Carl Martin Hot Drive MKI

Easy to operate and it sound great. Manual is really not needed.

I agree one of the reviews. The pedal sounds great and to alot of my friends who say that it has great tone and a nice cruchy drive are very honest. This pedal is very underrated and I'm not sure why.
The clean boost kicks ass. The tone control is like a presence control. The drive is more than adequate for Blues, Classic Rock and Fusion. I'am using this with a Fender Blues Jr. and PRS Custom 22. It definetly adds a wondeful channel to any amp. It allows the tone of your guitar to come through. Sweet tone is all I can say.

I've had it for 5 years and it still works. Been dropped afew times
but no sign of malfunctioning.

Worth having.

This is an easy one to operate.

Had this one for a decade now.
Old blackbox with the oldstyle knobs.
I'm doing this review, because they seem to be flying under the radar for some odd reason??
Great fullrange sound, the gain can go from light nice crispy breakup to fluid leadlines.
Very quiet while delivering the goods.

Yeah 11 years old and still going strong, had a little trouble with the switches, I emailed them along time ago and got my answer for it, very helpful and polite.
They still work by the way.
Had never let me down, ever!

As said above, very helpful and polite.

I play rock, oldstyle stuff and blues, plus some popstuff as well, gotta make a living here.
30 years of playing, I have had quite a few pedals in my collection, but this one always stays put.
I like the whole layout of this drive, the seperate boost and the clean out for either a tuner or into another amp with a clean signal.
The sound is nice and let your amp sound the way it is, it has a British flavour to it, crunchy and still smooth enough, I don't understand why this one is so underrated?
I love this overdrive, it is very versatile and works well on all my amps, from my small combo's to my big old Marshall and Hiwatt stacks.

Operation is a no-brainer. Boost, wave(tone), Gain, and Level controls. Ac powered only, but has a nice long power cable(about 8ft). Probably insures less noise than using batteries.

I am using the Hot Drive I mostly with a 1979 Ibanez musician through a Sovtek MIG100 all-tube head with Marshall 4x12(Vintage 30's). The Ibanez has Two Humbuckers with series/split/parallel switching. Sounds good through all settings. I plug into my low input on my amp and turn the preamp knob to about 8-this give me a Very warm/full clean tone to start with. The drive on this pedal has a very natural, tube-like tone. Not at all fuzzy or piercing. It sounds good at all settings from blues to hard rock. The tone knob does not have as wide of a range as some, but is still versatile enough for anything before obnoxious. You can clean it up pretty well using your volume knob. It seems to complement my rig very well-not changing the fundamental tone, but allowing more flexibilty with the boost, since my amp is a single-channel head. The boost channel can be subtle or VERY loud. It does not change the tone much. Maybe a little more bite and more sustain. You can also use the boost channel alone, I use this for a nice bluesy tone-great with split/single coil sound. I picked up this pedal used at a great deal and it is worth every cent and more. I give it a nine only because you lose the slightest amount of bottom end when pedal is engaged. Generates very little noise.

Seems very well constructed and road-worthy. I would like a backup just in case, but I wouldn't be afraid to take it on the road. Hand-crafted. Inside looks very clean.

Tried to e-mail them about five days ago and still haven't heard back. Haven't really dealt with customer service.

I've been playing for about 8 years-everything from alternative to emo to blues to worship to straight-ahead Rock n' Roll. Ihis pedal covers all the bases. I use it in conjunction with a Mr Crybaby and a Rolls Twin Spin Chorus. It complements these very well. I would definitely replace it if it were stolen. Much nicer sounding(IMHO) than most tube screamers, and more versatile. Compared to a Fulldrive, it is more "full-frenquency," and has more bass, which is my preference and also more boost available. It is smaller in size compared to the Fulldrive, which complements multi-pedal set-up. But it is taller than most pedals and can be in the way if they are right next to eachother. Also the LEDs are very bright-can't miss them day or night. Although, they run about the same price as the FD2 new, they seem to have a lower re-sale value. Good if you're looking, bad if you're selling.