Thermion's Gasoline High Octane Drive is an Incredibly Tight and Crisp Superior Rock and Metal Tone Machine - Now in more Compact and Practical V2 Enclosure

So this is the pedal that started it all off for Thermion founder José Manuel Martínez García-Casarrubios. Back in the day he owned a wonderful sounding Peavey 50/50 Power Amp and wanted a Superior High Gain Preamp to pair with that - to deliver those Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and even Extreme Metal tones.

He settled on a preamp pedal format which ended up becoming the full frequency range V1 Gasoline High Octane Drive - with 3-Band EQ and Amp-like Resonance (Deep) and Presence Controls.

Controls - Voicing Mode : Vintage / Raw / Modern, Bass, Mid, Treble, Volume, Gain, Deep (Resonance), Presence.

He wanted the ultimate flexible high gain work horse - which he could use in front of an amp or direct into the Power Amp via FX Loop or even straight out into a Computer or DAW. Which meant creating another innovation in tandem with the core Preamp circuit - the SE2 Studio Environment Emulation Impulse Response system. All this was in place just a couple of years after José completed his Master’s Degree.

Those 2 years were well spent in deep product development - and in 2012 Thermion launched on the back of that very Gasoline pedal with SE2 system onboard. The V1 Horizontal edition obviously had a somewhat wider stance and relatively sizeable footprint which made it not the easiest pedal to accommodate in a rig. And so in early 2022 it was decided to shrink and re-orient the enclosure into a standard, vertical BB-size enclosure which is distinctly more practical!

What is particularly appealing about the Gasoline is its fantastic note clarity and definition right across the gain spectrum. This means that regardless of how high you have the Gain, Bass and Depth / Resonance set - the output still rings out with unerring crisp clarity.

The three modes are all subtly different and distinct and really deliver per their monikers - Vintage, Raw and Modern - where Raw is tighter and zingier, and Modern of course has more of a percussive mids punch.

The extensive tonal and gain range with that exceptional note clarity is what makes this such an amazing High Gain pedal proposition. The SE2 system currently delivers 45 Custom IR’s developed by José and his team. It’s really cool to have that option if you’re more into DAWs and Plugins.

I’m always surprised by the distinction and differentiation of each of these High Gain pedals - which each have their own unique personalities. If you like things Crips and Zingy - with serious low-end heft - then the Gasoline is the one for you. It wasn’t quite perfect enough for me in its V1 edition enclosure - but it certainly is at V2. I can see this being in very heavy rotation in my own pedal-chain - there are so many things that this pedal just does really well - and it doesn’t go overboard with compression like many of its alternatives do. Just a really beautifully calibrated and engineered High Gain pedal - with significant refinements for more granular shaping and control.

There are loads of sweet spot settings to be found onboard, where my current favourite settings are Bass at Max, Mid at 3 o’c, Treble at 3 o’c, Volume at Max, Gain at 2 o’c, Deep at 3 o’c, and Presence at 2 o’c - all on Modern Mode - for ultimate percussive punchy chugging!

The new V2 Gasoline is available right now for €225 from the Thermion Webstore, and at leading dealers.

If you like High Gain - then I feel you will be incredibly satisfied by this pedal - it’s just so flexible and truly sounds immense right along the range of its output. It’s moreover more practically usable than near enough any equivalent pedal of this type - because of its integral SE2 IR system.

Are any among you Thermion Gasoline fans?