The Mad Professor Royal Blue is engineered to be more than a simple gain pedal; it’s an expressive amplifier-in-a-box designed for dynamic response. Unlike heavily compressed drives, its circuit allows your guitar’s natural character and playing dynamics to shine through. The amount of breakup is directly controlled by your picking intensity and your instrument’s volume knob, offering a level of touch-sensitive interaction typically found in high-end tube amps.
Its versatility is a key feature. The gain spectrum ranges from a clean, transparent EQ boost with the Distortion control at minimum, through light overdrive, and into full-bodied distortion. A dedicated Volume control sets the output level, while the Distortion knob fine-tunes the saturation.
The pedal’s transparent nature is shaped by its powerful, shelving-style Bass and Treble controls. These are voiced to work like an amp’s tone stack, with the Treble acting like a Presence control and the Bass operating just above the resonant frequency of a standard 4×12 cabinet. This allows for everything from a mid-scooped heavy tone to a soft, mid-focused push, making the Royal Blue a supremely flexible foundation for any drive section.
