Supro 1305 Drive

119
March 2017 Guitar ist
suPro
seems to be the dominant DNA. The result is a pedal
that uses a NOS germanium transistor in its first stage,
followed by a silicon-based gain stage. Now, with some
fuzz pedals it’s true that they don’t really come alive
until you’ve cranked them a bit – and this pedal leans
towards that characteristic. We like it best with both
Volume and Gain knobs at the further extremes of
their travel, backing things off from all-out fuzz assault
with guitar volume. There’s Bass and Treble EQ here,
derived from the Supro amps, and at midway settings
the pedal’s voicing is full and fat, but you can roll the
Bass knob back for a lean 60s Satisfaction-style buzz,
while extra presence in the mix and harder attack
are dialled in by taking the treble knob past midday –
something that can also be controlled by an expression
pedal to explore a more nuanced playing experience.
The large toggle switch seen on the front of the Drive
pedal makes an appearance in the Boost pedal, too, but
here it delivers different flavours of EQ. You can have a
completely flat sound or bring in one of two 3dB/octave
filters to tailor the 20dB of boost available from the
single knob. The Bright setting is a high-pass filter that
rolls off some bottom-end for more perceived sparkle.
The Dark setting is a low-pass filter that tames the
high-end if you’re looking for a warmer sound, maybe
from particularly spiky single coils. With unity gain on
the Volume knob coming at around 11 o’clock, there’s
no sound at all fully anti-clockwise, so you can also use
the pedal as a mute switch; if you plug in an expression
pedal, you can use it as a volume pedal. User-adjustable
minimum (set by an internal trimmer) and maximum
(set by the volume knob) settings give you full flexibility,
so you can have conventional volume swells or a set
range of boost under foot-control.
Verdict
Here are three pedals in specific genres that go beyond
the norms of that genre. The Drive pedal is an original
design that offers a different and welcome slant from
the large number of drives that are near-clones of
others – it’s also an amp-in-a box for those gnarly
Supro tones. As boost pedals go, Supro’s Boost offers
something different from the norm: there’s plenty here
to drive your signal harder, but those tonal options and
the volume pedal capability add an extra dimension.
While fuzz can be a very personal thing, this one
offers extra versatility through its tone knobs. All are
definitely worth a listen.
PROS Solid build; 18-volt capability; easy battery access;
expression pedal facility adds extra performance capability
CONS Knob design could be better as the white position
markers are hard to see
SUPRO 1305 Drive
PRICE: £189
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Drive pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Volume, Gain, Tone, Transformer
switch, internal trimpot, bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output,
expression pedal input
POWER: 9V battery/9V-18V adaptor (not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 120 (d) x 65mm (h)
JHS
01132 865 381
www.suprousa.com
SUPRO 1304 Fuzz
PRICE: £179
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Fuzz pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble, internal
trimpot, bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output,
expression pedal input
POWER: 9V battery or 9V-18V adaptor (not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 120 (d) x 65mm (h)
SUPRO 1303 Boost
PRICE: £179
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Boost pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Volume, Bright/Dark switch, internal
trimpot, bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output,
expression pedal input
POWER: 9V battery or 9V-18V adaptor (not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 65 (w) x 120 (d) x 65mm (h)
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