SSAudio Distortion Shout and Overdrive Gig

Taiwanese twosome

CONTACT: SSAudio PHONE: N/A WEB: www.ssaudio-global.com

Here’s a new Taiwanese company that has a small range of guitar effects pedals but, at the time of writing, no official UK distributor, which is something that the company is trying to remedy. In the meantime, it has sent us a pair of dirt pedals, both sporting attractive brushed silver finishes – they are the Overdrive Gig and the Distortion Shout, both battery or adaptor-powered and sporting a bright-blue LED.

Sounds

The Distortion Shout offers a dual concentric knob to adjust the gain and level for a rock distortion sound that has plenty of tonal variability, courtesy of the pedal’s main selling point — separate knobs for the high, mid and low frequencies. Those tone knobs can make things real nasty, particularly the high knob that can dial in a crackling buzz-saw tone that could slice bacon. If you’re a noise merchant who likes more extreme distortion sounds, this may be for you.

By contrast, the Overdrive Gig is much more polite, with its tone knob offering a controlled response in the pertinent range. What you get is low-level transparent overdrive that sounds good into an already dirty amp, but users who like their overdrives to bump up the volume as well as add some dirt may find the level knob doesn’t go far enough: both pedals are similar in that respect.

Verdict

This pair of dirt-delivering stompers are worthy and workmanlike first offerings from a new name trying to establish itself in a crowded stompbox marketplace. We wish SSAudio luck! [TC]

Guitarist rating:

Guitarist says: Silverdirt machineswithusefulattributes thatcouldsuitsomeplayers’ dirtboxrequirements