Santa Ana Overdrive

£160

An overdrive pedal with two voicings and an extra footswitch for added boost, the Santa Ana is designed with FET circuitry to deliver valve amp-style drive and it does just that. This is a pedal that has nicely expressive touch sensitivity and cleans up naturally with guitar volume. There’s quite a range of tones available from cleanish boost to driven amp, shaded with a set of four EQ knobs reminiscent of a Fender amp front panel. The two amp voicings are designated American and British – the former is brighter with a sharper almost percussive chime, while the latter is darker and a practical choice in front of overly bright amps. The Boost knob can be set to either boost the drive stage where it can successfully bring in a more aggressive upper mid presence or to boost the output volume – perhaps by a slightly larger margin than we would have liked in the absence of a boost level control. Verdict Natural-sounding overdrive and switchable boost in one box makes this a practical pedalboard proposition

Tech Spec

ORIGIN: China TYPE: Overdrive pedal FEATURES: True or buffered bypass CONTROLS: Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence, Level, Drive A/B Voice switch, LEDs On/Off switch, True/ Buffered switch, FS Select (Drive/Level) switch, Boost footswitch, Bypass footswitch CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor (not supplied) 130mA DIMENSIONS: 100 (w) x 125 (d) x 62mm (h)

8/10