Hailing from Constanta, Romania, Becos FX builds high-quality pedals targeting players with tweaking instincts, and are particularly well-respected for their line of compressors, which includes this insane monster. They just released one of their most streamlined pedals to date, the Ziffer Overdrive.
This is a Jordan Ziff signature, mini evolution of the company’s TS8-MS Overdrive, a Tube Screamer 808-inspired pedal used by the guitarist to push his 1959 Plexi amp. Just like the TS8, it features the Gain/Tone/Level trinity of knobs and 3 clipping modes that deliver a variety of tones suitable for a large number of sonic environments, while the introduction of a Deep toggle allows for beefier results when needed.
Two almost invisible black mini-knobs on the sides of the footswitch offer important extra featurtes. The Mix one on the right allows reintroducing the clean signal under the overdriven one, something an increasing number of guitarists deem to appreciate. The Dry EQ knob further adds sonic options by EQing the clean signal, a feature we don’t think we have seen in any other pedal.
This pedal has also a variable voltage input and can work at 9VDC and 18VDC for improved transparency and high headroom but can also be browned out down to 7VDC for an even more particular tonal flavoring.
You can hear the Becos FX Ziffer Plexi Overdrive in this video featuring Jordan Ziff himself!
Inspired by Jordan Ziff’s minimalist approach to guitar tone by using the overdrive to push his 1959 Plexi amp, we mixed the vintage tubescreamer essentials with careful sophistication to give rise to a versatile and powerful tone shaping tool.
The Ziffer Overdrive was developed for Jordan Ziff – lead guitarist of Hot Crazy, RATT, and guitarist in Marty Friedman’s band -, and is mainly derived from our TS8-MS Overdrive / MIDI Switcher pedal which he embraced as its tubescreamer choice a couple of years ago. This time we removed the MIDI switching capabilities and added several controls which contribute to subtle tone-crafting and expanded versatility.
We envision this minion for usage with guitar and bass, or other instruments as well. For this reason, we added parallel clean processing complemented by a tilting equalizer – which is a simplified but performant preamp. The Dry line can be mixed with the overdriven Wet line for finely tuning the frequency spectrum of the overdriven sound. Aside from its 3-clipping options, we also added a Deep mode very appropriate to beefing up single-coil pickups in guitars or leave the bottom end in place when used with a bass.
The Ziffer Overdrive is a sturdy minion, road-ready, and eager to perform in any instance, on stage or in the studio. The pedal offers the following features:
True analog bypass
Gain, Tone, Level controls
Classic/Asymmetric/LEDs clipping options
Classic/Deep frequency response selection
Dry/Wet Mix
Dry EQ frequency trimming
Dry boost/cut variability
Hi-quality audio ICs, low tolerance parts, Panasonic Polyester capacitors
Black powder-coated MINI-size genuine Hammond aluminum enclosure
9-18 VDC external power supply (not included), center negative, 12mm long barrel plug
3-years warranty
