtanium (only 3 made) - while only 25 of the Purple Altered History D&M Drives were made, and probably a similar amount of the 4-Star Modded KOT's. The Broker was only launched last November so supply for that seems fairly plentiful - as does the standard green edition of Protein. Batches of Silver edition Duellists seem to sell out pretty quickly - where there are just 3 up on Reverb.com currently - and two of those are at silly prices. And finally, there is currently just one Golden Royal Flush listed on Reverb.com.
You need to factor in current pricing obviously, and availability - which includes time spent on waiting lists - and custom / special colours for the Protein.
I personally am very glad I have each of these and have been able to compare them head to head. It's interesting just how different each of these can sound - while there is a whole load of overlap too - and some players won't necessarily be aware of some of the finer nuances. Just the Protein left to get here - should I just yield to a standard white one - or should I wait for something more exciting to possibly materialise at some later stage?
Out of all of these I definitely think the KOT is still entirely classic and the most established of these - possibly the Rolex of the collection, and The Duellist has really ramped up its appeal with its latest edition - so possibly those two are slighlty in the lead. If you want to keep things simple then the middle to right-hand side of the visual is where you will find your best options - while if you like extended features and granularity it's the left-hand side! I certainly will be keeping all of mine. I may try to find someone to Mod the TS channel of The Broker for me though to give me more output there!
I'm of course very interested in which ones you've tried here and which is your own preferred 'Dual Breaker'!
