Fender has added a pair of bona-fide firecrackers to its $99 Hammertone guitar effects pedal lineup, both of which will give the front end of your guitar amp something serious to think about.
For all your low to mid-gain overdrive pedal needs, there is the Breakup Drive, which is named for its amp-style drive but we would like to think it is the kind of pedal you would keep on when getting over a breakup. It would certainly work gangbusters if you’ve got the blues. More on its capabilities shortly.
Next up we have the Hammertone Boost, which follows in the Hammertone tradition of having a utilitarian Ronseal-esque name. And yet, this belies its many charms, not least that it presents players with not one but two flavours of boost.
Here you can switch between a JFET-style boost, that sort of big-hug-mug warmth that you get from a vintage tape echo’s preamp unit – i.e. arguably one of the archetypical boost sounds, the electric guitar tone-sweetener par excellence – and an op-amp boost for a full-disclosure approach to boosting your signal. Yes, it’s there for “transparent volume enhancement”, no colouration here, thanks.
If you are familiar with the Hammertone range you won’t even need to look at the pictures to know what these look like. Each of them have three amp-style knobs (they could have come off a Fender amp), the industrial aluminium enclosures, and the top-mounted jacks that many players will argue make it easier to mount on your pedalboard.
The Breakup Drive has a switch for toggling between a pre-drive mids boost and a flat response, and another for your clipping options – both of which, Fender promises, will yield some impeccable dynamics. We did suggest that this one’s for blues guitar. Its dials comprise Drive, Tone and Level.
“Two selectable clipping modes tailor the drive’s character between light breakup and medium-gain overdrive, each supplying an expressive response that cleans up with lighter picking and breaks up more the harder you strum,” says Fender. “An expansive tone control and switchable pre-gain mid boost provide powerful frequency shaping tools to hone your final tone.”
The Hammertone Boost, meanwhile, an active 2-band EQ with controls for Treble and Bass, Level for output volume. Set Treble and Bass to noon and the pedal’s frequency response is flat. Boost or cut to taste. The toggle selects op-amp and JFET boost, and that’s as easy as it gets.
You can run both of these from a battery or – let’s be serious – 9V from a pedalboard power supply. They are equipped with soft-touch relay true bypass with auto bypass if there’s no power to the pedal.
These are compact, versatile and very affordable, retailing for £75/$99 street. See Fender for more details.
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