THE UNSHAKABLE FEALTY many a guitarist has for their favorite dirt device is a hard thing to shatter. No doubt, when a new type of gain pedal emerges, it’s an uphill battle to persuade these stompbox stalwarts to be open-minded and eschew any skepticism. And understandably, I get that most of the latest drives are — more or less — variations of the iconic “Screamer” ilk. However, every so often, a contemporary overdrive comes along that is unlike anything else and is so convincingly good in nailing the sound of a tube amp roaring at full-tilt that it becomes apparent we may have a new best-in-class. That accolade, as far as I’m concerned, goes to the Origin Effects RD Compact Hot Rod, a condensed and hot-rodded version of their award-winning large-format RevivalDrive and RevivalDrive Compact stompboxes. The RD Compact Hot Rod is not your garden-variety overdrive, nor is it a “Klone” or an ersatz amp-modeling pedal. This is a serious all-analog tone-shaping tool with more gain and sustain, and one that allows complete control over dialing in the same harmonic content, responsiveness and filthy richness a classic, heavily modded tube amp offers when pushed to its limit.
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