Carl Martin Heavy Drive

Very easy and straight-forward to use. 4 simple controls to get a great sound out of. Gain, Attack(picking), Edge(mid-range), and Level(volume). Someone with a lobotomy could use it.

If you have a great tube amp that is smooth and you want Triple-Rectifier territory then get this one. Very easy to dial in Metallica riffs for Fade to Black. Nice crunchy textures without sounding too new-metal. Everyone favors the Hot Drive & Boost but this one is a keeper.

Totally dependable... Danish made...what else could I say?

not needed

see this review for more info http://cavefish34.blogspot.com/2009/09/carl-martin-heavy-drive.html

4knobs.
You have to work with thing if you really wanna get some heavy drive and fair amount of bite.
Edge knob seems to be the essential part where you have to linger on.
not too hard to get some decent drive : )

Impressive..
very impressive smooth and warm drive will capture your ears as soon as you just get your feet on the pedal.
The gain isnt much though for you metal heads, but quiet enough for any Hard Rock!
I'm kinda drive pedal geek. I had more than 60 od/ds pedals and still have like 16pedals. And this one stays with my Klon, Landgraff Do, Analogman TS-808, Zen drive, Cusack Screamer(my boy:))etc..
It has its style for STP kinda Cruch tone and some Blues vibe in it..
I got it for $150 and it worth just the money.
You wont get any thrash metal gain from it but very clear and warm definite drive not like TS series but more like Langraff-ish drive.
Most of all dead quiet. Trubypass.
Ill give 10 for waht it worth for just 150 bucks.
Way better than Full Drive2, Ts-9, Ts-808(reissue) and more flexible than my SD-9 black label.

Oh,.. Im using it with my 65 SOHO, 2 twin reverbs from 70's. and Bronx.(60w I think;)

I have 16 drive pedals on my board..
I've recently giged with this and with Cusack only.
The greatest combi..!

Never dealt with them.
I know they are from Denmark.;

Great Pedal..
For $150.. I would get this and only Cusacks' !!
I have tried any boss, ibanez, maxon, klons, ladngraff, valveboy, Fulltone stuffs, Keeley, analogman, Monte allums.. in my 12 years of guitar carreer.
Im not trying toboasting anything or making any fun of witing this review.
But its really great pedal, depends where you put it in your signal and the set the knobs right.!
I've read review

It's not that easy to use: apart from the usual gain/volume section, you have a 2 knob EQ section, which needed some work to understand exactly how to get the sound I had in mind.

The manual, as usual, is not really useful.

I play it with a Tele (Van Zandt pickups) and a Bassman Reissue.

Great sound! Sounds like Jeff Beck, but with less compression.

Long sustain, but not too much and still a dinamic pedal. It's everything but a Big Muff.

Perfect for solos.

Seems alright.

Wrote to them many times and got propt replies, had another pedal repaired (free of charge)... They are great people!

Good piece of gear. Not really the most important or most used pedal I have, but nice.

It's easy to get an ok sound out of this pedal and everything is very self explaining. You can change the sound a lot on this one, which is a good thing when you learn how to do it. But it takes a while until you find out how to do the setings. This pedal can sound amazing but also quite crapy if you don't take your time and play around with it.

I mainly use 2 electrics, a mid 90's Gibson les paul special and a UK made Hohner Strat with active EMG single coils. My amp is a Peavy Studio, but I also tried with quite a few other amps.
I agree with other people, It's very sensitive for what you play. And I love that you can hear all notes in a chord even on the highest gain. The pedal works well with almost any amp. It sounds really amazing with the Les Paul and it's really versatile. I get a great bluesy overdrive-sound on the lowest gain, and quite a heavy rock sound on the highest gain, and anything in between. Always with the same dynamics. It's not the choice for a metal guitarist, but it handles metal quite well anyway.
With the strat, I can go from almost clean sound up to an ACDC-like sound. It still has the same kind of dynamics, but sounds thinnerand sometimes I get the feeling that something is missing. If i'm only using this pedal with the strat, i wouldn't say it covers my needs, even if the sound is still good.

Never had any problem with it. Solid and reliable.

Never had anything to do with Carl Martin

I've been playing for about 10 years. I play a lot of different music. (Rock,blues,metal,indie,jazz,hc).
I bought this pedal because I wanted a flexible distortion where I could hear all the notes in a chord even on high gain. I wasn't pleased with my Boss Powerdrive. I tried quite a few pedals and this one was outstanding for it's dynamics and variation in sound. Not many other pedals I tried has this clearness on high gain. And now it's my main distortion pedal with my Les Paul. It's perfect for indie rock on high gain. You can play chords and melodies and make everything come across but still get quite a heavy sound. But the clearness makes it sound good for most music styles. I would definitely find a new one if it was stolen.

It's easy to get a good sound out of it. The only minor issue is that the 9v input is not standard (it is slightly larger). I made a patchcable for this.

I'm using it a fender-fender setup:

Strat (Am Dlx with noiseless pickups) -> Vox847 -> cleanboost -> Heavy Drive -> Echo Park -> Hot Rod Deluxe

My settings are: gain 7.00, attack 10.30, edge 10.30 and level 13.00.

I love its sound. As said before, if you play chords you hear each note. Another very strong thing about this pedal is that it is very flexible with your playing. If you play softly then it's like a crunch drive and if you play with alot of attack then it gets really distorted. Therefore, if I turn on the cleanboost which is placed before the heavy drive I get a perfect sound for solo's: a nice and rich distortion that is slightly compressed.

It sounds perfect on any amp. Expecially on tube amps. Last night I played over a Engl top (I think it was a Fireball) and a Brunetti cabinet. The sound couldn't be better!

I compared with some other overdrive/distortion pedals like: almost every Boss, some Ibanez and Marshall pedals, the Visual Sound J&K, the Carl Martin HD&BII and last but not least the Barber Direct Drive SS. This last pedal is sounding very good. It's versatile (from crunch to tubescreamer to blues leads) and it also has a good string defenition. Therefore I thought that it was a good competetor for my Heavy Drive. But it wasn't, because the sound of the Heavy Drive is (as far as I can describe a sound) warmer, sharper and more alive. The only minor thing about the Heavy Drive is that it's not versatile at all regarding the settings. At least with a Strat. But with the settings I mentioned before I'm very happy.

I play mostly Hendrix, SRV, Pearl Jam and Pink Floyd.
Some times I use it for rhythm's (think Smoke on the Water), but I use it always for leads. With my V847 it sounds very much like Pearl Jam - Ten (Alive solo) and with a lot of tape echo from my Echo Park I can achieve the sounds from Echoes (although it's not a fuzz) and Shine. For Hendrix it's sufficient/good, but not perfect (not dirty enough).

Good, no problems so far.

I have been playing for 6 years (quite fanatic). Styles: 60/70's rock, symfo, blues and funk.

For me, this pedal is perfect! Another recommended drive pedal: Barber LTD.

The pedal is really easy to use and everything is self explaining. You could get loads of sounds from this one. You will need to experiment with the knobs for a while to learn how to get the really good sounds of out of it. It?s really easy to get an ok sound though.

I've bin playing for 10 years and I'm playing a lot of different styles. I use this pedal mainly with a Gibson Les Paul Special from the mid 90's. My amp is a Peavey Studio Pro 112, but I?ve used the pedal through quite many amps when gigging. This pedal is absolutely great with the les paul. I can get any sound from bluesy overdrive to...nearly a metal sound. The pedal is always really quiet and the sound is very clear. If you strum a chord with the highest gain level you will perfectly hear all the notes. When soloing, the sound is great and you get a lot of sustain. One of the most flexible distortion pedals I ever tried.
I'm also using a Hohner strat with EMG single coils. Here I can go from an almost clean sound into an "ACDC distortion". This one is not my choice with the strat because it sounds too weak and it doesn't shine as much as with the humbuckers.
I don't mean that I want my strat to become a les paul, but I still miss the higher gain that I can get through the les paul when I use the pedal with the strat. I give it a 9 because i

The pedal is really easy to use and everything is self explaining. You could get loads of sounds from this one. You will need to experiment with the knobs for a while to learn how to get the really good sounds of out of it. It?s really easy to get an ok sound though.

I've bin playing for 10 years and I'm playing a lot of different styles. I use this pedal mainly with a Gibson Les Paul Special from the mid 90's. My amp is a Peavey Studio Pro 112, but I?ve used the pedal through quite many amps when gigging. This pedal is absolutely great with the les paul. I can get any sound from bluesy overdrive to...nearly a metal sound. The pedal is always really quiet and the sound is very clear. If you strum a chord with the highest gain level you will perfectly hear all the notes. When soloing, the sound is great and you get a lot of sustain. One of the most flexible distortion pedals I ever tried.
I'm also using a Hohner strat with EMG single coils. Here I can go from an almost clean sound into an "ACDC distortion". This one is not my choice with the strat because it sounds too weak and it doesn't shine as much as with the humbuckers.
I don't mean that I want my strat to become a les paul, but I still miss the higher gain that I can get through the les paul when I use the pedal with the strat. I give it a 9 because i

Well,i am Marc, the second commentator, and i want to react to "guitarista GUY" about my so-called love for the boss o.d.-3 pedal.First of all,my main o.d.-pedal is the "valveboy" from J.T. pedals,that goes from TS-9 to recto.Secondly,i told: the o.d.3 is a better choice for a better price,which i still say today.
Now,what really keeps me rolling ,laughing on the floor till this day,is his comment on European amps.
So,mr. mark 2 c Boogie ( the petrucci amp, i know), i assume you never heard an ENGL-SAVAGE,and are not aware that DIEZEL,..H&K-tri-amp,..FRAMUS-COBRA,...MARBLE 2,..ENGL-SAVAGE or POWERBALL,are all top class handmade European-amps,very fat tube-sounding indeed.In that case , sorry for my reaction, and try to get one.B.T.W.,don t be surprised,.... you gonna get a boogie sound,...and more!!

Extremely simple to get many great 1970's style distortion sounds from this one.

I was really surprised to see the guy below me give this pedal a "7", but the I noticed that he liked the sound of a Boss OD-3, which explains it all. The OD-3 is a very light overdrive pedal, while the Heavy Drive is a Distortion pedal. Also, I see he's from Europe, where great amps are hard to find, hence the Engl amp he's using. I've played Engl amps, and they are very hard if not impossible to get any kind of a "natural" sound from. Those Engl amps are tube, but there's way too much transistor crap in the signal chain to get a real tube sound. I play a Gibson Les Paul Standard, and a Reissue Fender Tele through a Mesa Boogie Mark IIC. this setup sounds great all by itself, but I do torture myself with an few pedals, the Carl Martin Heavy Drive is one of them. The Heavy Drive is great for getting a very organic Distortion sound from either the clean, or dirty side of my Mesa. It works great for rhytmn, and sounds very organic for a Distortion pedal. When used for leads, it really shines. Throw out your compressor, you won't need it, this pedal has great sustain, which is a major factor in choosing a lead peadal IMO. As far as being overpriced, I don't see it, I paid $235.00 for my Blackstone Appliances Mosfet 2S pedal, and for leads, the Heavy Drive kicks it's butt! The Blackstone is great for Overdriven Rhytmn sounds, but sounds wimpy for leads, even the "Red" channel which is more processed sounding thatn the Heavy Drive, with not nearly as much sustain. At $150.00, the Heavy Drive is a total bargain IMO. Also, this baby is studio quiet, even with tons of gain!

I've gigged with mine for 8 months, spilled many beers on it, stomped, and dropped it countless times, and it still works perfect!

I've never needed it, for repair, but was surprised at the almost immediate response when I emailed them requesting product literature, and manulas sent to me. They mailed me literature on all their products free!

If this pedal is ever stolen, I'll definitely buy another. I've had great response to my lead tone live, and it's the Les Paul>Heavy Drive>Mesa only!

Well,it is easy to get a distorted sound of it,but no way the hype of
allmost recto-sound,is there.(I also own a valveboy from J.T.-pedals,so i know what fat distortion is)

I have very good stuff,and it certainly is not my goal to turn this pedal down,but it is so overrated,that i wanted to react to Mesa-in-a-box enthousiastics(i play an ENGL myself).So,it is just a regular disto-pedal,no-more,no-less.10 is for a varidrive or a valveboy,this is a 7.

To soon to tell,but switch gives me a scary impression.

Hope i never need them!

As i noticed,a regular disto-pedal,but that is my personal opinion.Way to expensive for what you get.For that price,i should buy a Boss O.D.-3,and to all Americans,for a little more,you have the top in your country(TONEBONE,VALVEBOY,VARIDRIVE,....)