As one of few Italian manufacturers making headway in the American effects market, Gurus has already generated buzz for tube-driven pedals like the 1959 Double Decker overdrive, the Echosex 2 Ltd. Echorec-style delay, and the Optivalve compressor. The Sexydrive MkII pedal isn’t tube driven, but it works beautifully with your tube amp to induce sweeter and earlier breakup for everything from textured crunch rhythms to singing lead tones.
The newest version of the Sexydrive is a medium-gain overdrive that cites no single inspiration, but delivers appealingly musical and richly saturated tone with a lot more versatility than the average OD. It also uses an interesting buffer system rather than going the popular true-bypass route, using three extremely transparent buffers—one on the input and two on the output—to keep your signal intact and help deliver it on through other pedals and long cable runs to your amp.
Six Pack
Keys to the Sexydrive MkII’s versatility can be found in the EQ section and band controls. In place of a standard single tone control, this pedal has a full three-knob EQ stage with bass, middle, and treble, while a balance control enables any desired ratio of dry-to-dirty signal.
This latter knob is worth paying attention to: It provides seemingly endless shades of gain from the Sexydrive MkII, plus the ability to keep your signal crisp and articulate. And some of the sounds have the dimension and definition artists achieve by using two-amp rigs in the studio.
Ratings
Pros:
A cleverly designed and confidently constructed overdrive pedal with rich, lush tones and excellent versatility courtesy of a useful balance knob.
Cons:
None.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$249
Gurus Sexydrive MkII
gurusamps.com
It’s a technique that a few other makers have used effectively for several years. Truetone’s Route 66 v3, Voodoo Lab’s Sparkle Drive, and Way Huge’s Pork Loin come to mind. It’s a design move that can make a standard overdrive exceptional, and it does so here.
The Sexydrive MkII’s form factor is pretty cool, too. The original-design enclosure is quite different from any of the standard “project box” pedals out there. The custom-folded sheet-metal enclosure is topped with a Plexiglas face that lends a three-dimensional look to the legends etched below, and in addition to the on/off light there are LEDs for peak (which lights up at higher drive levels) and fuel (a weak-battery indicator). Access to the 9V battery compartment is through a plate at the bottom edge of the box, or you can use any standard center-negative adaptor to supply 9V—12V (but no more!), which is doubled internally by the Sexydrive MkII’s “twin dynamic” power circuit to provide extra dynamic range. Finally, there’s a clean level trim pot accessed through a small hole in the base plate which lets you adjust the amount of dry signal sent to the balance pot on top.
Drivin’ Home
I tested the Sexydrive MkII using a tweed Fender Deluxe combo, a JTM45-style head with a 2x12 cab, a Stratocaster, and a Les Paul. If you’re looking for an easy tonal reference point, you can definitely hear elements of a modified Tube Screamer, except that it has a much more balanced voicing (there’s no mid-hump, unless you dial it in that way via the middle control). You’ll also hear more clarity, and perhaps even a sweeter and livelier harmonic structure, too. In short, it’s an extremely likeable and eminently usable overdrive, and very easy to get to grips with.
After just a short bit of monkeying around with it in the studio, I found it quickly rivaling a couple of my current favorite ODs and I stuck it on my board for a rehearsal with an original indie-rock band the next night. The MkII absolutely excelled, easily achieving a very tactile and musical medium-gain lead tone that—thanks in part to the balance control—never once got lost amid the loud (and occasionally over-enthusiastic) four-piece mix.
The Verdict
Versatile, sonically pleasing, easy to dial in, and adept at helping your precious guitar parts stand out in the mix, the Sexydrive stands apart. It’s not cheap for an overdrive, but it is smartly conceived, well put together, and well worth investigating if you’re in the market for new dirt-box sounds and a more flexible pedal design.
Truetone 1 Spot Pro XP5-PS 5-output Low-profile Isolated Guitar Pedal Power Supply
The XP5-PS is a package containing the 1 Spot Pro XP5, along with a 12Vdc 2.5A adapter, which allows you to power the XP5 without having a CS11. The adapter comes with an array of international plugs so that you can take it with your pedalboard anywhere in the world. Some musicians may even choose to get one of these, plus another XP5, to distribute their power around the pedalboard and have the dual XP5s acting as two pedal risers.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
