Inspired by Paul Cochrane’s Timmy Overdrive pedal, the Billy pedal is a soft-clipped op-amp drive that gives you more overdrive without changing the character of your tone.
Boutique custom shop Messiah Guitars is excited to release their first overdrive pedal: Billy, a transparent drive.
“I love the original, but I wanted to tweak the gain and add more clipping options for more flexibility and variety,” says Hejda. “And as a bonus, you get a weird fuzz built in the same box!”
Billy provides four knobs for shaping tone and volume. BOOST adjusts the gain from a near amp-break-up to a Rock’n’roll distortion. A pre-gain LOW knob provides bass control entering the gain stage, and if the frequency range is too low or too high, players can shift the bass response with an internal trimmer adjustment. HIGH control adds the necessary treble post-gain. LEVEL controls the pedal’s output volume.
In addition, the pedal features a 3-way MODE switch for selecting among three clipping modes: ’S’ -silicon which offers a classic rock drive, ‘G’ - germanium that adds more compression, and ‘?’ - an experimental fuzz setting not for those faint of heart, achieved with a complimentary pair of vintage germanium transistors. The ‘?’ setting requires a strong signal to be properly excited - you can get there with a preceding booster pedal, or by cranking up gain and the 2-band EQ. An optocoupler in the footswitch helps to keep those pesky clicks to a minimum.
Billy comes in two different versions. The standard version is available in silver finish. A limited-edition pedal in a Brown Sugar finish features NOS germanium diodes in the ‘G’ mode setting for a true vintage feel.
Like their custom guitars and amplifiers, Messiah’s pedals are hand-crafted in Los Angeles for a long life with guaranteed quality.
Each Billy pedal includes:
- 4-knob controls and a 3-way mode switch
- Durable enclosure with fun artwork and space-saving top-side jacks
- Easy to see, illuminated optical true bypass footswitch
- Standard 9V pedal power input or an internal 9V battery
Billy Pedal Demo
Billy retails for $199.00; Billy Limited Edition ‘Brown Sugar’ retails for $219.
For more information, please visit messiahguitars.com.