Gurus Amps SexyDrive MkII: An Italian overdrive pedal gets updated
Gurus Amps is issuing a new reincarnation of its cornily named Sexydrive pedal. The Sexydrive MkII has a couple of new features, including the ability to blend drive and clean sounds. This “OD/Boost” pedal might be a contender if you’re looking for a smoother, amp-like drive tone.
Sexydrive MkII
Ignoring the almost stereotypical Italian naming of this overdrive pedal, which cheapens it slightly, this new overdrive pedal has a nice, clean look and is very well laid out, so it should hopefully be easy to use. Gurus Amps say this is an amp-like overdrive akin to a Dumble or Klon drive tone, so probably a slightly cleaner, ‘less saturated’ overdrive tone.
Guru Amps SexyDrive II controls with Blend control. · Source: Guru Amps
Will it blend?
The Sexydrive MkII has a Balance control which allows you to mix the overdrive and clean tones together, helping you maintain some clarity in your drive tone. This is achieved using a trim pot on the underside of the pedal accessed via a small hole. I’m not a huge fan of trim pots, but at least you don’t need to get your screwdriver out and start opening up the case to twiddle this one.
A set of standard controls consists of Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle and Treble, making this pedal easy to navigate. The real advantage here is that you can utilise that Blend control are keep your dynamics intact.
Lights On
On the front of the Sexydrive MkII you also get two little lights. One is labelled Peak, which shows you your drive and the other labelled Fuel, which will let you know when your battery is low. Of course you can also run the pedal from a DC power supply rated at 9V or 12V, so the battery indicator is only ever used for those that use no power supply.
Using a 12V power supply will increase the dynamic range for the pedal’s circuit by making more headroom available internally. This is a popular way of making a pedal more responsive and has been becoming a more common technique with boutique pedal manufacturers over the last few years.
All in all, this looks like a decent overdrive pedal, I like the blend control. My only gripe is the silly name!
Price TBC
Guru Amps Sexy Drive MKII product page
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