of the most talked-about places amongst
gearheads to have their amplifiers modified.
Legendary guitarists such as Chris Impellitteri
and Jake E. Lee would bring in their Marshall
heads to have John Kasha go through them
and make modifications. The result of all this
modding was the highly praised Rockmod
Preamp, one of the very first all-tube pre-amps, which was originally released as an easier alternative to having an amplifier altered.
As a more convenient and affordable option,
Kasha has recently released the KA-ODP-A
Overdrive, a four-channel overdrive pedal
that was designed to house some of Kasha’s
best guitar tones to date. While the pedal
can be used as a stand-alone device into
a clean amplifier, it was really designed for
those players who don’t want to drastically
alter their tone, and just want to drive the
amp’s internal gain even further. This is why
the pedal lacks a tone knob. Each of its four
modes—Smooth, Classic, Hot and Melt—are
individually voiced with distinct amounts of
lows, mids, highs and gain, which have been
carefully chosen to preserve the amp’s inherent tone. When I ran the pedal into a Fender
Deluxe Reverb reissue with a 2008 Fender
American Stratocaster, I could tell what
Kasha was going for almost immediately. All
of the guitar’s natural attack was very present throughout each mode, with an instantly
noticeable addition of sparkle in the highs. I
drove the amp slightly by pushing the volume
higher, and then engaged the pedal in the
Hot setting. The result was impressive, with
just the right amount of every frequency,
none of which was too harsh. Flipping the
tone switch on the top (labeled “Normal/
Turbo”) to Turbo piled on even more gain,
yet the amplifier’s tone remained clear and
strong, with every note audible in any chord.
To call the KA-ODP-A a boost is an understatement; it not only boosted the amp, it
enhanced it. For the player with the perfect
amplifier setup who’s looking to squeeze a
little more juice out of it, this is an excellent
place to start. – JW
Buy if … you want to preserve your amp’s natural tone, but still need more boost versatility.
Skip if … you really, really need a tone control.
MSRP $200
Kasha Amplifiers
kashaamplifiers.com
ROCKBOX BOILING POINT
To put it mildly, there are a ton of good
overdrive pedals out there. To put it simply,
the Rockbox Boiling Point is one of the best
I’ve come across. It’s not just the notable elements in its construction, which would take
the rest of this review to enumerate, but the
fact that it is at once both extraordinarily
versatile and intuitively easy to use. There
are so many great touches here, it’s hard to
mention them all, but at the top of my list
are: the detented Gain control, the 3-way
mode toggle, and the amount of gain on tap,
which is … well, preposterous really. I also
like the high-visibility blue LED indicator, and
the unique marbled paintjob is pretty cool,
too. The 3-way mode toggle changes the
response and tone of the pedal considerably:
pushing the switch up (“Plexi”) produces a
convincing Marshall-like feel; down delivers
asymetrical clipping, which is edgier, like an
amp on the verge of exploding; middle is a
clean boost mode. There’s also a very useful
Bass Contour switch that fattens up single-coil pickups nicely and seems to tame bright
humbuckers as well. There’s more, but I need
to tell you how it sounds.
My first test was with an Orange Tiny Terror
combo set clean. With the Boiling Point
on the Plexi setting with the Bass Contour
engaged, I set the Gain and Tone at about
noon and plugged in a Gibson LP Studio with
Burstbuckers. Using just the neck pickup with
the Volume almost all the way up and the
tone rolled off, I got just about the sweet-
est, juiciest woman tone you could imagine:
sustaining and heavy with overtones, and
so creamy and articulate without a trace of
bite. That sold me right off the bat, but as I
continued to experiment with other combi-
nations—my Nash S63 with Lollar pickups,
a Fender Road Worn Tele, a Tweed Deluxe
replica and an Xits 15W Sadie combo—I dis-
covered a veritable library of overdrive flavors
that took me through several decades of my
mental tone catalog. Scooped metal is about
the only thing you won’t close in on here.
And the pedal is oh-so-sensitive: if you park
it in the sweet spot, you can go from clean to
raunchy and back just by changing the heaviness of your attack. With so many overdrives
to pay attention to these days, it’s nice to
meet one that’ll make you wonder how many
more you need.
Buy if … you want huge overdrive versatility
in a small box.
Skip if … if your band nickname is “One
Tone” … or “Bloody Deathbringer.”
Street $389
Rockbox Electronics
rockbox.com
GRANVILLE COPPER DRIVE
It is a truism that although supporting roles
don’t get a lot of glory, without them the
stars in leading roles wouldn’t be able to
shine as brightly. Granville’s Scott Davis takes
the same approach with his Copper Drive
pedal—it’s meant to be transparent and supportive, so you can use it like seasoning to
enhance your sound without sacrificing the
tone of your A-list gear. For experienced
players who’ve already put time and money
into achieving their sought-after tone, this
is a good thing to have. Add in the fact that
Granville pedals are hand-built using top-notch materials and hand-selected components by a guy with this much experience,
and it’s a great thing.
Once you’ve set the Level control for unity
gain, the Tone control, which seems to work
much like a high-frequency roll off, will help
you get the right amount of bite or smoothness for your particular guitar and pickups,
but the Tone and Drive controls are also very
interactive. The Copper Drive is so transparent that it makes an ideal clean boost for
more volume on leads and solos. Once you hear
4.0Rating...
5.0Rating...
The Stomping Grounds
PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 129 www.premierguitar.com
