JHS Pedals collaborates with Lari Basilio for a killer all-rounder Signature The Violet Overdrive / Distortion as befits Lari's expansive playing style

If you’ve read my Part 1 Guitar Heroes Feature - you will know that Lari features within that list of initial 25 favourites. I was first aware of her - when she did various guest performances on Pete Thorn’s Channel a few years back, and I loved her expansive playing style from the start. She has such an elegant touch in how she plays - and she can handle almost any style with ease. She’s for sure a guitarist I’ve long admired.

So I’m glad she finally and deservedly gets her own Signature The Violet Overdrive / Distortion pedal. Which is of course at its best in Lari’s favourite purple-ish hue! Not sure why they made a black version also - the Purple one is surely the one to get, and indeed the one I have already snagged. It looked like Andertons did not get too many of those into stock - so my luck was with me.

Looking at the pedal - its topology looks identical to the harder and heavier recent Hard Drive High Gain Distortion - with 3-Band EQ and including semi-parametric Mids. Interesting for The Violet - the Mids are Pre-Gain, while the Bass and Treble come Post-Gain. And the overall palette of tones for the The Violet is somewhat brighter and less dense than the Hard Drive - where one of its capabilities is in hitting those classic Morning Glory Bluesy tones. So it really covers you well for Overdrive and Distortion - with a really elegant core voicing timbre, which is quite different to the darker / bassier / denser voicing of the Hard Drive.

I’ve really liked the demos I heard - while I was always likely to grab one of these - love the elegance of its flower icon too - a really immaculately executed pedal for me in the super appealing Purple Variant.

Controls - Volume, Gain, Middle & Mid Freq (Pre-Gain), Bass & Treble (Post-Gain).

I feel that even if you aren’t a Lari Basilio fan - you’re still going to love the versatile core timbre and tonality of this all-rounder gain pedal. I obviously already have the Hard Drive and Paul Gilbert PG-14 which seem vaguely similar on the surface - while all 3 circuits are distinctly different sounding.

For me the $199 / £199 price tag is also spot on for this pedal - which makes its acquisition a no-brainer really. I guess the rush is on if you want to secure one of those purple editions - which I think may be somewhat limited!

Really the all-round perfect signature pedal for Lari!