Insignia (Real) Tube Overdrive gives a range of overdriven tone from mild crunch to growling and sustained drive. Unlike semiconductor based overdrives which blocks the interaction of the amplifier behavior with the pickups & of course the playing, tube present a very interactive medium between the pickups & the amp.
Increase in volume the pedal opens ups & at slightly heavier drive setting it cleans up pretty nicely when you roll down the guitar volume. The amount of volume boost is incredible which also pushes the amp into overdrive region.
The Excellent dynamics of this pedal is pretty well appreciated for Jazz/Blues players.
Power and Handling Instructions
The pedal is designed to be operated at 9V DC. The pedal is thoroughly tested to be hum and noise free even at maximum settings. If there is hum during operation, the power adaptor should be checked. The pedal is heaters & power supply is directly ON irrespective of the foot-switch position, the foot-switch just engages or bypasses it. This is deliberately done to keep the tube in warm condition for instant playability.
The casing is made of diecast Aluminium enclosure build to last ages.
Before transporting the pedal, it is advisable to carefully remove the tube.
Tips for USE
It can used as a standalone overdrive pedal for an infinite flavor of overdrive tones and is NOT designed for clean boost. However, the pedal can be used to boost an analog distortion like Big Muff, during this operation the gain should be kept at moderate and volume should be adjusted in such a way that the distortion doesn’t sound fuzzy.
The combination insignia overdrive and analog distortion gives you a very dynamic sound suitable for beautiful warm lead tone with lot of dynamics transparency. A hint of analog delay and mild analog chorus can create heavenly tones.
