Artisanal Effects Toneshaper Drive EQ Overdrive

It’s always exciting when we get to check out new pedals from companies for the first time, and we’re stoked to welcome Artisanal Effects into the mix today. Their Toneshaper Drive EQ Overdrive pedal combines the oomph of an overdrive with the frequency-sculpting of a 6-band EQ, for a well-rounded sound that can fit with ANY setup. There’s a lot of history on this one, so lets hear from the builder about how it came to fruition:

“The Toneshaper Drive is a dual overdrive/6 band graphic EQ. It’s inspiration was from several of my guitar playing friends experimenting with graphic EQ’s in front of, or most commonly, after, various drive pedals, and marveling how altering the EQ could make a single drive much more versatile and give so many tonal choices. I set out to make my own unique version with the heritage of the Bluesbreaker, tweaking the other design components that I liked from the Browne Amplification Carbon and others, boosting the output, tweaking the circuit to cut less highs and revamping the tone control to be more useful.”

“As I knew I wanted to also strap a multi-band EQ to it, I also wanted a drive that could be manipulated by the EQ into other drive sounds that were not very Bluesbreaker-like at all to give as much flavor as possible. For EQ, I again looked at various designs and tweaked them to my liking. I wanted a very transparent sounding EQ that was tweaked for guitar signals, offered about 12db of cut and gain per band, and critically, sounded great in the all important mid frequencies of 300-1k where so much of the guitar signal lives. The EQ side (right side, red knobs) has 6 EQ controls, divided into 3 columns and labelled with the center frequencies. Setting them to noon is zero or no cut or boost. Turning the knob to the right gives up to 12 dB of boost, to the left up to 12dB of cut.”

Whatever the inspiration here, the Toneshaper Drive is a true work of sonic art, and that EQ really lets you dial in a great sound with ease, and with any sort of rig. Plus, with some crafty cabling, you can send each side to a different amp, and even reversed the order of the effects, from Drive > EQ to EQ > Drive, depending on what you need. Be sure to visit the Artisanal Effects website for more info and ordering, and be sure to check out our demo belkow as well…cheers!!