Up until 2019, Croatian manufacturer DryBell has been very focused on building the best possible Uni-Vibe pedal recreations. Everything changed today, with the release of their first non-vibe product called Unit67, a utility pedal that – knowing the company’s designing rigor – promises to be a very useful and great sounding tool.
The unit features a semi-clean boost circuit, an EQ and a compressor. The Boost circuit – of course – gets the biggest knob of all (by far) , in the center-top of the pedal. So big you can actually control it with your foot, after a little bit of training. “Semi-celan” means that it has an output stage that slightly rolls off bass and treble frequencies at higher gain settings (more than 1 o’clock).
The lightning strike mark at 10 o’clock represents unity gain zone (0dB). Turned fully CW, the gain of the boost stage is 22,4dB (with the EQ turned off). The input signal level can be reduced up to 7dB at minimum setting (-7dB turned fully CCW).
That “67” in the pedal’s name is possibly a (reversed) reference to what’s arguably the most sought after studio analog compressor: the Urei 1176 (pictured below), which is what the compressor inside this pedal was voiced after (although the controls are very different from the original unit, having a fixed ratio).
It is transparent and it has a parallel compression circuit (blend), so you can add a right amount of sustain while retaining pick dynamics with just one simple knob (Sustain). Yes, you have DryBell’s take on the mighty 1176’s engine in this small box!
The Unit67 stands on top of Universal Audio/Urei 1176LN studio compressor
The DryBell crew was also inspired by the Dallas Rangemaster, a legendary vintage treble booster (which was actually more of a mid-high booster) whose tone inspired the Range knob:
In situations when you’re using darker toned amps or guitar pickups, “The Range” will always add a harmonically rich sparkle to your tone
A Low and High knob round up the EQ section.
The two toggle switches are an EQ On/Off options and an Input setting selector useful to tame the signal of instruments with a hot output.
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This is a pedal that’s getting a lot of positive feedback: here’s the excellent review by Bjorn Riis from Gilmourish (video towards the bottom of the post).
Check out the videos of the Unit 67 below!
The Unit67 is a compact and fully analog device that has a highly versatile EQ set including a „Rangemaster-like“ mid control, a boost and an 1176 type of compressor – all in one extremely practical guitar pedal.
Connected in between your guitar and amp, the Unit67 becomes an extremely powerful and handy tone shaping tool. It’s also very versatile in terms of pedalboard position, you can place it anywhere you like it and it will work its magic ?
1176 type of compressor,
EQ set with the Range (Master) mid control AND High output BoostBased on a clean (and semi-clean, read more) boost, which is the foundation for many guitar setups, we’ve implemented a very carefully tuned combination of fully analog features in the Unit67, useful to a wide range of musicians and playing styles. Also, our goal was to make it the simplest and most practical for the user.
A boosted sound in itself is great, but you can get much more of it. Sustaining notes are often a big helping hand to guitar players, so we decided to implement the next great feature of the pedal: a Compressor.
After serious development and inspired by the unique sound and feel of the 1176’s design, we’ve created our very own low noise compressor circuit for this pedal. It is transparent and it has a parallel compression circuit (blend), so you can add a right amount of sustain while retaining pick dynamics with just one simple knob (Sustain). Yes, you have DryBell’s take on the mighty 1176’s engine in this small box!
We’ve implemented additional controllability: an EQ set that consists of low and high controls and also a very specific sounding “Range” control.
The Range (Master) control will help you cut through the mix and will enrich your tone with the glorious sparkle often associated with the old classic Rangemaster. In situations when you’re using darker toned amps or guitar pickups, “The Range” will always add a harmonically rich sparkle to your tone.
Combined with a touch of sustain and boosted just enough to give you THAT tone, “The Range” will give some serious bite to your sound which is another way to push you through the mix while playing lead.
