Fowl Sounds is a company that has found a very specific niche: heavy pedals for down-tuned guitars.
Inspired by classic distortion circuits, their new pedal Flannel Overdriver represents an effort to provide the heavy guitarist with a stompbox that can deliver a wide variety of dirt tones, from overdrive to distortion to (borderline) fuzz.
The Flannel’s Gain knob has a dual pot that controls the gain of the two op-amps at once, providing a huge range of gain, which represents the trick up this pedal’s sleeve.
Two EQ knobs, Tone and Mids, respectively dial in the balance between bass and treble and the level of the low mid frequencies, delivering both scooped or punchier tones with an emphasis on “fatter” frequencies than the average mid-boost.
The three-way toggle in the center of the pedal changes clipping options for the second op-amp from a hard-clipped red LED to a soft-clipped Zener to a hard-clipped silicon.
An internal trim pot provides extra tweaking options by letting you adjust the bias of the JFET.
Check out the first videos of the Fowl Sounds Flannel Overdriver, below.
GAIN – Dual gang pot controls the gain of the op-amps in tandem.
VOLUME – Works as expected, with plenty on tap.
TONE – Think of the tone knob as a blend between a low bandwidth and a high one. At noon, they
are equal. To the left blends more lows and to the right blends more highs.
MIDS – Adds the low mids to the mix. Fully CCW and the tone knob is quite scooped. Fully CW and a good amount of lower mids are added to the mix. Works in tandem with the tone knob.
TOGGLE– Changes clipping options for the second op-amp. North is hard clipped red LED. Middle is soft clipped Zener, and south is hard clipped silicon.
Internal Trim – Adjusts the bias of the JFET. We do not recommend touching this unless you have experience with a digital multi-meter.
