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Van Weelden Royal Overdrive Pedal

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SKU: ROYALOVERDRIVE

Product Description

Please note that this pedal does not come with a power supply.

If you are at all interested in the world of boutique gear the name 'Dumble' has probably popped up from time to time. His amps are highly desirable and very expensive to the point where they are pretty much impossible for most guitarists to buy even used.

Enter Van Weelden the biggest specialists on their circuits and a company who has learned how to capture that sound and even improve on it. Now that amazing tone has been taken an put into an all solid state pedal with the Van Weelden Royal Overdrive the only drive you will ever need.

This is not a clone however. See this pedal takes on all of the lessons available from the amps that have come before it and brings all of that to make something that has some tones you will recognize but with usability and versatility you have not heard before.

Real Amp Tone

This pedal has managed to perfectly capture what blues and rock artists have wanted for years. A true Dumble like tone in a box that has enough options that it can get a great sound with any guitar or amplifier. No matter if you are using a British rock amp on breakup, a small American combo or some German high gain machine between the different gain modes, bright options and midrange boosts you will always have a great sound. This is even true with different pickup styles. So if you are using passive single coils or active humbuckers it still sounds great.

Part of that is because this is not your ordinary overdrive pedal. No instead of using a traditional distortion circuit and adding one extra pots and components for more control this is instead wired like your amps preamp. This is how it gets that band on valve amp tone because it is basically one half of a real amplifier.

Another reason how it can be so versatile is that forgetting the two different boosts on board this pedal has 6 modes you can access. While none of these will drastically change the sound of the pedal from each other the different levels of brightness and low response these offer means you can use this on any amp. Not getting the tone you want with this pedal? There are plenty of other options you can use that bring life to your sound.

From Smooth Crunch To High Gain Rock

Now when we say high gain we are not talking about this being perfect for metal. Instead this hits the beautiful high gain sound similar to the level of a cranked classic British valve amp. The way this pedal delivers its wide range of tones is through two different boost circuits.

The Gain Boost and Mid Boost circuits on this pedal both react in very different ways but both give you the result of more gain on your tone. The standard gain boost switch will give it a punch up perfect for blues rhythm tones where you need a bit of saturation.

The Mid Boost however reacts slightly differently altering the response in the midrange making it the perfect mode for when you want to go in to your long sustaining solo. This mode really gives of a Joe Bonamassa like vibe which you don't get out of a lot of gear.

Here's what Van Weelden say about the Royal Overdrive

Never before has a solid state overdrive pedal been so close in capturing the sound and dynamic behaviour of real tube amplifier circuits. Generally guitar players are musically inspired by the sound of well-designed tube amplifiers in terms of richness in harmonics, articulating, touch responsive, compression but still powerful tone and not altering the unique characteristics of your guitar.

The Royal Overdrive features a combination of all these key tube sound aspects. Like good wine designing a new circuit takes some time to "age" (to become mature). That is why it took us 4 years to complete this unit for you.

The Royal Overdrive offers a wide range of overdrive tones for any style using either passive pickups (humbucking, single coil) or active pickups. Furthermore it features a more complete tone shaping network with individual tone controls. This architecture makes the Royal Overdrive a more complete preamp that has versatility to be combined with any guitar amplifier beyond that of the more classic Overdrive pedals.

Specifications

Power consumption guide:

  • 9VDC @ 650mA
  • 12VDC @ 450mA
  • 18VDC @ 300mA

Note:
You can use any voltage between 9 VDC and 18 VDC as long as your power supply has
enough current. With improper power the unit will probably just switch off, lights can start
blinking or shut down when the mid boost is turned on. So the lower the voltage the higher
the current you need.

  •  Input impedance 1M Ohm
  •  Output Impedance: 2.5K Ohm
  •  DC Adapter outer plug dimension: Ø 5,5mm x Ø 2,1mm - Polarity : inner pin is negative and the outside of the plug positive
  •  High headroom buffered bypass mode
  •  Weight: 1.89 Kg - lb 4.16
  •  Dimensions (W/D/H): 8.66" x 6.1" x 2.76" (220mm x 155mm x 70mm)
Jed Van Wyngaardt author picture

Written by Jed Van Wyngaardt

Customer Reviews

4.4

9 reviews

Value

Looks

Durability

Sound

Jean-Gil COURDAVAULT11th Apr 2020

Value 4Looks 5Durability 5Sound 5

Trusted Customer21st Jan 2020

i did

Erik Hedling13th Jun 2018

Fantastic pedal! The hype is truthful!

Mr. Patrick Lacey30th Jun 2017

Very expensive pedal, but totally lush. That Pedal Show weren't wrong!

Trusted Customer17th Nov 2016

Mr HEESUNG KIM10th Nov 2016

this dumble concept pedal goes further than my expectation. i had 808 original and now i like Rod more than that.

Eric28th Apr 2016

John13th Mar 2016

A high quality overdrive that essentially amounts to a single-channel solid state amplifiier front end (preamp stages) designed to perform like an all-valve equivalent (a Dumble, apparently - or Van Weelden's version of a Dumble. I have no experience of Dumble amps so can't comment on that). It includes two switches whose sole purpose is to match it to the amplifier being used. It feels like there is not a massive amount of variation available from the Treble pot and less from the Bass pot. Presence is OK and the Mid pot provides a very healthy amount of adjustment. The frequency response is apparently not flat when the pedal is active and its tone controls at 12 o'clock so even set for negligible overdrive it will still modify the tone of the guitar compared with when the pedal is off: attempting to correct for this can use up some of the available adjustment in the tone controls. Some very useable overdriven sounds are available from it although there appears to be a limiting "sweet range" on the tone controls (as is the case with most amps, of course). That said, you can certainly get some very tasty sounds out of it and lead work really kicks in with the mid boost activated. Build quality is very high. The case is built like a tank in heavy gauge steel and it is claimed to have in excess of 400 components - unlike run-of-the-mill overdrives which traditionally get by on maybe a couple of simple dual op-amp chips and a handful of discrete components. So I would rate this unit as "Excellent" if its sound and facilities happen to match your particular requirements. But do test it to confirm - ideally with an amp like yours.

Karl12th Feb 2016

Great overdrive pedal.... a keeper

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