Krank Krankshaft review

You've got to hand it to Krank. When it comes to naming a new product these guys go straight for the jugular.

We've already had our mitts on Dimebag's Krankenstein stack and the brilliantly named Distortus Maximus distortion pedal.

So, when we heard that Krank had been working on a new overdrive stompbox, we were naturally expecting a kick-ass model name. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the Krank Krankshaft!

A killer name is all well and good, but we expect a Krank product to knock our socks off sonically. Krank describes its new baby as a 'hot-rodded tube screamer-type pedal that sounds great as a front-end lead boost or as a dirty sound on a clean channel'.

From that description we should be looking at vintage overdrive on steroids here. We like the sound of that!

Krank's Distortus Maximus distortion pedal is a hard act to follow, but we should remember that the Krankshaft is a very different beast.

Underneath the 'pistons and death skull' graphics is a simple old-school layout featuring three controls (output, gain and tone) and a chunky on/off switch.

Plugging in, we took Krank's advice and used the pedal to boost the front-end of a valve head. What we got was a meaty crunch that inspired us to crank out some AC/DC and Aerosmith riffs.

But we didn't stop there. Pushing the pedal's gain further produced a raunchy lead sound typical of folk like Jimmy Page and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes.

The Krankshaft pretty much nails every great overdrive tone you can think of. So, for metal mayhem we'll stick to the Distortus Maximus. For overdrive it will now be the Krankshaft that gets our motor running.