Freekish Blues Alpha Drive Pedal

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Discontinued Availability:

 
 

Main Description

 

Freekish Blues make excellent boutique pedals with a real good vibe and, of course, awesome sounds. The Alpha Drive is a warm and smooth overdrive, perfect for blues & rock lead work. The Alpha drive closely emulates the characteristics of a great tube amp in a pedal. Put it in front of a nice clean amp, stomp and enjoy!

Andertons are the sole UK dealer of Freekish Blues pedals.

Here's what Freekish Blues say about the Alpha Drive

Freekish Blues is proud to present one of the best overdrive pedals on the market:

The Thaddeus Hogarth Signature Pedal: Alpha Drive

Working closely with the east coast singer-songwriter, guitarist and Berklee Guitar professor, Freekish Blues has developed an ultra-sensitive, clear, amp-like overdrive pedal that cuts through where others fall short.

Thaddeus, an award winning guitarist has been using high end Dumble or "D-Style" amps such as the Two Rock Custom Reverb Sig 1, Ben Harper's 100 Watt Custom Reverb Sig 1, Bludo Bludodrive, and the Quinn SDO in his line-up for some time.

He had been in search of the ultimate versatile pedal that could deliver those tones along with a wider range of tones from rock to blues, from classic to contemporary and fusion. Even a relatively clean boost is possible with this pedal! The Alpha Drive has a very smooth but articulate quality that one will find pleasing.

This pedal has been played against some of the finest Dumble style amps and pedals on the market today. Pedals such as the Ethos Overdrive, Zendrive, Dumkudo & Zenkudo pedals. That being said the Alpha Drive at this price can't be beat.

The controls - Volume, OD and Tone - actually make a difference, and the pedal cleans up with a lowering of the guitar volume. Featuring a true mechanical bypass foot switch and internal components normally found in the circuits of tube amplifiers, this pedal is built like a tank! The battery can be changed in seconds with the easily accessible secure battery cover. No screwdriver required.

The Switch: The Rock up switch gives a little bit more of a midrange presence edge allowing you to cut through. The Blues down switch gives you that warm brown bluesound. This would be great for the folks who have single coil vs hum-buckers or just to get an extra bite, depending on the instrumentation in your band...I like both, depending on the song.. The switch acts very similar to a Dumble Mid Switch.

Here's what Thaddeus himself said

"After a lifetime of amps and pedals, I was in search of the ultimate do-it-all overdrive pedal. Of course I had been using Dumble-inspired amps for many years, but my love for the traditional sounds of the tube-screamer and even the sound of a cranked deluxe reverb fueled my desire to create a high-quality pedal that covered all the bases. I think of this pedal as an extension of my instrument rather than an effect. You can leave it on and turn the OD control all the way down to get what amounts to a clear boost, or you can dial in varying degrees of overdrive all the way to full sweet fat saturation! The overdrive and the volume control are interactive, very much like tube amplifiers with a gain and master control. The tone control actually works! I am very proud to have my name associated with such a high quality product created by my family at Freekish Blues. I hope you all enjoy many great times making music with this pedal!" - Thaddeus Hogarth

Reviews

 
  • Rating
     

    I'm mainly a rock & blues player and after doing a lot of research into my next overdrive pedal, I decided to audition this model.

    The choice of retailer was made simple as Andertons is the only UK stockist. They were extremely helpful, providing time and space to audition properly and compare with another candidate, the Rockbox Baby Blues, even on a busy Sunday afternoon. (The Baby Blues is also a fine pedal but with four mini toggles, too complicated for my mostly live needs).

    The Alpha Drive performed well so I bought it, and it hasn't disappointed. It maintains the sound of each and every guitar, and works across the whole range from clean boost to medium overdrive. It does not do shred! It also cleans up better than any other pedal I've had when you roll back the volume. In essence, it sounds like a cranked amp, but with manageable volume.

    Since I bought it, I've come across a number of quite long threads on web forums, some of them quite nasty. They allege that the pedal is just a cheap Joyo Ultimate Drive that has been repainted. I've no idea whether this is true (though the housings across whole Freekish Blues Range are mirrored by the Joyo range) but it doesn't matter to me because the pedal's sound justifies its (competitive) price. I really don't care what is or isn't inside it, it just sounds excellent and makes me want to play. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

    I use it in a pedalboard - it interacts really well my Keeley Java Boost in front of it - but you could easily use it by itself into a strange amp at jams and pickup gigs.

    Good job Andertons and Freekish Blues.

    Bob W > read review

    I'm mainly a rock & blues player and after doing a lot of research into my next overdrive pedal, I decided to audition this model.

    The choice of retailer was made simple as Andertons is the only UK stockist. They were extremely helpful, providing time and space to audition properly and compare with another candidate, the Rockbox Baby Blues, even on a busy Sunday afternoon. (The Baby Blues is also a fine pedal but with four mini toggles, too complicated for my mostly live needs).

    The Alpha Drive performed well so I bought it, and it hasn't disappointed. It maintains the sound of each and every guitar, and works across the whole range from clean boost to medium overdrive. It does not do shred! It also cleans up better than any other pedal I've had when you roll back the volume. In essence, it sounds like a cranked amp, but with manageable volume.

    Since I bought it, I've come across a number of quite long threads on web forums, some of them quite nasty. They allege that the pedal is just a cheap Joyo Ultimate Drive that has been repainted. I've no idea whether this is true (though the housings across whole Freekish Blues Range are mirrored by the Joyo range) but it doesn't matter to me because the pedal's sound justifies its (competitive) price. I really don't care what is or isn't inside it, it just sounds excellent and makes me want to play. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

    I use it in a pedalboard - it interacts really well my Keeley Java Boost in front of it - but you could easily use it by itself into a strange amp at jams and pickup gigs.

    Good job Andertons and Freekish Blues.

  • Rating
     

    A great pedal, I've been a fan of Thaddeus for a while and this captures the D-sound well (I have a Zendrive and Zenkudo to compare with). Works best with a loud clean amp (I use this with a Deluxe Reverb combo or a Bandmaster Reverb head/cab). I've given it four stars as I'd really like to see a pedal that combined the D***le overdrive with a great clean boost (like the SHO) to be available one of these days!

    Pat > read review

    A great pedal, I've been a fan of Thaddeus for a while and this captures the D-sound well (I have a Zendrive and Zenkudo to compare with). Works best with a loud clean amp (I use this with a Deluxe Reverb combo or a Bandmaster Reverb head/cab). I've given it four stars as I'd really like to see a pedal that combined the D***le overdrive with a great clean boost (like the SHO) to be available one of these days!

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