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Quick Hit: Greenchild Tribus Drive Review

Quick Hit: Greenchild Tribus Drive Review

Triple-threat industrial-strength boost/OD/distortion.

Pedal-infatuated as I can be, there are times when I feel like binning the whole dang lot—or at least paring things down to the bare minimum. Few tools I’ve seen in the last several months could enable and justify a stompbox purge quite like the impressively sturdy and elegant Greenchild Tribus Drive. Admittedly I could not stay on that island without tremolo and delay for long, but if shades of gain is your main game, the utility and sonic potency of the Tribus becomes mighty appealing.

On the whole, the MOSFET-driven Tribus is a pretty hot pedal that seems quite at home in brash, in-your-face musical settings. That’s certainly not the only thing it does well, however. The boost channel gives you 27 dB of boost and a cool tone-tailoring section featuring sweep and scoop controls that can excite the jangly high-mids capacity of a clean amp or lend smokier, dusky blues grit. The hottest settings from the overdrive alone may be more than enough gain for bigger amp users. And the distortion channel is both sizzling-hot for solos and capable of high-detail chord crunch, depending on your voice setting. And while a step-ladder, triple-gain-stage approach is the most logical application for the Tribus, the unexpected and less conventionally “rock” sounds you can get from these three very well matched circuits are a thrill as well.

Test Gear: Fender Telecaster Custom, Orange OR50, Fender Vibroverb

Ratings

Pros:
High-quality build. Surprisingly versatile range of voices.

Cons:
Overdrive tones can sound a little hot in the high-mid zone.

Street:
$279

Company
greenchild.us

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