Dept. 10 Dual Drive £249

Each channel of Blackstar’s new Dept. 10 Dual Drive has two voicings that are available via a toggle switch: Channel 1 can be set up for Clean or Crunch, while Channel 2 offers Crunch (a little fatter than Channel 1’s offering) or Overdrive where you’ll find the gainiest sounds. Each channel has its own Gain and Level knobs, but both share the same tonal adjustment via an array of four knobs. The Bass, Middle and Treble work just like an amp’s tone knobs, while the ISF knob determines the type of amp as it morphs from USA to UK – in part altering the midrange character from open to dense. The clean channel voicing has a useful degree of compression going on, so it’s great for recording and can get into light break-up as you up the gain. The other voicings deliver from a clean boost through all shades of crunch to saturated lead tones, all done with great feel, responding naturally to guitar dynamics and volume.

VERDICT An extremely versatile drive pedal – a most natural way to add two extra dirt channels to a clean amp