NRG Effects' Purrer is a a beautifully elegant, warm and even tempered Organic Overdrive with really smart 'Plus' Boost
The very aptly named Purrer is one of Neil’s flagship pedals, and has been on the roster for many years now in various guises. It’s an OpAmp style overdrive (TLO72CP), nearest in profile to a BluesBreaker, while very much its own thing.
People variously describe it as being warm and even toned or warm, smooth and even tempered. Its coverage spans low to mid-range, and never quite gets into crunchy territory, but rather maintains a smooth and somewhat soft profile - while the Plus Boost adds in something a little bit extra special too!
That soft smooth delivery is married to some very elegant and richly textured harmonics - which gently percolate / purr away in the background. It’s a very dynamic overdrive with impressive guitar volume gain cleanup. And it has a tonne of volume on tap and significant range over its various control sweeps - while it always remains well-mannered throughout.
The below visual shows this circuit’s recent evolution to the current Universal format - which comes in full fat 5-knob ’Plus’ edition, per my own pictured one, as well as in a more streamlined 4-knob edition - minus the two Plus elements! (You wouldn’t want to be with out those really!)
As for the Fuzzer, the Purrer came beautifully packaged in that elegant square perforated corrugated cardboard wrap and aluminium can. The NRG Effects experience is high quality right from the start. Where you get to follow a pictorial and video excerpts trail of the pedal's entire construction.
And Neil's legendary attention to detail is reflected in every aspect of the experience - including how elegantly these pedals are packaged. Even the foam inserts within the cans are perfectly cut down to size - no jagged edges or gaps as is sometimes the case for other brands.
I'm not typically a big unboxing fan - I really just want to get stuck in as quickly as possible - while I really enjoy the process for NRG Effects - these are individually meticulously hand-crafted to order over a period of around 4 weeks or so! And finally unwrapping something specially made for you is of course a special occasion.
Neil has recently added a 'Satin' buffed finishing stage to the production process - which delivers a smoother more silvery coloured enclosure - matching the colour and smoothness of the faceplate and knob inserts. That's something he evolved after I took delivery of my pair. So I will be dropping my 2 off at some mutually convenient juncture to get that extra appealing 'Satin' finish! I will do a further follow-up when that happens!
Controls - Loud (Volume), Gain, Treble, Plus Boost Level, Bass, Bypass Footswitch, Plus Boost Footswitch.
The one control that warrants additional description is the Plus Boost one - which is Neil's genius solution for a dual channel overdrive. That Plus Boost does several things at the same time. The control knob is a variable Clean Boost - with tonnes of level. That is then married to a complex somewhat fixed but interactive Gain Structure Boost - a Phat Boost of sorts - which adds Gain, More Low End, and greater frequency sensitivity - delivering overall a really punchy boost. And while the Gain / Gain Structure element is fixed - it does nevertheless interact with the Plus Knob Clean Boost Level. With the end result being a proper two-channel overdrive with a somewhat different voicing on the second - Plus Boost Channel!
Otherwise - the TREB control is simply post-drive high frequency filtering, from dark and smooth to bright and sparkly.
Where the BASS control sets the amount of low frequency content within the gain structure (not simply post drive bass filtering), and so can create tight low-end response at low settings, or fatter feeling drive at higher settings.
The Midrange stays constant throughout - so reducing both TREB & BASS will create a more midrange focused drive tone. With both tone controls around the 12-3 O’Clock zone - that will give you the most natural 'transparent' tonality. With both those controls set high - it will accentuate highs and lows - to create more of a 'mid-scooped' tonality.
The Sounds!
As I said at the start - the Purrer is nearest to the BluesBreaker in profile, but there are several subtle differences. You can certainly dial it in for those kinds of tones, but overall it delivers a whole lot more - and the Plus Boost massively expands that range coverage into quite different fatter punchier territory.
It is mostly soft and smooth in profile, but still full-flavoured and with a gorgeous and elegant harmonic richness.
It can go very loud, and indeed can go very punchy at full throttle and with the Plus Boost engaged - but it always stays within the bounds of tastefulness and elegance.
With such a dynamic overdrive - I typically load up quite a lot of flavour and gain on the profile - and then use my guitar controls - volume mostly - to temper and dial things down when needed.
For this Purrer my tendency is to have most everything set to 3 o'c which is my preferred max gain setting - and then I simply dial things back to clean with my guitar volume - meaning I have a huge gain range at my finger-tips. For many / most - the max gain setting will be significantly lower - but the same principles apply - in that you control the level of gain with you guitar volume knob!
The Purrer is really potent - with a tonne of volume and more than enough gain for its core purpose. And then you have the option of a second slightly heavier channel (Plus Boost) that you can kick in every now and again. Note that if you really pile on the Gain and Plus - then the noise floor might make some people stick a noise gate on it - but I really quite like it as is!
It's a proper extended range overdrive - with plenty in reserve on every dial - I never felt the need to go beyond 3 o'c - in fact some might say those dials could be knocked back quite a bit for most everyone's preferred core sound. Either way this is a fantastic properly versatile great sounding overdrive - with a sort of hi-fidelity feel to it too!
The Purrer 4-knob Edition (4K-1FS) goes for £259 and equivalent, where the 5-knob Edition (5K-2FS) goes for £299. The Black colourway used to be a £10 premium, but because of the extra Satin buffing process for the Silver edition - both colourways are now priced the same! Obviously available for orders now on the NRG Effects Webstore - Remember that these are all made by hand, and made to order - which usually takes around 4 weeks from payment, but can extend to 6 weeks at particularly busy times!
The Purrer comes thoroughly recommended! You can use it as a boost and tone shaper as well as a fully-fledged overdrive with sort of second channel! I pretty much like everything about this pedal. I just need to get mine buffed up to the new Satin standard!
Demos
