Greenchild K818
Two Iconic Overdrives in One Stompbox!
The ultimate hybrid? Only you can be the judge.
Our K818 is a dual overdrive preamp bred through and through with iconic Klon Centaur and Tube Screamer (OD820) inspired DNA. With a wide dynamic range, sweet overdrive, and lowered noise floor, the K818 is well suited to cover a variety of playing styles and genres; most notably blues-rock.
A Bright Idea?
The company motto of New Mexico-based Greenchild is “never compromise your tone.” And sure enough, the boost stages preserve the full frequency range of your clean signal more faithfully than most overdrives—which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your gear, playing style, and tastes.
Many players want and expect their overdrives to amputate highs because distorted treble frequencies can get nasty. Whether due to the buffer stages or the circuit voicings, high frequencies ring loud and clear here. That’s true for each channel independently, and for both combined. You don’t get the corpulent lows and rounded-off treble you often encounter from back-to-back boost circuits. The frequency mix remains relatively true to your clean sound—just more distorted and compressed.
Ratings
Pros:
Two independent boost stages provide four “virtual channels.” Two flexible and independent EQ stages. Excellent workmanship.
Cons:
Probably too compressed and bright sounding for some players.
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Street:
$225
Greenchild G777
greenchildamps.com
And that puts us in ultra-subjective tone territory. The overdriven highs lend a 1980s/’90s aural exciter-type character. (What exciters do, after all, is emphasize harmonic distortion at higher frequencies.) With my preferred lowish-output pickups and retro-style combo amps, the results were consistently too bright for my taste. Yet it’s easy to imagine some players digging G777’s full-frequency shimmer. I suspect that’s especially true for guitarists with dark-sounding guitars and amps, or for players whose high-output pickups produce undesirably wooly/woofy tones.
When writing gear reviews, I usually check out manufacturer demos and random YouTube clips to verify my impressions and hear how the product responds to different gear and playing styles. In this case, I listened to every clip I could find, and each one confirmed my impressions. I encourage you to do the same. I also urge you to interpret my tone rating as a neutral value on a sliding scale. Add a point or two if you dig G777’s treble-forward tones, and subtract one if you don’t.
Crafty EQ
Despite its mosquito weight, the G777 is solidly constructed. The internal layout is clean and elegant. Ribbon connector links the soft-touch relay footswitches to a main circuit board populated with through-hole components (including the medium-gain, BC-series silicon transistors that generate the grit). The jacks attach to the enclosure, not the boards. It’s a fine bit of stompbox engineering. The pedal also accepts 9V–18V power and requires 500 mA from either your pedalboard brick or the included 30V (+/-15V) power supply, which yields a wider dynamic range and less compression.
The Verdict
All gear reviews are subjective, and this one more than most. This is a case where you should audition before buying, or at least listen to as many online demos as possible. There’s no doubt about G777’s quality build and design. It’s simply a matter of whether its uncommonly treble-rich gain suits your personal sound world.
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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