What the hell is an Underdrive? That’s a good question, and I’m gonna try to answer it today. The Snowjob from Lotus Pedal Designs is a unique design, a dual-mode underdrive, as they call it, which simply means the pedal drives from the guitar, NOT driving the amp. Very cool and transparent, adding full body to your signal, as well as being able to get a good amount of crunch.
The knobs are unique as well: the left is the PULL knob, which adjusts the impedance, and to the right we have the PUSH knob, which is basically a volume booster. The middle switch toggles between the White Snow Mode (left), which is pretty much a boost, but a great one, and the Yellow Snow Mode (right), which is the more aggressive and dirty mode, although this pedal really can’t get too ugly-sounding…a good thing, in my opinion. According to the Lotus Pedals site, an underdrive “adds harmonic content in between the notes”, so there you have it. Kinda.
With both knobs at 12:00 in White Snow Mode, the Snowjob produces an incredibly gorgeous boost, full of tone and adding depth and character to your signal. Turn both knobs to around 3:00, and you’ll start to hear the aggressiveness of this pedal shine through. Crank the PULL knob, and listen to the growl: beautiful, full, overdriven tone, with just enough bite to make you smile. Switch over to the Yellow Snow Mode, and the pedal gets just that much more gritty, but not enough to push it into really heavy territory. Just an awesome boost with the potential to sound incredible when overdriven, or vice versa, depending on what you want out of it! Lotus Pedal Designs makes some great gear, and this Snowjob is absolutely fantastic – well done!
Submitted by Mike B. (website)
