The Golden Boy Transparent Overdrive (designed in collaboration with Joey Landreth) is the most versatile and transparent overdrive ever made.
Rich in harmonic detail and overflowing with headroom, the Golden Boy redefines the concept of transparent overdrive and brings it up to date with modern features never before seen in an overdrive pedal.
GOLDEN BOY OVERVIEW
"The bluesbreaker circuit has been my favorite overdrive circuit forever. I have a collection of clones that I love. The Golden Boy takes that classic tasteful circuit adds some 3D depth, marries it with the modern ideas of Brad Jackson and turns it into an absolute Swiss Army knife for just about any pedalboard." - Joey Landreth
The GOLDEN BOY is a very flexible overdrive with 4 presets for clipping options, an innovative gain adjustment feature that we call GAIN CYCLE, and a 3 band active EQ for maximum tonal flexibility. To top it off, we added a boost circuit which is the same type of MOSFET boost circuit found on our top selling PRISM Preamp pedal.
BOOST OVERVIEW
The boost circuit is in its own true bypass loop which means it can be used independently of the DRIVE circuit. The boost circuit in the GOLDEN BOY is a MOSFET based boost much like the AMP MODE found in our best selling PRISM Preamp pedal. To activate/deactivate the boost circuit simply press the BOOST footswitch.
One of the things that makes the boost in the GOLDEN BOY different from other boosts on the market is that it has 4 presets available. Each preset is EQ’d slightly differently to allow it to alter how it interacts with the overdrive circuit in the GOLDEN BOY or any other pedal you may have in your rig.
OVERDRIVE OVERVIEW
The Golden Boy is based on the Bluesbreaker/King of Tone circuit, so the resulting tone is very open, uncompressed and transparent sounding. Think John Mayer overdriven tones. The Golden Boy sits in the mix perfectly and while it adds overdrive and grit, your guitar still sounds like your guitar!
Where the Golden Boy differs from other Bluesbreaker type circuits is that it has the ability to run much higher gain and instantly switch to a low gain transparent overdrive with a tap of the footswitches. With four gain settings at your feet while you play, you can use the GOLDEN BOY as an always on tone shaper, a low gain transparent overdrive, a mid gain drive or a high gain solo drive all without bending down to adjust settings! With the GOLDEN BOY, you keep playing and use your foot (or MIDI) to adjust the gain for you!
GAIN CYCLE
The most exciting feature of the GOLDEN BOY is the new feature that we developed called GAIN CYCLE. GAIN CYCLE takes the GAIN knob setting, which selects your maximum gain, and divides that level of gain into 4 equal parts.
3-BAND ACTIVE EQ
To top it off, the DRIVE circuit of the GOLDEN BOY has a 3 band active EQ. The EQ circuit features a studio grade EQ that gives tremendous tonal flexibility to the GOLDEN BOY. Based on the legendary Baxandall EQ that is featured in countless studio EQ’s, the GOLDEN BOY EQ takes this circuit and tailors it for guitarists! We spent tons of time on this EQ dialing it in so it would hit all the frequencies that guitarists need to adjust, and then sweetened it by removing the ear fatiguing highs and lows that can appear at extreme settings.
EQUALIZER CIRCUIT FEATURES:
Studio-grade EQ with High Bandwidth and Flat Response at 12:00
+/- 12dB Boost/Cut per control
Center Detents on the pots that make it easier to get back to a neutral or flat response.
MIDI FEATURES
It's 2020 and it's time to expect more from an analog overdrive pedal! Since the BROKEN ARROW came out in 2019, all of our overdrive pedals have featured MIDI control over clipping options, gain cycle options, boost eq options as well as ON/OFF of the overdrive and boost circuits and the GOLDEN BOY is no exception.
We always want to make sure that our pedals are as easy to integrate into complex rigs as they are into simple rigs and MIDI makes that happen!
MIDI CHANNEL
By default, the GOLDEN BOY ships with MIDI Channel 1 being the selected channel. This can be changed by pressing and holding the DRIVE footswitch while applying power to the GOLDEN BOY. Press the BOOST footswitch to increment the MIDI channel number.
You’ll notice that as you continue to hold the DRIVE footswitch, the BOOST LED will flash to indicate which MIDI channel you have selected. IE – 7 flashes = MIDI Channel 7. After the LED flashes, we inserted a 2-second pause so you could tell when the LED was finished flashing. The LED will continue flashing as long as you are holding down the DRIVE footswitch. Once you have selected the MIDI channel you want and have verified it by counting the flashes, simply release the DRIVE footswitch and the pedal will save this MIDI Channel to the internal EEPROM on the microprocessor and reboot.
TECHNICAL SPECS
- Input Impedance: 1M
- Output Impedance: 100k
- Power Supply: DC
- Voltage Input: 9V MAX
- Polarity: Center Negative
- Max. Current Consumption: 100mA
- Dimensions: 2.7” x 4.875″