A fully-programmable overdrive and distortion pedal with a 100% analog signal path, inspired by British pedal designs.
The Full English is the follow-up to RJM Musicās Overture pedal, released in 2021. This new pedal uses the same programmable analog technology created for the Overture, but this time is focused on delivering British-inspired tones. The Full English can deliver transparent low to medium overdrive sounds, all the way to āamp in a boxā grind.
Features Include:
- 100% analog signal path
- 6 overdrive modes ranging from clean boost to high gain distortion
- Standard gain, tone, and volume controls, plus a 3-band active post EQ
- Fully programmable, with 8 presets on board
- MIDI compatibility
- When used with a MIDI controller, it enables expression pedal support and allows access to 100 presets
- USB C connectivity
- Editor app available for Windows, Mac, and iPad
- Made in the USA
The Full English has a suggested retail price of $349.00 (US). Itās available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the RJM Music store with free shipping to customers in the US.
For more information, please visit rjmmusic.com.
The Full English - Tone Demo
Thirty-one years after Gish, the Smashing Pumpkins are still exploring the architecture of sound in their often explosive and unpredictable songs. For their current Spirits on Fire Tour, Billy Corgan leads with his Reverend signatures and a few other carefully culled guitars, and Jeff Schroeder lends support with his fleet of Yamahas.
The Smashing PumpkinsSmashing Pumpkins' first two albums, Gish and Siamese Dream, were a huge part of the soundtrack for the early ā90s alternative rock revolution. Still sounding revolutionary all these years later, the bandās leader, Billy Corgan, recently brought the Smashing Pumpkins to Nashvilleās Bridgestone Arena for the Spirits on Fire tour, on the heels of their 11th studio album, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts.
The concept album is a sequel to the Smashing Pumpkinsā definitive three-LP masterwork Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, from 1995āwhich also brought them crushing into the mainstream. Acts two and three of Atum are scheduled for January and April 2023. But meanwhile, there are live shows ā¦ and all the gear it takes to recreate more than three decades years of the bandās signature sounds. PS: Special thanks to super-tech Trace Davis for his help with the fine points.
Brought to you by DāAddario XPND Pedalboard.
Sticker Shocker
Billy Corganās main guitar, tuned in standard, is his Reverend signature Z-One in midnight black, loaded with Railhammer Billy Corgan Z-One neck and bridge pickups. This model is the third collaboration between Corgan and Reverendās Joe Naylor, and Mr. Cās axe takes Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, gauged .010ā.046.
Purple Haze
For a back-up, Billy has his Reverend BC1 signature in satin purpleburst, loadedāagaināwith Z-One neck and bridge pickups, which blend the bite of P-90s with humbucker heaviness.
Those Pickup Covers!
Stare long enough at those pickup covers, and perhaps youāll see the universe, putting a new spin on the old Zen koan. When Corgan wants things just a bit looser, in Eb standard tuning, heāll reach for this Z-One sig in silver freeze. Oh! The strings? Ernie Ball Power Slinkys, .011ā.048.
Truly Special
For a classic P-90 voice, Corgan lets the strings on this 1994 GibsonĀ Les Paul Special sing. He keeps it tuned to C# standard and the switch has been modified (it's a secret), as has the sticker. Ernie Ball Not Even Slinkys (.012ā.056) adorn this axe.
ES for Eb Standard
Another low-tuned Gibson, Corganās 1972 ES-335 with block inlays and a trapeze tailpiece, lives in Eb standard land and gets called out to play on the song ā1979.ā
The Silver Surfboard
For some mini-hum sting, Billy plays this Gibson Firebird with a Bigsby in silver finish. There are several switches in the headstock, which Corganās tech Davis says control the āsecret sauce and voodoo magic.ā
Star Baby
Corgan tours with two of his signature Yamaha LJ16BC acousticsāone in E and one in Eb standard. Theyāre medium-jumbos and all-stock, which means a spruce top, rosewood back and sides, a 5-ply mahogany and rosewood neck, and the companyās comfort traditional neck style.
Double Vision
Corgan tours with two identical amp rigs, with four different heads used separately for different tones, and all switched with an Ampete 444. This allows him to drive all four heads into one Laney Black Country Customs LA412 4x12 speaker cab loaded with Celestion G12H-75s. It lives in an iso box under the stage. The amps? Thereās a Laney Supermod, an Orange Rockerverb 100 MKIII, a Carstens Grace, and an Ebo Customs Del Rio.
Billy Corganās Pedalboard
Hereās what underfoot: an RJM Mastermind GT/16 MIDI controller, an MXR CAE Power System, Analog Man Beano Boost treble booster with Mullard-style transistors, a Lehle III switching and looping tool, a Tone Bender-inspired Minotaur Sonic Terrors Evil Eye MkIII fuzz, a Strymon Brigadier delay, a Behringer Octave Divider, and a Dunlop Volume (X), used as an expression pedal for the Strymon.
Yamaha, Aha!
Jeff Schroeder plays Yamaha guitars. And heās got four Revstars on tour. This one has an especially elegant finish. They came stocked with P-90s, but now one has Black Cat Vintage Repro Minis, another features Lollar Low Wind Imperial Humbuckers, and the one he keeps in drop D is totally stock. Schroeder goes with Ernie Ball Paradigm .009 sets for standard, .010s for Eb standard, .009s with a heavier .046 on the bottom for drop D, and .011s for C# standard.
Cutaway to the Pacifica
This Yamaha Pacifica has a scalloped fretboard and Seymour Duncan Hunter humbucking pickups in the bridge and neck, and an SSL-5 single-coil in the middle. It also features a Floyd Rose whammy upgraded with titanium parts.
Big Red
For a semi-hollow, Jeff goes with his Yamaha SA2200 guitars, with Lollar Low Wind Imperial Humbuckers.
Playerās Pick
As with all his axes, his plectrum choice is Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mms, including the the just-for-fun Dunlop YJMP03YL Yngwie Malmsteen picks (yellow), but the Dunlop YJMP02RD Yngwie Malmsteen picks (red) are beefier at 2 mm.
Double Generation
Schroeder tours with two Revv Generator 120 MKII tube headsābig, beefy, and versatile.
Donāt Call a Cab
No big boxes for Schroeder ā¦ at least onstage. He uses a pair of Two Notes Torpedo Captor X simulators, emulating a 4x12 micād with a Shure SM57 and Sennheiser MD421 on Celestion V30s. As a back-up, there is a Marshall 4x12 in an isolation cabinetāwith a Shure SM57āunder the stage. And Jeffās āicing on the cakeāāa suggested addition from tech Trace Davis (of Voodoo Amps)āis a Retrospec Juice Box. This inconspicuous box is a transformer-less, all-tube DI that has upped his live tones to a studio quality.
Double Helix
His effects array has two Line 6 Helix Rack units that live in his rolling rock case.
Central Command
At his feet he has a Line 6 Helix Control Foot Controller that works with an Analog Man Beano Boost, like Billyās. These are fired up for solos. Also, Schroeder has a pair of Dunlop DVP3 Volume (X) pedals (one for volume and another for pitch-shifting effect from the Helix) and a Dunlop JB95 Joe Bonamassa Signature Cry Baby wah.
But Wait, Thereās More
He also uses an Origin Effects RevivalDrive, a Vox Satchurator, and Fenderās Yngwie Malmsteen signature OD.
Overflowing overdrive optionsāwithout option fatigue.
Fantastic sounds throughout. Compact and convenient.
Pricey. Some learning curve if you want to get the most out of the pedal.
$399
RJM Music Overture
rjmmusic.com
I usually keep three dirt pedals on my main board. You might have more. Lots of dirt options are fun! But what we gain in tonal variety from such set ups, we lose in valuable pedalboard space. The RJM Overture, an all-analog, digitally controlled programmable overdrive pedal with six distinct modes, offers a viable solution to this problem that doesn't skimp on the sounds.
Six Slick Drives
As varied as the Overture can be, the main control layout is pretty straight ahead. There are knobs for gain, volume, bass, treble, and pre-boost. Just below those knobs you can select from the Overture's modesāclean boost, classic, boutique, versatile, smooth, and crunchāby using a small button. The two footswitches are on/off and solo. The latter switch, which is called "bank" in the newest production run, lets you select from preset banks 1-4 when disengaged or 5-8 when engaged. The bank switch effectively lets you switch between two presets in the two different banks.
Ernie Ball/Music Man Axis Sport and a Fender Super-Sonic combo for both clips.
Clip #1 - Classic Gain 3 - 00, Treble (Tone) 11 - 00, Volume 12 - 00, Pre - Boost OFF
Clip #2 - Crunch Gain Max, Bass 1 - 00, Treble 11 - 00, Volume Noon. Pre - Boost Off
The Overture's programmability is a big part of its convenience. The unit allows up to eight presets. And if you really want to geek out and stretch the Overture's potential, you can use the pedal's MIDI functionality and, with an external controller, can store up to 100 additional presets and control parameters. The programmable aspect of the Overture isn't immediately intuitive and I had to consult the manual to get up and running. But in general, it's fairly simple once you learn how it works.
I got rounder, slightly softer transients, but a big buttery sound that was more than a little Dumble-like.
To access presets 1 though 4, you have to press the on/off and solo buttons simultaneously to scroll. To access presets 5 through 8, you press the solo button again to select that bank of presets, then scroll with the on/off and solo buttons. To save changes, you hold down the overdrive mode mini-button for three seconds, and it will save to the selected preset location.
To access a specific preset within a bank, you have to scroll through all the presets sequentially in ascending order. So you can't quickly switch from, say, preset 2 to 1. You have to scroll all the way from 2 through 4 before reaching 1 again. To get the most out of the Overture, it's worth looking into integration with one of the excellent MIDI foot controllers in RJM's product line.
Overdriven Overture
While space in this review doesn't permit covering all six Overture modes in depth, there are distinct highlights. Three of the modesāclassic, boutique, and versatileāare based on TS and modified TS circuits. In classic and boutique mode, the bass knob is inactive and the treble knob functions like the single tone control on a TS. With the gain around 11 o'clock and the treble knob at noon, classic mode generates very sweet lead voices that are open and refreshingly robust in the low end for Tube Screamer-style stomps, which are famous for their midrange. It also sounded more articulate and spacious than many original Tube Screamers I have heard. The versatile mode is similar to the boutique mode, but its active bass control permits more tone-shaping flexibility. Switching to smooth mode with the same settings (and the bass control active and set at noon), I got rounder, slightly softer transients, but a big buttery sound that was, surprisingly, more than a little Dumble-like.
Engaging the clean boost with pre-boost at noon (the pre-boost control allows up to 12 dB of pre-overdrive boost) and gain set low coaxed stinging bluesy tones from single-coils. At the same settings, bridge humbuckers generated beautiful clean rhythm tones. And even a basic open-position G chord sounded majestic and responded dynamically to extra pick attack, with rich overdrive breakup.
The Verdict
It's hard to find a bad sound in the Overture. Even at lower gain settings, the pedal shinesālending a bright, lively edge to basic guitar tones. If all you need is a single overdrive pedal, this might be overkill. But if a single OD leaves you wanting, the Overture can make a lot of high-quality overdrive sounds without taking up a ton of space.