I bought the Blackeye Effects Gold Pine Overdrive pedal on a blind buy, there was not any demos or anything. All I knew that it was a low gain version of the White Pine. This pedal did not disappoint. It is awesome.
It has three controls on it; gain, volume, and presence.
The Gain knob. It does what any gain knob does, but what I love about this pedal is that the controls are not sensitive so you can really dial in the tones you like. This is very important for gain controls because in some pedals you can go from clean boost to thick overdrive with the slightest touch. This is not the case with this pedal.
The Volume knob. This knob is very useful and compliments the gain knob very very great. You honestly can’t find a wrong combo with the gain and volume knobs at any position.
The Presence knob. This is very subtle knob, it is essentially how I see it a tone knob. It acts as a tone knob should.
Conclusion. This pedal is literally a steal. It sounds great, has a great price tag ($129 brand new!) , and is eye candy. This is my “always on” pedal. It serves as my clean boost and just fattens up my tone just enough if I stack it with another drive my amp really starts to get driven. The Gold Pine is not always available, it is only sold on special occasions like Christmas. So grab one while you can!
Submitted by Palmer J, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
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February 23, 2018
Let me offer a little additional insight on this pedal. Someone who is much more electronically-inclined than myself commented in an online forum that the Gold Pine (and White Pine) are based on the Crowther Hotcake circuit. Having played the Gold Pine for a few years and having listened to several Hotcake demos, my ears certainly confirm that they have the same sonic blueprint. Like the Hotcake, the presence knob is not in fact a typical tone knob but rather controls the mids. When I play the Gold Pine through Fender amps (DDRI, BJ, HRDX, Champ) I find it gets a bit harsh and fizzy towards the upper range of gain, but works well as a boost/light gain to achieve edge-of-breakup tones on the lower range. I liked it best with the presence (mids) set low around 9 o’clock. Turning the presence knob fully left (in the off position), the pedal is completely transparent. I A-B’ed the Gold Pine with a Bluesbreaker-style style pedal (a JHS Morning Glory) and I was able to get it so that my ears could not tell the difference at low gain settings. When I play the Gold Pine through Vox and Blackstar amps, it’s a very different experience – the pedal sounds great all the way through the range of gain and produces some really nice saturated driven tones. I also found that it sounded better through these amps with the presence turned up to about 12 o’clock, which might seem counterintuitive with amps that are more middy in character… but there you have it! With humbuckers into this pedal I was also able to really nail some early Noel Gallagher Oasis style tones with the gain up.