Carl Martin Crunch Drive

This unit cost me £75. Its RRP is £79. I bought it in a shop Manchester way (sorry don't know the area to well...), called Sounds Great (http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com). There is a more detailed explanation of their location on the website.

The effects pedal is great - it does what its name says. Put it through a tube amp and instant Stones (think Start Me Up). Again, a little tweaking, we got early SRV (this pedal nicely emulates a Tubescreamer with a little overdrive). The presence of attack and edge controls mean that a wide variety of sounds can be achieved - far more than the usually amounts achieved through a normal orverdrive tone control. For blues/rock it is superb... for heavy rock, forget it. But then again, it was never intended for heavy rock. Stick a Boss Sd-1 or Tubescreamer after it and wahey! What an amazing lead sound.

There is a slight click heard when you patch the device in and out of the effects chain. Slightly annoying when playing by yourself but when in a band environment, it is not really noticable. Tonewise, I think it could do with just a little more on the gain...

The Crunch Drive is made from a sturdy metal casing that looks like it could surcvive a beating ok. The other weak point seems to be switch... it doesn't strike me as being particularly heavy duty although to date it has survived so far. I like the foam on the bottom of the unit. Its not going to slide anywhere in a hurry. All of the jack sockets are high quality metal components and the LED is very bright... just great when you are playing at a dark venue (or in your bedroom with no lights on...?)

As a blues pedal, it is excellent. All you crunch blues fans will love this pedal. You don't see them around very often but do give them a chance, I think that you will love it!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com