Blackstone Appliances MOSFET Overdrive 2S

While the pedal's controls aren't exactly "Rocket Science", I'm not a "Rocket Scientist" either. There are several ways to tweak the pedal, internally & externally, but the instructions for doing so offer little benchmark suggestions. In addition to that, just altering your guitar's pickup height makes a big difference, because the pedal is so reactive. It would have been nice to have a better written manual.

I really think the Blackstone towers above any other overdrives I've purchased, which include two BOSS pedals and an expensive tube-based distortion. Several pluses, like having two channels with independent settings, really quiet circuitry, and the ability to react to your guitar's volume pot in a very natural way, set it apart from others. What I think it really lacks is a cascade feature to allow both channels to work in tandem. It might already do that-I'm not a rocket scientist remember. I mainly use this as my base overdrive then goose it a little with a BOSS OD3 for better saturation. Those two things with a Keeley compressor between them gives me a fairly convincing David Gilmour sound. Of course, I'm not maxing out any of the three pedals.

So far it's been very good, even with my fat fingers in and out of the guts to play with the internal settings.

I had one email exchange after the sale, concerning the warranty period (it's not documented in the instructions) and the owner was nice enough to say he repairs things within a reasonable time after purchase. I guess that could be bad or good depending on the specific circumstances.

Other inquiries (about any new pedals he may have coming to the market) have gone unanswered. he could use a good PR man.

Overall good pedal, but just stops short on features that could make it a "one stop" distortion/overdrive pedal.

"Ease of use" isn't so obvious with this box. Plug guitar in one end, amp in the other, turn it on, it RAWKS. But it could be a little better, so... you start tweaking. And it takes some DEEP tweaking. Besides the gain and level controls on the top, there are a couple more teeny screw pots inside, and even tweakable caps for changing the eq! This stuff isn't easy or obvious, although the manual (don't lose it!) helps. On the other hand, the kind of guitarist buying expensive, hard to find boutique pedals like this one are usually tone fanatics, and the tweakability is a plus.

And I have to add that the flush-mounted pots on the top are WONDERFUL, and I wish more makers would follow his fine example! They're easy to adjust, but cannot be accidentally moved.

The right footswitch is on/off, the left one switches between the red and brown channels. A yellow/red LED tells you which channel is currently active - it's bright enough to be readable, but maybe not as bright as some would like. Not hard to use, really.

Overall, the basic sound is very good, but getting the most out of it requires significant effort. However, it rewards your effort, which is what I personally want. Not everyone has this opinion, I know.

It sounds more like a hot tube amp than ANY other pedal I've ever heard. More importantly, it FEELS like a tube amp. It has a slower attack than most pedals (no pick "chirp"), sustain has a vocal-sounding tone change, and it responds beautifully to the guitar's volume knob. Basically, it sounds and feels like a really good plexi Marshall - perhaps not the be-all-end-all if you like Vox spongy or Boogie smooth, but definitely a classic and extremely useful sound.

It works best with loud, clean amps that don't change character much with volume - I'm using an old Ampeg VT-22, which is terrific. It doesn't mate so well with amps that are overdriving on their own - I sometimes use it with a little 15w Trace-Elliot tube amp, which is pretty crunchy, and it prefers "distortion pedals" to the tube-like Blackstone. So basically, you don't WANT it interacting with your amp the way, say, a Tube Screamer does.

And again, this isn't an "overdrive" or a "distortion" or a "fuzz" in the usual senses. It's really in a class by itself. The only comparison I can think of is the SansAmp, and it's significantly better than a SansAmp.

Cast aluminum case, heavy-duty switches, recessed controls, almost water-tight, and possibly the nicest construction of any pedal I own... yes, I think it's dependable! I have "backup" only in the sense that I have other overdrive/distortion pedals I also use on the board, and could use them in a pinch. But once you get to rely on a particular pedal, others just don't work the same, y'know? So I don't have a second one, just because I'm not a touring pro who needs the backup, but.

At one point, I emailed with a question about the gain and he was rather brusque with me. But looking back, I deserved it - I was being pretty dense about how to use it properly. At least he was responsive!

I play all sorts of stuff... rock, jazz, noise, psychedelic, country, basically the history of the guitar in a blender. This pedal gives me the classic Marshall crunch sound in a reliable, easy to use package that works at any volume. That's wonderful! If it were somehow lost, I'd absolutely replace it. I haven't heard anything else that comes close, or is as well-built.

As for other products, it has NOT replaced every pedal I have. I still use my Keeley-modded Rat II for that "distortion pedal" chirp-bite sound, and a Prescription Electronics Germ for overdriving my Trace-Elliot. But I don't expect any overdrive/distortion device to do it all, either, and this one does key things very well.

very easy to get a good sound out of it, but I found that you have to set your amp up to accomodate the pedal rather than the other way round. Also its worth noting that the blackstone sounds best through a clean amp, so you need at least a 50w tube amp or 100w solid state or else you wont have enough clean headroom when you play in a band situation {unless you go in PA}.

The quality of the sound is amazing and I think it has one of the most individual distortions available.I use single coil and humbucker guitars, and it sounds amazing in to my pro reverb 67, although Im lacking a bit of volume as the fender does not have much clean headroom. The blackstone is very quiet, and I can get a really hendrixy sound on the yellow channel, or a good gary moore tone on the red channel. I think the red channel does have lots of gain but its so touch sensitive that unless you really dig in it doesnt always sound like it.I prefer this as it gives me much more control but when I first got it i didnt like it as it showed up all my mistakes, where as my boss ds1 (satriani,vai,etc) was so compressed I could do all that hammering and pulling without any loss of volume. so if your technique is a bit poor you will suffer with the blackstone but it will definetely improve your playing

built very solid no probs yet

I play in a jamming band and I play blues,rock,jazz style improvisations, Ive been playing 25yrs, if it was stolen I would replace immediately. what i like best about the pedal is it lets my guitar sound like a sax on the red channel, totally touch sensitive and more dynamics than any other pedal or amp distortion I have ever owned and all this without even touching the volume control, just by using different picking pressure

For the first time you get it, it is not easy to use, i became cunfused with the trim pots (inside) and outside. I couldn't find a good sound, but i tried again few days after and i don't know how, i reach the best overdrive sound.

Hello everybody, My name is Andre Mellao from Brasil. Please forgive me about my english. My set up is: Deluxe Reverb 65, Princeton 65, Marshall Jubilie 1x12, Blue Jr ( Jensen Speaker ) and Trace Elliot Velocette.
Gibson LP Classic ( Seth Lover's PKP'S), Gibson 335 (Seth Lover's PKP'S),Fender Telecaster 70's reissue and Fender Strato 70's reissue ( VanZandt PKP's). RMC Picture Wha, Smal Stone Faser, Micro Vibe, Analog Man Comp, Blackstone overdrive, FulldriveII ( red one, serial number:13, not the new one with is a little bit agressive and harsh), and Morley Emerald Echo. This pedal after a right setup is fantastic, it smoked my fulldrive and some others pedals i own, like Maxon OD 808 and OD 820. The Blackstone is noiseless, more organic and with more definition than others above.

The construction is great, very consistent case and parts.

Never use it.

I've been playing for 20 years, and like Blues ( Chris Duarte BB King, Peter Geen etc..) , Classic Rock ( Zeppelin,Hendrix, Trower, Santana etc..) and 70's Funk.
I'd like to thank's everybody who wrote the Blackstone reviews, because it inspire me to buy one.

The pedal is easy to use but you can end up spending a lot of time tweaking. I eventually the internal trim settings that work best for me and that is with the gain at 9 and the treble at 12. This seems to give enough gain at higher settings but still retains clairity at lower settings. The manual is excellent and really explains how this pedal works. Since the pedal has two channels you can do two different tones and switch between them, much like a fulldrive but the channels are voiced diiferently from each other not just more gain.

This pedal is great, it really just sounds better to me than anything else I've tried. I compared it head to head with a way huge green rhino, red llama, fulltone fulldrive and distortion pro, matchless hotbox, barber tone pump, hotcake, and a z vex fuzz factory, I would have to say it's better than all of them. The pedal has so much versatility and sounds so much more real it's hard to keep anything else. I do have a fuzz factory and distortion pro but the blackstone is better overall. The voicing control is very effective at tailoring the sound and you can get overdrive sounds, thick fuzz sounds and at the other end of the spectrum scooped mid sounds. I've yet to play another pedal that has such a wide range of tones. This pedal makes the amp seem huge and really works well with any amp I've used it with. The red channel seems more modern to me more like a soldano if that could be accurate. It has a compressed tone with a bit of a bite that hooks notes beautifully. The yellow channel is more of a fulldrive style tone but is capable of more gain. I hate to give 10's but this pedal is the best I've used so far so I guess I'll have to give it one.

It seems reliable, but it does seem to go through batteries rather quickly.

Never had to call.

Overall this pedal is hard to beat. It works well, sounds great with any guitar and amp I have used and can be tweaked if it's not totally happening for you; how can you beat that. I would buy another and probably should buy a back up some time. The controls are excellent and once there set they will not get knocked around by cords or bandmates. To me this pedal and the z vex fuzz factory are the two best overdrive/distortion pedals made that I have heard.

The supplied manual is more than adequate, to find out what is possible with this pedal, the rest is just trial and error.
In my case, error at first, but don't give up I say, and started achieving some great new tones after a day or so of twiddling.
I've set the internal gain pot to a little higher than middle, that took the woofiness out, and left me with more room to play on the external gain pots.
No I don't think this pedal is easy too use at first, it doesn't have to be; if you buy a pedal that is so easy to set up right from the beginning, you may find someone else sounding just like you!
I respect the fact that this pedal is complicated to use initially, it shows how versatile it is.
Remember, tone is a very personal thing; there is no such thing as "good" tone or "bad" tone. What may be the "holy grail" to you, could be an "elephant farting in a biscuit tin" to others.

I use this with Schecter Strats and Fulltone effects, '69,Clyde,FD2,Deja-Vibe. All going into a Mesa Blue Angel, fitted with Tesla 6L6's and Ted Weber speakers.
Using the "Monsterrock" humbucker (bridge) on my Schecter Cal. Custom, I can switch the Blackstone to Red channel, and get a great 70's Brit-rock tone that conjures up all kinds of memories of bygone legends!.......Donington, Reading, The Marquee, Hammersmith Odeon.....
This pedal is just great fun, and that's what it's all about.
I'd like to say that this is a "70's Marshall-in-a-box", even if that sounds stupid, it does have some really convincing sounds.
The brown channel is similar to a Tube Screamer sound, but with more bass and somewhat smoother sounding, I don't use it much, I have the FD2 for that.

Back-up? d'you know how much these cost? I don't see why it should ever break!! Very strong industry standard casing. Good switches, flush mounted pots, wrinkle powder coat finish. Looks like something from the German Leica Camera Company, from the 50's!!! Very classic.

Paid by paypal, recieved the pedal in record time; 3 days to Germany!! All emails answered, no problems.

I normally cover SRV and other Texas Blues greats, (or at least I try!). But since I got this, I've been caught playing old Thin Lizzy things or AC/DC stuff, or even old Tres Hombres ZZ-Top tracks! I don't think I'll be playing much of that live,.........but then again, why not?.....
I've rarely had so much fun with just a pedal!
Been playing on and off for about 32 years now.

Making the Blackstone Overdrive work its sonic mojo for you will take
a little time. It has two channels, two external level controls,
two external gain pots and a number of internal widgets which can be
adjusted. I am not particularly interested in the internal widgets
but worked with the exterior controls until I got a very dependable and accurate early-70's Brit sound with Gibson guitars. One channel
on the pedal is hairier with some bass trim; the lower gain channel has a bigger bass response. I preferred setting them fairly close to each other with the obscure less-distortion-is-more practice wherein the listener is fooled into thinking you're signal is a lot raunchier than it actually is due to dynamics and style. The Blackstone works well in the home studio and also interfaced with my
Hiwatt. It took one evening of patient fiddling until I got it and
the Hiwatt speaking the same language. When that happened it
sounded exactly as desired -- early 70's classic Brit raunch
at much lower volume than standard amphitheatre crushing Hiwatt-ian.

Old non-master Marshall-esque, Dave Reeves-era Hiwatt, old Laney is
what I wanted. It's what I got. The Blackstone gets fatter as its
turned up. The mid-range honk bulges as the gain is pushed. It does
not fizz. It has a good presence and cleans up with classical use
of the volume knob on the guitar. I appreciated being able to make
it yield the low string soft crunch and giant bull fiddle tone
on old Mott the Hoople or Free or Argent or Ten Years After or
...(you get the idea) records. Very white boy blues with more than
enough crunch and sustain if you know the playing technique. I did not want it to sound modern, I wanted it to sound like an amp sounded when I had all my hair and did not need prisms in my glasses. That
is, indeed, what is sounds like and since this pleased me I did not
waste time checking it out to see if it could sound "modern." If this is your desire, I cannot help in this regard. I like only old, forgotten and useless things and have worn the same style of shoe
for the last 15 years. Excuse me while I now go to the refrigerator to retrieve a beer that I can cry into.

Seems solid to me. I've been stepping on it for a few months, plugging cords into and out of it. What is this, a trick
question? I suppose I could write, "It dun broke," but that's not
true.

Another trick question, right? Customer support is for feebs.
What kind of self-respecting rock and roller who has played dumps
for twenty years has even recieved or needed customer support, I
ask you? A loser! Real men don't need customer support, only
pantywaists, fusspots and wimpy college boys do. This is not a knock on Jon Blackstone who I am sure
is a very fine fellow if his work is any indication. Actually, I
was sent an e-mail notification when my order for the Blackstone
arrived and a notice when it shipped. Both were appreciated!

The Blackstone is a blessing if you have a yen for the early-Brit
power blues or like Budgie records. It acts very much like an amplifier and when I A/B'd recordings made with it against recordings
of the same material using a straight Hiwatt set to my favorite
tone, the differences amounted to no appreciable difference in the end. I have some other ways to get the same thing but find
I always return to the Blackstone because it does the job, once I had massaged it awhile for taste, in the most convenient way. Get out
your copy of "E Pluribus Funk" or "Rockin' the Fillmore" or "On Yr
Feet or On Yr Knees" and use the Blackstone to get you there.
Perhaps you'd better work on your classic rock chops a little though, first. Set the way I like it means it won't suffer instant gratification fools gladly. Oops, time to go and renew my prescription of nitroglycerine pills and pick up my new false teeth.
What was I saying, something about a StonedBlack thing? I just can't remember anything beyond five minutes, I'm so foggy in my dotage.

I'm always fiddling with my knobs (well, I'm a bloke, what do you expect?), but since I got the Blackstone, I've stopped masturbating half as much. Once set, this little jewel just let's you get on with the serious business of playing. Throw in the fact that you no longer need to lug a Marshall around with you, 'ease of use' becomes one of this pedals selling points.

At high gain settings of the internal trimmer, oscillation will result. Back it off until this disappears, and you've got pretty high gain for sustaining solos for the Red channel. I've always loved the clear, soaring tones Steve Hackett of Genesis used so effectively, and this pedal achieves this very well. There are very few dead spots with this pedal - almost every position on the neck, every note you play, gets equal treatment from this MOSFET wonder. Play a note and you will be treated to a long sustain that exudes harmonics and overtones. I've come across no other overdrive that achieves this.

N/A

Jon (Blackstone) has always eventually returned my emails with pertinent advice regarding any enquiry I've made.

I've replced my multieffector with a Blackstone OD followed by a Maxon AD900. With these 2 pedals I have rich reverb/delay, a clean channel, and 2 other OD settings. If your venue has a decent clean amp (eg, Roland JC120), you'll get great sound and flexibility with a tiny MXR size pedal that fits in a coat pocket.

Sounds good at all settings, except with the internal gain setting at the extreme, when the thing oscillates like mad. Internal settings and even cap changing(!) makes for a bit of work, but all this in the name of versatility. Once set, it becomes a plug in and play affair, so for live work, for example, this thing is very easy to use. And because there are some tweaks that can be carried out, there is a comprehensive manual explaining how to do all that. Great toilet read.

Remember this important fact: TS808s, Fulltones, Klons, you name 'em, all impersonate overdriven amp sounds by either overdriving an amp's input and/or introducing some clipping to the pedal output using a flimsy combination of head-to-tail diodes plus some cap filtering to hide the crap and shape the sound. The Blackstone pedal uses MOSFETs configured in the same way as tubes would be in an amplifier: with various 'gain stages.' Forget the tube vs transistor debate for once and listen to what Jon Blackstone has done with MOSFETs. The result at output is NOT overdrive simulated with clipping diodes, or just a gain boost that is in turn used to generate overdrive in your amp. NO. This thing actually PRODUCES OVERDRIVE AMP SOUND AT ITS OUTPUT. Because it is a multi-stage amplifier in its own right! For this reason, perhaps using a GOOD solid state amp is the best way to go. A clean amp that simply amplifies the already wonderful overdrive sound of this thing. I plugged in my Prescription Electronics Dual Tone pedal and laughed. The sound it generates itself is appalling! But such pedals are deigned to 'work' with the amp input gain stages and rely on the amp to do the hard work of producing the tone you want. The Blackstone is the ONLY pedal that allows you to use a lightweight solidstate amp, and still achieve beautifully controlled breakup and sustain in a way that rivals a fine tube amp. I'm not a diehard ACDC fan, but I love Angus Young's solid, 'dry' tone, and Brown channel gets all those overtones. Jimmy Page tone is there to be had too.

With the exception of a switch breaking, has anybody ever had a guitar pedal 'fail' on them? Erm....well, this thing does actually contain some REAL CIRCUITRY, as opposed to a few caps and 2 diodes (covered in 'propriatry goo' to hide their simplicity) like every other boutique wannabe design that sells for more ridiculous prices. At least there is something that 'could' go wrong. Still I trust the design integrity of this thing. I'd gig without a backup.

don't know, but he's returned 1 out of 2 emails.

Okay, now I'm going to get really mean and compare some other pedals to this puppy. Z-Vex Super Hard On = Hey, how complicated is it to make a one transistor booster? And again, your resulting overdrive is all down to how good your amp is. Hand-painted? Oh, piss off. Parts worth about $30, and he sells his pedals for HOW MUCH?! Prescription Electronics Dual Tone + good concept (clean, OD1, OD2 all in one pedal). Sludgy (excessive bass), sounded alright through a vintage fender that would cost only another 2500 dollars! Hey, bargain! Fulltone 2 = Great chassis design, nice finish. Controls have a good feel. Works well with a good tube amp for sludgy blues tones. A one trick pony. There are some pretty crappy sounds to be had on this thing too. Under the bonnet you get your generic cheap film caps and head to tail diodes. Ooh, I spot a transistor in there....covered with goo to hide the values of the paltry components. You sneaky devil Mike Fuller. Mutton dressed up as lamb folks. Klon can sod off. I was stupid enough to buy one of his outlandishly over engineered Centaurs a few years ago. Promised I could buy a second one direct (not at Japanese prices) and then went against his word, told me I couldn't. If you don't mind 2/3rds of the asking price covering the cost of a die-cast aluminium case and a sexy screen print of a Centaur on it, hey. Weighs a ton, and has one function. Hyped beyond belief. BLACKSTONE looks set to piss on all these guys fireworks by introducing a truly developed new concept of overdrive pedal. It's technically superior, aesthetically classy (Zachary, pull it out man), this is powder coated black wrinkle finish that will NOT CHIP or SCRATCH. The embossed top plate is remeniscent of 1930s electrical test equipment - true eye candy, resilient, and classy. It's also cheaper than a lot of the OTHER CRAP.

It takes a little while to get used to. Two channels, post EQ and internal trim pots all interact with each other. Once you found your setting it is a snap to use.

Used mainly with a pre CBS Strat and mostly with two Dr Z MAZ-18. It is not mainly an overdrive (of course it works well as an overdrive too), but more of a distortion unit that is best used in combination with a clean, or relatively clean amp setting. Highly recommended to be used as the first effect in multiple effect chains, right after the guitar. The OD-2 gives two different switchable options after you dialed in your sound. It is recommended to get used to the external controls before messing with the internal trim pots. I adjusted the internal trim pots after several month back to the factory settings. The sound of the brown channel delivers a surprisingly accurate replication of an original Plexi Marshall (only with a good tube amp/EL84 or EL34). The red channel is somewhat hotter and the highs and lows as well as upper midrange frequencies seem to be sligtly pronounced to cut through the mix (similar to SLO 100). The powerful post EQ can tweak sounds easily to achieve a lot of different flavours. In combination with a my MAZ-18's the results reminded me sometimes to be close to an Overdrive Special. However I was not 100% happy with the red channel till I readjusted my amp settings to achieve a clean tone. This works the best. I own an original 808(rating=8), had a Klon(rating=9) and a Tone Pump(rating=7)and tried several tube preamps (they are all unusable for me (suck - excuse me) because they compress) and of course all the other Boss overdrives and distortion units (5-6), as well as TC's G-Force (digital distortion or emulation units are lacking the dynamics and expression of a good tube amp). The Blackstone OD-2 is by far the best distortion box I have ever used.

It worked just fine for me for the last two years. I don't like the 1/4" phone plug connectors. They are not hard-mounted to the casing, but to the circuit board. This could be a potential problem one day. This is why I will order a replacement unit.

Contacted the company only for the order. They replied right away and put me on the waiting list. I received my unit within the announced time frame.

The styles that I am covering are mostly Blues, Rock and Rock'n'Roll but also progressive Jazz. and have worked for many years in the music industry. I play for 34 years now and have owned and played countless guitars and used pretty much everything in terms of effects and guitar amps that the market had to offer, including a whole bunch of equipment that was custom made for me. Would you buy it again? Sure. I am just thinking about ordering one backup unit. It gives me the flexibility to switch sounds (gain/distortion settings) and make instant changes to my sound by backing off or turning up my guitar volume pot. What more do you need while having a great sound? Thanks to its small size it fits easily in every guitar case and you can have similar sound results with a lot of different kinds and brands of amplifiers. Comes in handy when you have to travel. The only improvement that I would like to see is that the in and out connectors should be hard-mounted to the casing. My search for great lead and crunch sounds in a small box ended two years ago when I received my OS-2. The Blackstone is without any comparison. Period. I hesitated a long time to share my opinion - I never published a review unless it was a paid review for one of the music magazines I wrote for. John Blackstone deserves the credit for having created one of the most impressive products for the electric guitar player who needs distortion tones in a small convenient box. Visit his website and see for yourself what he has to say about overdrive/distortion/MOSFET and SOUND. No other websites from either standard mass producers nor boutique pedals garage-assembly companies offers such detailed information about these very complex and mostly not really understood topics.