Pedalboard and switching specialist RJM Music Technology has unveiled its first guitar effects pedal and it is a doozy – a fully programmable overdrive with a 100 per cent analogue signal path.
The Overture has six modes, each selected by a rotary dial with illuminated by a bright LED. Four are inspired by classic drive pedals, the other two are all-original designs, and once you have found a tone that you like, the Overture allows you to save up to eight presets on the pedal – four main presets, four boosted for solos – and up to 100 when connected via MIDI.
There is a dial and switch control for a Pre-Boost circuit, which can add up to 12dB of gain into the overdrive modes, while the overdrive side of the pedal has controls for Gain, Volume, Bass and Treble.
There are two footswitches on the Overture's enclosure, one to engage/bypass the effect, the other to engage the Solo presets, and used together you can save your settings. Hook the Overture up to your phone, tablet or computer via USB-C and it is fully MIDI capable. There is also an expression pedal input that can be assigned to any of the knob settings.
The overdrive modes comprise: Clean Boost, which is just that and used for pushing amps; Classic, a TS-style drive; Boutique, a fancy pants modded TS-style; Versatile, which brings the Bass control into play for a wider frequency response; Smooth, in which the Bass control affects both treble and bass, with a MOSFET clipping circuit for more saturation; and Crunch, which offers hard clipping and aggressive mids, and allows you to use both Treble and Bass controls.
The Overture ships with a three-year limited warranty. It takes 9VDC centre negative power and draws a minimum of 150mA. It is priced $399, and ships in March.
See RJM Music Technology for more details.
