Aphek Sunday Driver Overdrive

No opinion scores here. Instead of giving this pedal all 10's ( which it deserves, in my personal opinion) I also realize there there will be many players that dont feel the same as me, dont hear the same as me, and just dont play the same as me, so you'll have to let your own ears be the judge.
Super easy, 3 conrols, output, filter, and gain, the filter is a 6 position control switch that rolls off the high end and allows you to match your amp perfectly. Drive and boost footswitches both with their own led.

My rig is fender amps ( showman, deluxe, champ, bandmaster, bassman) and strats, one with 3 singles and one with a p90 in the neck and a humbkr in the bridge.
This is where I'm might hurt some feelings here.
Over the last few years I have spent most of my extra gigging money on pedals, and I've had a few good ones, but none as easy to dial in and quite simply beautiful sounding as the sunday driver. It is my opinion that this box just flat out sounds better than, Lovepedal Eternity, Lovepedal Black Magic distortion, Blackstone overdrive, ziky true grit, Keeley DS1, MIaudio Blues Pro, MIaudio Crunchbox, Emma Reeza, Xotic Ac booster, JEverman fuzz drive, BadCat 2tone, Matchless Hotbox and every modded TS9 on the planet. I'm sure Im forgetting a few major players, but you get the idea.
This is one pedal I wont be without. It offers simplicity and beutiful tube breakup at any vol. I would not hesitate to gig using only this pedal, a strat and cord. its that good..
It dont just sound good for a pedal, hell, it sounds as good or better than some cranked tube amps.

Looks sturdy to me, big thick PCB, reminds me off the vintage MXR and electro harmonix stuff, true bypass switches. very heavy duty..

Have no idea, but they offer a trial period on this pedal, if you dont like it, you can return it.. The will never get my back.

Overall, the Aphek Sunday Driver is the top of the food chain when it comes to pedals. I've been on the overdrive/boost/distortion pedal
merry -go-round and this cool blue box has stopped the spinning (gas maddness) and brought me clarity, with perfect tube breakup to boot.

Love it!!!! plug in and play. Got the perfect drive i wanted and didnt have to sacrifice and tone for it.

Using a Strat into a Classic 30, Use the sunday Driver for the Light drive and the still get unreal clarity even with the boost switch on.

strong metal casing havnt had it for ages so not sure exactly But cant see it going wrong with how well it has been made

havnt had to deal with them. But my mates rekons he is a pretty cool guy :)

My favourite pedal, has the perfect drive that i was after and keeps me rockin...

Right out of the box, I knew this was a keeper. The other reviews go into a lot of technical detail about this pedal so why repeat. This plus another Aphek pedal, the Peanut Butter Overdrive are the only distortion pedals that you need. Placed in tandum, they compliment each other very nicely adding boost and and sustain. There was no manual but one is not needed if you know how to stomp on a switch, turn a knob, and plug in a cable.

Use with a PRS standard 22 and a American Strat into a Peavy classic 50 4x10,an Epiphone Rockstar with a 15" speaker, and a Fender Deluxe. I also use in the chain after the pedal a Keeley compressor and a Boss CE-2. For practice use it with a Fender Blues Jr. and an Ampeg Reverberocket 1-12. Right out of the box I was playing SRV and Jimi and was very satified with the close approximation of their sounds. The pedal is very quiet which is not an issue when using a Strat and a Fender amp as they together are the kings of hum.

I suspect the reliablity is the same as other Aphek pedals....excellent. I will use it without back-up and without worry.

Greg in Australia and Jeff from ToneFrenzy are both great. I had an issue with a Peanut Butter Overdrive (I fried it, my fault) and Jeff contacted Greg who was on holiday in the outback of Australia. I sent Greg the pedal($10.00 shipping), he promply repaired it and sent it back to me without charging for shipping. Check out Jeff's site, Tonefrenzy.com for samples of this pedal as well as others, both new and vintage. He is deffinately one of the good guys.

I play pseudoconteporaryrocknblues/grassclassicfingerpickingpowercordfolkheavyunpluggedmedaljazz. I've been playing for around 40 yrs. If this pedal were stolen, I'd hunt you down and shoot you like the dog that you are. I played for 2-3 hrs straight when I got the pedal. It makes you want to play. My ears are ringing. I compaired this pedal to my Vox Bulldog distortion(it will stay in the box), my old MXR distortion +, and to my modified Boss DS-1. I wish I had all the money that I've spent on distortion and overdrive pedals because they will now gather dust.

"its not rocket surgery"

- 3 knobs: gain & output level and a 6 position rotary switch marked 'filter'. The filter control lets you match up the sound of the distorted sound with your guitar amp, like the "tone" knob on most pedals; but much more effective and much less coloured.

- 2 footswitches: one to bypass / enable the effect. one labled 'boost' that does exactly that, boosts the level and the midrange slighly. very handy.

Mine came with a very good manual that describes the controls, suggests some settings, and talks about the aim of the design.

The idea of this pedal is to sound like a tube amp with the power section just cooking along. NO it does NOT sound like a Mesa Triple Recto, or a marshal amp with every knob on 11. But it does do the smokey power section thing very well - owned a lot of gear that claims to do this, but so far none have come as close as this little pedal.

I'm mainly using it with my USA Std strat (with mix of fender / seymore duncan custom pickups), and a 65 super reverb reissue. I've also tried it with my fender prosonic head.

It sounds good with the prosonic, but i prefer it with the super. I think 'cause the prosonic is already quite a hot sounding amp (the clean ch. breaks up on 3), the Sunday Driver is a bit unnessasary. I still gave it a 10 though, because it sounds fantastic with the 65 Super. Read on to find out why....

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The setup goes like this: guitar -> crybaby -> A/B box ->->->->

A (clean sound) = TC Jauernig 'luxury drive' (always on at 11 o'clock) -> Hughes & Kettner 'Replex'(delay) -> VIBRATO(&reverb) channel on the super.

B (dirty sound) = APHEK "SUNDAY DRIVER" (always on 'drive': output@11 clock, filter@1 clock, gain@1 clock) -> NORMAL channel on the super.
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I put my full setup in there to help explain something interesting about this pedal; when i switch between clean (A) and the Sunday (B) it doesn't sound like there is an 'effect' in there at all. When i 'dig' into the strings, it breaks up just like the super's power section does when cranked, when i play lightly; it cleans up and sounds like a slightly smokey version of the clean channel. It responds well to the volume knob on the guitar too.

The 'boost' switch is quite usefull and musical, ive pulled my other distortion pedals(including my ts9) from the setup now because i can get a slightly dirty sound with the drive setting and use the boost for lead parts. Also the the ts9 etc, sounded a bit 'fake' next to the Sunday Driver.

It's no noiser than my other gear, not realy noticable at stage levels - mines always 'on' in the normal ch. - i couldnt use it like that if it was noisy.

The only thing I plan to change with my rig now is to replace the a/b box with a panning volume pedal, so i can get a totally smooth trasition from clean to dirty.

Sounds best at a decent volume - (not crazy loud, just stage volume, jammin volume)

Ive only had the pedal for a week, no problems. I'll use it without a backup.

I've been in the elecronics / repair buisness for years now so i can give you my professional opinion on the construction. Nothing much can go wrong with this pedal; metal box, heavy duty switches, metal shafted pots, sturdy jack sockets. All pots, switches, and jacks have a mechanical connection to the chassis, i dont think you could huurt it even if you jumped on it. The PCB is mounted off the pots & switches etc, so no easy way to damage that. Good soldering too.

The only possible damage that could occour would be the power socket, which is solderd to the pcb and there is a hole drilled in the chassis for the opening, so no mechanical relief for the power socket. While its unlikely you would damage this, i'll give it a 9, just so its not a totaly 'glowing review'. :-)

I plan to get years out of this pedal with no problems.

Havent needed customer support. I bought the pedal directly from greg through ebay, and he was very quick to reply to my emails, and posted the thing quickly.

I've been playing blues, funk, & rock (in real bands) for more than 10 years. Ive owned heaps of different amps guitars and pedals.

I'd like to think that each time I buy some new gear and get rid of old gear, i make an improvement to my sound. I definatly think that this is the case with this pedal, its a keeper. The main point i have to make here is that this pedal makes me want to stop playing with gear and play guitar.

I'd buy it again if stolen.

*I know ive given this very good scores, but it realy is that good. I dont bullsh#t, if it was rubbish, you'd know about it.

Fairly easy. When looking for a transparent sound, I set the amount of gain and then listen to the bypassed sound and match the top end with the filter knob. It's very simple, but I can imagine some people turning up both the gain and filter and getting some ice pick like sounds. Basicly, as you turn up the gain, you need to turn down the filter, if you want to keep it ballanced with the bypassed tone. Of course, that may not be what you're looking for.

There was no instructions or manual with it, which is odd, as the Peanut Butter pedal, has a very infomative one.

I'm using a Tele and a Strat into an AC30. The pedal is very quiet (for an overdrive). It really does sound very natural. It's not exactly the same as the Vox turned up, but it's very very close. One of my first experiences with the pedal, was someone else trying it out through their setup. I wasn't thinking about it and heard them play and wondered how they got their power tubes overdriving at such a moderate volume. I then realizes they were using the pedal!

Compared to the Sunday Driver, a Tube Screamer sounds quite harsh and very midrangy. I own a Peanut Butter pedal and bought this mainly for the extra gain. Interestingly, while the higher gain settings (not high gain in a modern sense), sounds great, it's the lower gain settings that really shine. I'm actually using less gain than ever before! With the strat, I feel like a bad Hendrix or Stevie Ray. It really captures that tone. I don't use the boost much, but it is cool to have. It fattens up the sound and increases the gain and volume, making it quite usefull for solos. For the price, I just think of the bost as a free bonus.

I've found that most pedals have a limited range where they sound good. With the Sunday Driver, I'm finding myself, comfortably and easily, changing settings for different songs. The first time I used it at rehersal, I was trying to find the sweet spot and trying different settings. It occured to me, that there were a few great settings, which is a new experience.

Well, I've only had it for a few weeks, but it seems to be well made and solid. I certainly don't feel concerned.

Bought it on Ebay. Easy to deal with and posted it quickly. They also sent me some mp3s before I bought it.

I play bluesy rock. Nothing too heavy. This pedal is the next best thing to cranking an amp.

While this has more gain than the Peanut Butter, It's definitely not a high gain pedal. Think SRV/Hendrix rythmn tones through to AC/DC crunch tones.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I used to play professionaly, but don't gig as much as I used to. I've owned about 30 guitars and around 20 amps over the years. I used to own a couple of load boxes and have owned or heard most of the common pedals.

If it was lost or stolen, I'd definitely replace it. I actually think I'll get another one anyway, as I like to keep a spare of my main gear, if possible.

The thing I like best about this pedal, is that it doesn't get in the way of my playing. With other overdrives, the sound changes too much when you switch them on. With this it just sounds like the amp has been turned up.

By the way, it's also the best looking pedal I've ever owned. My other pedals look very tired and plain along side it on my pedalboard.

Easy to use. No brainer really. Like most overdrive pedals you have a gain control (amount of overdrive) and an output volume, which seems to be at unity volume at around 10 o'clock. There is also a filter switch (a tone control) which rolls off the top end to varying degrees. Apart from this, there is your Drive footswitch, to turn the effect on and off, and a boost switch. The boost switch (which obviously will only work when the effect is on) boosts the volume as well as adding some gain or overdrive and fattening up the mids a bit. No manual is included or suggested settings etc., but it is all fairly explanatory and really easy to get a good sound out of it. Just have a play and trust what your ears tell you.

I have tried the Sunday Driver with several guitars into a Vox AC30, a 1964 Bassman, a Silver Jubilee Marshall head with Greenback Marshall 4x12, and a Line 6 Flextone with 2 x 10's. And possibly the greatest thing I can say about this overdrive is that it compliments each amp brilliantly. The philosophy behind this overdrive is to get the sound of a non master volume amp when pushed, at a lower volume, and it does this well.

As far as guitars go, I've tried it with my texas special loaded strat, a tele or two, my Gibson L-4CES Archtop which often plays the role of Les Paul for me, and an Ibanez 335 copy. My feeling is that this overdrive works best for me with single coils, and the strat in particular. While this pedal has a wide range of tones available, what I like it for most is the low to medium gain settings (0 to 12 o'clock). The sounds I'm talking about are the chimey clean/breakup rhythm sounds you might associate with the Edge, and also the blues sounds that only a strat's neck pickup can conjure up (SRV). Harmonically complex, and interesting.

My typical setup in the past has been a TS-9 tube screamer for low/medium gain sound, and a Marshall BB-2 bluesbreaker for a higher gain sound for humbucker rhythm parts or for a smooth sustained lead sound, and then a delay into amp. The Sunday Driver, while not a tube screamer copy like many other pedals seem to be, is worth comparing to the tube screamer as it performs the same sort of job for me (low to medium gain stuff). When doing an A/B test, the thing I noticed was how midrange focused the tube screamer was, and how 'wide range' the Sunday Driver is. The Sunday Driver lets all of the bottom end come through instead of lopping it off, and has a great chimey top end. I still love my tube screamer, but I also love this Sunday Driver.

For my taste, the higher gain settings of this pedal, while acceptable, are not personally my favourite. I think the 'wide range' thing I was talking about earlier that works so well for low to medium gain, ends up sounding a bit messy for me at high gain. For high gain stuff I'd like the bottom end to sound a bit tighter and more focused. But that's OK, my bluesbreaker has more of a coloured sound that suits my taste for high gain.

My favourite setting with the strat is gain at 12 o'clock, filter 2 back from right, and output at 12 o'clock (pushing the front of the amp a bit).

If you have a great guitar and a great amp, the Sunday Driver will make you very happy. It is definitely worth a listen. It's found a permanent place on my pedalboard. I feel silly having so many overdrives, but this one does stuff none of the other ones do.

I haven't had it long, but it is solidly built in a metal case, like mxr stuff. The footswitches are very solid and give a positive click when pressed. I would use it without a backup.

The guy who sells the pedals in Australia, Greg, is the guy who designed them and makes them. He is a friendly and genuine guy, and while I haven't needed to have him fix anything, I'm sure he'd be right on top of it if there was a problem.

I've been playing for 20 plus years. Wow, I must be old. I guess I'm mainly a rock player. I play some blues and dabble in jazz and fingerstyle things as well. I've played the pubs and clubs, but have also done a lot of christian stuff. I've also recorded and mixed a bunch of albums and I have a critical ear for guitar sounds. I've had all sorts of different guitar gear over the years. Some stuff goes and some stuff you keep.

Certain sounds are recognizable and are classic like the tube screamer. The Sunday Driver stacks up well next to the classic sounds, and is definitely something I want to keep. I don't think it is as coloured in it's sound as other things, so therefore may not be as recognizable. But... it sounds great.

Perhaps the best compliment you can give a piece of gear is that it makes you want to play. The sound I get out of this just makes me want to play...