PRODUCT REVIEW
experience I’ve had with pedals like this.
The Black Magic reacts like an overdrive,
but sounds like a European metal beast.
you’re seeking a lower
gain 70’s rock machine.
Buy If...
Starlight Overdrive
Masquerading as a simple overdrive
pedal adorned with 1930s-era sci-fi
movie graphics, the Starlight offers
a very smooth overdrive using a mix
of JFET and MOSFET gain stages.
The layout is relatively simple, with
the standard array of Volume, Tone
and Gain controls. In addition to
the familiar controls, a mid-boost
switch is nestled close to the
Volume and Tone knobs. Using
a 2007 Gibson Flying V into a
Fender Twin Reverb Reissue, I
followed the recommended set-
ting of placing the Gain control
somewhere between 7 and 9
o’clock (I had it at 8: 30). The
first open G chord was infused
with an impressive, clear tone.
I was taken back a little at
how much gain it added at
this low setting. Normally,
this particular Flying V has a
brighter edge when using
distorted sounds, but the
Starlight wasn’t about to
let that happen. Even with
the Tone knob maxed, the
sound was relatively dark.
Skip If...
you need a bright
high-gain overdrive.
Rating...
3. 5
ONTHEWeb
Click here to hear sound clips
of the Starlight Overdrive
in action.
Starlight Overdrive
Street $180
crazytubecircuits.com
toneconcepts.com
was brazenly present. This is certainly one
of the Starlight’s strong points, if not its
strongest. Players with characteristically
brighter amps will want to take notice.
upper-mid quality to it. While it doesn’t quite
have that sharp JCM800-esque bite to it,
the sound is highly muscular in comparison.
Think Celtic Frost instead of Slayer. Kicking
on the mid-boost toggle switch didn’t seem
to have much of an effect, really. There
wasn’t enough of a difference that I could
see myself using it. I certainly didn’t expect
the Black Magic to have anything in common
with either the Starlight or Ziggy, but it also
shares some of the same darker qualities of
those pedals, and the high degree of touch
sensitivity. Most high-gain rock pedals have a
problem with either ice pick highs, harsh mids
or farty lows when the volume is cranked.
I didn’t notice this at all with the Black
Magic—cranking the Marshall just made it
sound thicker, meaner, and more responsive.
It literally sounds better through a raging
tube amp, which is the exact opposite of the
The tone is certainly not on the bright
end of the spectrum, but it’s a good
one. Switching to a 1996 Fender USA
Stratocaster helped bring the highs out
into the forefront a little bit, but not in
any extreme sense. It’s a great tone, but
its subdued nature might turn off some
players. Coupling it with a bright amplifier
(such as the Twin that I was using) can help
alleviate that if it’s an issue. Now that the
pedal had proven to me that it was capable
of restrained, cultured tones, it was time to
push it further. Keeping the Strat connected to the Starlight, I started to play around
with some higher gain settings. While lead
lines and fills kept a snappy, responsive
punch, riffing at any setting higher than 2
o’clock caused the tone to loose its consistency. However, even when higher settings
caused the tone to muddy up, the attack
A discrete overdrive engine consisting of
MOSFET-cascaded gain stages mixing the
voicing of two British amps, the Ziggy (
anybody else instantly think about The Spiders
From Mars?) shares much in common with
the aforementioned Starlight, with a simple,
customary control layout of Volume, Tone
and Gain. It also shares the dark tonal
qualities that the Starlight exhibits, but with
a different gain structure performing the
work. According to Crazy Tube Circuits, the
Gain control moves between two distinct
British tones—from 7 o’clock to noon aims
at a top-boosted sound, and past noon a
crunchier sound with added low frequencies—providing a one-two-punch mix of
Vox AC30 and Marshall JTM45. A Gibson
Les Paul Custom (a 1978 model, and not
a natural finish one like Mick Ronson’s,
regrettably) into a 1973 Marshall Superbass
