New Pedal: Rude Tech Falcondrive! | Aquabats! Signature Overdrive/Distortion

We always love it when legendary musicians collaborate with pedal makers in the design of new stompboxes, but we love it even more when the musicians in question, rather than celebrated masters of blues guitar, belong to a quirky and colorful rock’n’roll group that loves to wear costumes. Enter the collaboration between Nashville’s Rude Tech (known for their 3-in-1 Muff) and Los Angeles’ ska-punk band the Aquabats!.

The two entities joined forces to create an overdrive pedal called Falcondrive, a gain pedal featuring blendable distortion and overdrive, that can produce a variety of tones from light saturation for indie-pop and blues all the way into heavier sounds for Punk and Metal.

Aquabats’ guitarist Ian Fowles’ (Eaglebones Falconhawk) was obviously the most involved member of the band in this collaboration, and said the inspiration for this circuit came to him in part from teaching guitar: “I’ve taught a lot of lessons over the years and students always asked me what a good first pedal to buy was. I would suggest an overdrive or a distortion. So with The Falcondrive! I thought it would be nice to have both effects in one pedal so that no matter what guitar or amp you had, it could be useful. And I wanted it to be a professional-grade pedal built with even the beginner in mind.”

The Falcondrive! will go into production if 150 pedals are ordered by April 15th, you can order yours here.

Legendary Southern California band of punk rock super heroes, The Aquabats!, have announced the launch of an Eaglebones Falconhawk signature guitar pedal, The Falcondrive! It is available for $199.00 beginning March 14th for preorder contingent upon funding via The Aquabats! crowdfund-supported product incubator The gloopy Mystery Machine! on the band’s online merchandise hub at www.gloopy.industries. The pedal, featuring blendable dual effects of distortion and overdrive, was developed with boutique guitar pedal firm RUDE TECH of Nashville, TN.

The tone of The Falcondrive! was inspired by pedals from The Aquabats! Guitarist Ian Fowles’ (Eaglebones Falconhawk) own collection and the artist’s experience teaching guitar. “I’ve taught a lot of lessons over the years and students always asked me what a good first pedal to buy was,” Fowles said. “I would suggest an overdrive or a distortion. So with The Falcondrive!, I thought it would be nice to have both effects in one pedal so that no matter what guitar or amp you had, it could be useful. And I wanted it to be a professional-grade pedal built with even the beginner in mind.”

To create The Falcondrive!, Fowles turned to former aerospace engineer, founder of RUDE TECH pedals and long-time member of The Aquabats! Aqaucadet corps, Jesse Rhew. “Jesse knows pedal history and circuits very well, and going back and forth really understood what kind of pedal I wanted to develop: something well built, easy to use, and accessible to all skill levels,” Fowles said.

The Falcondrive! is a uniquely versatile dual-effect pedal, serving as two pedals in one. With the ability to blend overdrive and distortion, it covers vast tonal ground going from light Indie or Blues tones all the way into the heavier play of Punk and Metal sounds. With bright pink knobs, a pink LED, glittering powder coat, and day-glow printing, the case art by Thomas Fernandez features Eaglebones himself along with various mysteries of the universe, including his invisible bird companion The Dude. Its design hearkens back to classic comic book art and blacklight posters of the 70s, looking as super rad as it sounds.

KEY SPECS:
Retail price – $199.00
The cast aluminum enclosure’s exact size is 4.7 in x 3.7 in x 1.66 in (119 mm x 94 mm x 42 mm).
Power requirements are 9VDC with a 2.1 barrel connector (center negative) or 9V battery; current draw <9.5mA.
The pedal weighs 11.8 oz.