DRIVE SAFE. DRIVE SMOOTH. DRIVE ON.
This is one silky and smooth drive pedal that’ll give you just a little edge. But make no mistake. A little edge this tasteful can go a very long way and will often make all of the difference!
Think BB King, Larry Carlton and 335 Gibson guitars – even Jazz players will love the delicious crunch of this drive gem.
Compared to TrueOverDrive 1, this is a notch down the drive ladder.
Quite simply, we made this one for those of you out there who have wished for an even more gentle and subtle drive pedal than TOD 1, but without sacrificing the core tone of TrueOverDrive!
Smooth Tooth
Yeah, it is smooth and gentle, but make no mistake – it can bite too! Dial in a healthy dose of drive and you can easily use Smooth Drive 1 for blues and rock, as well as the more jazzy styles.
Finally, you also get a small-footprint pedal with a beautiful Scandinavian design that just oozes stylish minimalism – and one that serves a particular purpose…
Foot-On Overdrive
Just like the TrueOverDrive 1 and 2 pedals, the knobs on Smooth Drive 1 are not only placed diagonally because it looks killer, it is also because we know that sometimes a quick tweak is needed mid-song.
With the Volume and Drive knobs accessible by the edges, you can tweak them on the fly with your foot. No more kneeling down, letting go of the strings, abandoning the groove and loosing the momentum.
Just tweak on the go and keep doing what you are supposed to do. PLAY!
HEAR FOR YOURSELF
Apart from actually plugging into a pedal, nothing demonstrates it better than a great sound demo. Tune in, listen up and if possible wear some decent headphones.
For a smooth and jazzy context, please listen to the video demo at the top of the page. But also make sure to check out these two videos that show the more biting side of Smooth Drive 1. It may be a low-gain pedal tuned for jazzy vibes, but make no mistake, you can definitely crank it up and have it deliver some truly rocking sounds as well!
TRUE OVERDRIVE VS ‘JUST’ OVERDRIVE
“The TrueOverDrive concept is characterized by extreme transparency even at high gain settings. Something you would normally only be able to achieve with good old tube amps driven hard and not from a drive pedal.
The characteristics of your beloved guitars, pick-up settings and amplifiers stay intact and will not get smudged by over-saturation, when you increase the gain/drive amount on the pedal.
Also, turning down the volume knob on your guitar will make the pedal clean up your sound steplessly, thanks to the TrueOverDrive concept that is based on cascaded gain stages.
And how did we make that happen? As mentioned, cascaded gain stages are key. The traditional approach from a tech perspective is diode clipping, and while this can certainly create some great full-on overdrive tones, problems arise when you play dynamically. For instance, the nature of the drive changes fundamentally when you allow the notes to actually ring out.
Beware, it may get slightly nerdy now, but this problem comes from the non-linear resistance, as e.g. half the amplitude of the signal does not equal half the resistance in the diodes. So, when the note rings out and the signal gets weak, the amplitude decreases to a point where the diodes simply shut down. That is why you can play at a very low volume with a diode-clipping pedal and get an almost entirely clean tone, but as you increase the volume you don’t get an organic and natural transition into saturation. When you hit that certain ‘threshold’, the diodes simply kick in and your sound changes drastically and all of a sudden.
That was exactly why I got obsessed with creating an overdrive circuit in a pedal that behaves like real tubes. A drive that you can ride and play naturally. A drive that behaves the way I love at any volume – including fully cranked yet at a fairly low volume on small stages without FOH support. To me that is key to be able to keep my eyes on the ball when on the stage. In that situation, I just want a sound that makes me play my very best. At the end of the day, this is all that really matters.”
– Steen Grøntved, LunaStone Founder and Head Engineer
HIGHLIGHTS
- TrueOverDrive with a super-smooth and gentle touch
- Crunchy, crispy and elegant through and through
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Sounds and behaves like a tube amp
- Adjust with your foot on the fly
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All analog
- Beautiful Scandinavian design
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High-quality components
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True-bypass
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Soft switching w/ relay
SPECS & MANUAL
- Chassis dimensions (W/D/H): 2.9″ x 4.5″ x 2″ (73 mm x 114 mm x 51 mm (incl. knobs))
- Weight: 265 g. (9.35 oz.)
- Battery type: 9V
- Adaptor type (not included): Standard 9V DC (center negative)
- Power consumption: 75mA
DOWNLOAD THE SMOOTH DRIVE 1 QUICK START GUIDE (PDF)
GALLERY
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2 Year Warranty
Our pedals rock. And they are rock-solid so we give you 2 years of warranty on your new pedal from the day you buy it. For details, please read the Terms & Conditions.