Ernie Ball introduces the Expression Overdrive, a dirt pedal that gives you real-time control over the overdrive effect.
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This new pedal adds to the company’s growing line of expression pedal effects, which allow for more dynamic and real time variations to your sound as you perform. Instead of having to rely on a knob for tweaking, you use the pedal’s rocker to adjust the overdrive effect.
The overdrive is an interesting choice for expression pedal use, especially since most of the time, guitarists simply set their preferred gain and leave it be. If parts of the song require more gain, a second overdrive or boost pedal is normally put to use, and the gain simply jumps to a set parameter rather slowly going up.
With this Expression Overdrive pedal, you no longer have to be limited to set gains when switching between lead and rhythm work. And you can raise or lower your gain incrementally as the song calls for it, allowing for smoother and more pleasing transitions. This added dynamic, real time control over the drive setting opens up your tonal palette to give you more control over your sound, either for building up or breaking down certain parts of songs.
Ernie Ball states that the Expression Overdrive has a wide gain range to justify the use of the rocker, starting from tube-amp-like subtle overdrive to rhythm crunch, and it has enough dirt to produce singing tones for your solos. This is simply not possible with your regular stompbox pedal, but note that multi-effects pedals with built-in expression controls have been allowing this for years.
In addition to the foot-sweepable overdrive control, Ernieball also equipped the Expression Overdrive with settings for boost, drive and tone, allowing for essential tone shaping that complements the variable overdrive.
The company mentioned that this pedal uses their newly engineered PVC-coated Kevlar cord and spring linkage, which replaces the traditional Vectran string used in old Ernie Ball VP and VPJR series pedals. This new material is made to be more durable, so you can have worry free performances night after night, even under more punishing conditions.
See a quick demo of the pedal below:
Each Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive will come with a power supply, and the components are safely housed inside a polished gold aluminum casing. The pedal’s elegant gold finish will easily make it stand out in a pedalboard.
The new Ernie Ball Expression Overdrive is set for release in the last quarter of 2016, with an SRP of $179.99. More information and other details will soon be available at Ernie Ball.
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