Carl Martin Hot Drive & Boost MkII

It took a little bit of working with this to understand how to use the relationship between the boost and drive functions. The Boost control is very sensitive and needs to be carefully nudged from it's full counterclockwise unity gain to get a slight overall boost. The Drive control goes from a blues growl to a full-out overdriven distortion but not an artificially pumped metal tone like a Boss MT-2 or the buzz of a Fuzz Face. The tone control covers a pretty broad spectrum and also requires gentle nudging to home in on the precise tone required.

I'm using this with a Warmoth Tele, a Schecter Strat, and a Std. Strat through a Vibrolux modded to 50's Bassman specs. I'm mainly comparing this against a Fulltone Fulldrive II,though I also have a Rat, a TS-9, a Daddy-O, a Boss MT-2, and a Fuzz Face. Compared to the Fulltone this unit is much more aggressive and brighter. The Fulltone is like a cranked tweed amp and the Hot Drive is more like an overdriven 70's Marshall. It is capable of "too much" treble and "too much" boost, but that can be usefull. A previous poster claimed that this is full bypass. I don't believe that's true as I can distinctly hear the brightening effect of a buffer amp. Again, this can be good. I was trying to decide to keep one or the other of the Hot Drive or the Fulltone, but the result is that all direct comparison's are a waste of time. They are different creatures. I like both. The Hot Drive for it's brashness and the Fulltone for it's subtlety and sophistication.

Haven't had it long enough but seems well constructed. I normally would have opened it up by now but I've been too busy.

It's fun to play with and that's the bottom line. It's pretty versatile and different enough to keep me satisfied.

There are four knobs, for boost level, wave (tone), distortion, and level. Nothing much can go wrong here.... And two stompknobs, for drive and boost. The reason for the 8 is that the gain know is a little ticklish....more about that later The manual was just fine, but I didn't quite agree with the example settings....but that's just my taste, and the settings are there to guide the user. The boost knob is dead easy to use...set a 0, it's at unity gain with the "off" position, and you just add as much boost as you like from there.

I mostly use this through a beat up-one channel 50Watt Marshall JCM 800, and it is just the trick! The marshall is somewhat noisy, but that is not because of the Boost&drive... on a quiet amp, it's..quiet... On the other end, I normally use a Japan Reissue Tele, or a Guild X-500. I found the pedal to be most useful with the singlecoils of the Tele, and at *really* low gain settings. This is why I gave it an 8 on ease of use. I have to be real careful when dialing in the sound I want, because you don't need to turn the gain knob much to get (in my taste) too much. With humbuckers, I found it not too inspiring..but that's probably because I feel that humbuckers should be played completely clean, or at all-knobs-at-11-distortion...I feel a little silly doing that with an X-500, so the humbuckers don't see much of the unit. But - with a tele and a marshall's clean channel at full tilt, it's gorgeous! True bypass can't be bad either. ;)

This thing seems real well built..I don't think I?'ll be able to break it right away.... As far as backups go, there is always a possibility that something might go wrong...Murphy and his law hasn't called it quits yet. But, I think this unit would be one of the very last items to break down on me.

Haven't needed to.

The Carl Martin Hot Drive & Boost MkII is the best overdrives I've ever tried. I play mostly my own stuff (poppy jazzy stuff), but also coversongs on occations. I currently use it with a Gollmer Fat Dist to cover my dirt needs. And the CarlMartin sees by far the most use. If I lost this thing, I'd have to get me a new one. The thing that comes closest to it in my opinion (not directly compared in tone, but how much I like the overdrive), is the First overdrive from boss...OD-1, was it? One slightly annoying thing about it is the fact that you have to use a separate powercord for it...but that is probably one of the reasons it's so quiet..can't have it both ways! I'll give it a 9 because of its relatively steep price, but it's definately worth it! Go buy! Now! ;)
P.S. I bought it in Norway for about 1800 nKr, so I might be a little off on the US price.....it's somewhat accurate, but probably much cheaper in the US!

Very Easy to use, its a no brainer in getting a good sound, SRV, Hendrix and even Harder Crunch. 4 Knobs, Level, Wave (tone), Drive, Boost level (explained later) No need for a manual.

I am using this with both a Bogner Ecstacy and Mesa Boogi MKIIC+, This unit is very quiet. Will make any tube amp sound even better, Fender, Marshall, Boogie, this pedal reminds of Kenny Wayne Sheppards tone. Has a lot of character, can get bluesy, crunchy or just subtle sweet singin notes. CHords are not Muddied! I checked out the Fulltone Fulldrive II and IMHO, The Hot Drive, is more throaty, sounds more musical. Is also true bypass like FulldriveII. Has boost switch just like Fulltone, you can set your rythem volume for either Blues or Crunh and hit the boost switch for Leads, it has its own volume controll too.

I have only had it a couple of days, Its built well, you can see them in this months Guitar World Magazine. I wont be travelin without it, its coming with me to The U.K in April. I dont think you can break it!

I called TC Electronics to find out if this particular model was in short supply becuase they also have a Hot Drive & Boost I, I could have talked to Tech support easily, or Sales. Easy to get past the switchnoard.

I play Hard Rock and Blues been playing for 17 Years and I have an ear for tone. By the way, I have a Expandora, old MXR Distortion + DOD 250 Preamp Overdrive, and again tried the fulldrive, the Tech 21 XXL, Voodoo Overdrive...and this thing wins hands down. GO BUY ONE!