PRS - Horsemeat Transparent Overdrive, Mary Cries Optical Compressor and Wind Through the Trees Dual Analog Flanger

AFTER INITIALLY ESTABLISHING his reputation with electric guitars, and following with acoustic guitars and amplifiers, it seemed an inevitability that Paul Reed Smith would fill the missing link in the signal chain -pedals.

- ART THOMPSON

And so here we are looking at three new PRS stompboxes: the Horsemeat Transparent Overdrive, the Mary Cries Optical Compressor and the Wind Through the Trees Dual Analog Flanger. Designed and assembled in the U.S.A., these elegant pedals feature textured housings and individually etched top panels, true-bypass switching and the ability to run on a nine-volt power supply or a battery (not included).

I tested these pedals with a Strat and Tele, as well as a Reverend Crosscut and a Slick SL56 thinline, and plugged into a Fender Deluxe Reverb, a PRS HDRX 20 head (reviewed in the Holiday 2022 issue) and a Peavey Vypyr X2 digital 1x12 combo.

HORSEMEAT I couldn't help notice that putting two of the pedals' names together gives you "The Wind Cries Mary," which falls in line with PRS's recent focus on Hendrix with the HDRX line of amplifiers. But that's neither here nor there when it comes to the Horsemeat Transparent Overdrive, which is its own animal that stands out by having a large gain knob located at the top center, where it's easy to grab. Below it are the on/off LED and the level, voice, treble and bass controls. As with the other models in the series, the input, output and adapter jacks are on the front face to allow for placing the pedals close together.