MusicRadar Verdict
Amp-enhancing overdrive with a choice of smoothness.
Pros
- +
Naturally playable. Lots of tonal options. Full-bodied, open tones.
Cons
- -
Not much.
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The Shiba Reloaded tweaks the overdrive circuit of Suhr's 2009 original to create a pedal that is more amp-like, has a tighter low-end, focused mids, and features 50 per cent more gain.
Balancing drive and level knobs, the range runs from a clean boost to raunchy driven amp sounds, taking in shades of light crunch along the way.
It's full-bodied, without overdoing the mids, yielding a naturally open sound that will keep your basic tone intact and serve as a way to 'transparently' take your amp up a gear - whether that's adding crunch to a clean amp or making a driven amp sing.
The tone knob lets you crisp up or tone down the upper-mids, while a three-way Smooth switch lets you subtly roll off two different amounts of top end: useful to take some of the sharpness out of a Telecaster's bridge pickup.
One of the most naturally playable overdrives around. What's the easiest amp mod to enhance your tonal options? Putting one of these in front of it...
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.
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