Below, Lunastone founder and engineer, Steen Grøntved, explains the principles of True Overdrive.
TRUE OVERDRIVE VS ‘JUST’ OVERDRIVE
“The TrueOverDrive concept is characterized by extreme transparency even at high gain settings. Something you would normally only be able to achieve with good old tube amps driven hard and not from a drive pedal.
The characteristics of your beloved guitars, pick-up settings and amplifiers stay intact and will not get smudged by over-saturation, when you increase the gain/drive amount on the pedal.
Also, turning down the volume knob on your guitar will make the pedal clean up your sound steplessly, thanks to the TrueOverDrive concept that is based on cascaded gain stages.
And how did we make that happen? As mentioned, cascaded gain stages are key. The traditional approach from a tech perspective is diode clipping, and while this can certainly create some great full-on overdrive tones, problems arise when you play dynamically. For instance, the nature of the drive changes fundamentally when you allow the notes to actually ring out.
Beware, it may get slightly nerdy now, but this problem comes from the non-linear resistance, as e.g. half the amplitude of the signal does not equal half the resistance in the diodes. So, when the note rings out and the signal gets weak, the amplitude decreases to a point where the diodes simply shut down. That is why you can play at a very low volume with a diode-clipping pedal and get an almost entirely clean tone, but as you increase the volume you don’t get an organic and natural transition into saturation. When you hit that certain ‘threshold’, the diodes simply kick in and your sound changes drastically and all of a sudden.
That was exactly why I got obsessed with creating an overdrive circuit in a pedal that behaves like real tubes. A drive that you can ride and play naturally. A drive that behaves the way I love at any volume – including fully cranked yet at a fairly low volume on small stages without FOH support. To me that is key to be able to keep my eyes on the ball when on the stage. In that situation, I just want a sound that makes me play my very best. At the end of the day, this is all that really matters.”
– Steen Grøntved, LunaStone Founder and Head Engineer
- Chassis dimensions (W/D/H): 2.9″ x 4.5″ x 2″ (73 mm x 114 mm x 51 mm (incl. knobs))
- Weight: 265 g. (9.35 oz.)
- Battery type: 9V
- Adaptor type (not included): Standard 9V DC (center negative)
- Power consumption: 75mAhttps://youtu.be/AmuBAPFyoc0
