The Crimson Drive was one of the first pedals Earthquaker Devices released back in 2006. It was highly regarded by the few who picked one up but was eventually cut due to a lack of quality germanium transistors. Earthquaker Devices recently uncovered a massive batch of excellent NOS black glass germanium transistors and decided to bring the Crimson drive back in all it’s gritty, harmonic-rich glory. The circuit is exactly the same as it was with the addition of an often requested tone control for fine tuning.
The Crimson Drive Overdrive pedal is designed around a single germanium transistor and as mentioned above vintage germanium diodes which create a nice open tone that can act as either a slight boost to crunch up your clean tone a little or when fully cranked a nice smooth overdrive tone reminiscent of a cranked Plexi. I recorded the intro song using the same settings for all three guitars, the two rhythm tracks are both using my Suhr S4 first with the bridge pickup which is a Seymour Duncan 59/Custom Hybrid and then the neck pickup which is a Suhr ML single coil. Finally I recorded a solo track using my Patrick Eggle Berlin loaded with Bare Knuckle Pickups Rebel Yell Humbuckers. I also demonstrate various settings of the drive and volume control to show how much gain is available and how it reacts differently with the neck and bridge pickups.
For more information head over to http://www.earthquakerdevices.com/
Also in case you are wondering the drums in the background are the awesome EZ Drummer Rock Solid kit.
