Our Custom Drive has long been the most popular clone built in our Custom Shop. It’s generally based on a very popular but hard to find pedal that has been in and out of production for many years now, commanding prices of over $1000 on eBay at times.

Our version pays honest tribute to the original and has been tested against several versions of the original to represent the closest approximation we can get sonically. The Custom Drive utilizes a large voltage swing via an internal charge pump, Ge Diodes for clipping, buffered bypass, and a unique gain structure using  a dual gain pot to simultaneously blend out clean gain while blending in distorted gain as you turn the Drive knob clockwise.

The Custom Drive’s controls are fairly simple.

1. 1.The Drive knob affects the amount of distortion applied to your signal, from clean boost to medium distortion.
   

2. 2.The Tone knob affects the signal’s tonal character, from dark to bright.
   

3. 3.The Level knob affects the post distortion output level.
   

Many use this sort of pedal as a clean boost because of it’s high headroom, but the inclusion of the Ge Diodes for clipping give you a range of amp like distortion without being too fizzy or fake sounding. This pedal also fits very well at the start of a pedal chain due to it’s buffered bypass, which simultaneous changes the impedance of your signal to drive long chains of guitar cable and also giving an amount of tone control which adds ‘chimey’ EQ to your signal.