Diamond Pedals J-Drive

This review is about the diamond J-drive MK3 . It is an overdrive pedal and a boost pedal that can be used separately or together . It's 100 % analog . I can not make this pedal sound bad . I'm very pleased with it and may not ever need another overdrive pedal again . Unless diamond comes out with an MK4 version e !

BUILD - Great solid and Spartan build . metal case . hard plastic knobs . The interior has a Burr Brown op amp and top notch components . Diamond in my opinion makes pedals with a solidly old school approach .

FUNCTION - Drive knob - dials in your amount of overdrive . Warmth knob - As you roll up warmth your adding more gain but as well overtones of the harmonic sort . Volume knob - This knob controls the total output volume of the pedal , even when the boost is engaged . Gain knob - This knob only controls the boost section . Bright (toggle switch) - Adds grit and more top end .

SOUND - The drive rolled all the way up reminds me of a good tube amp overdrive like the JCM 800 . Rolled down it's more of a Vox like 60's distortion or like rolling back the volume on your guitar a bit with the JCM 800 . A bit dirty with some harmonic grit to it . The warmth rolled up brings the low end presence out nicely . I like the warmth around 6 o'clock with the bright toggle switched on . I get a good boogie tone , warm and organic . The boost is nice and clean . It just helps cut through . Even rolled all the way up it adds sparkle but not some overdriven tone I don't want . I like the fact that you have the drive section and overdrive section easily accessed by neighboring toggle switches . It's cool for me to set the milder or more rhythm like tone I want for the vs and have the boost section set for my melodic lead . I can go between them , combine them , turn them both off etc . Before I was using a few pedals for this or even an A/B box with 2 different amps .

CONCLUSION - Great pedal . All analog , classic tone . Dual function . Burr Brown op amp . relatively affordable . True Bypass . Boutique goodness . It's a lovely pedal !