Carl Martin Hot Drive n Boost

Great pedal, well designed, obviously been thought through by someone who knows what they're doing! Its really easy to use and is layed out so it kinda speaks for itself.
Its like 2 pedals in one...
1. Drive: with level, gain and wave control. Wave is basically like a tone knob.
2. Boost: Has its own level control. Placed after the drive section so you get a decent amount of boost to your signal. This really is awesome! Dead clean, almost perfectly transparent and very useful for lead breaks.
Powered by its own internal 12v power supply with attached mains plug.

In a word....AWESOME!
Very little noise, if any. If youre hearing noise in your amp, consider the other equipment you are using...i.e. the guitar itself and any other pedals, quality of power supply, patch cables, (cheap ones are shockingly bad for noise) the amp itself, and even the quality of the electrics in the room youre playing in (i.e. strip lamps)! All these things are far more likely to be causing noise than this little beauty:)
The quality of the drive is very good and has a brilliant range but can sometimes sound a little fizzy for my liking! Its no big issue cos you dial it out but its the only reason im not giving this a 10...
The boost section is fantastic. There are a number of different boost pedals on the market now but this is easily among the very best of them. The 12v power supply means you will get even more boost than if it ran off your standard 9v supply or batteries. Dont be fooled by cheap behringer boosters....ive had 2 of them and they basically prove that you get what you pay for! This is worth every penny

Hand built, and VERY VERY solid. If you want to break this then im sure you can find a way with say a power drill, or some heavy machinery or something along those lines!

Never had to deal with them....they make good pedals the first time!

I play everything from classic rock right through to modern day complete with all the cheesy classics that fill dance floors at weddings....sorry!!! My setup is:
Ibanez AXS42 > JD cry baby > Boss OD3 > Zoom G2 > CM drive n boost > and soon to be a peavey classic 50! It works a treat with my setup. As i said before about noise...iv spent alot of time changing things on my pedal board to rid myself of noise problems and i can safely say that the Carl martin doesnt cause any issues:)
If i lost this for any reason i would definately buy it again or maybe try out one of the other versions of the same pedal! It pays to have good equipment to work with as a guitarist and this is just that.

Nearly perfect, very easy to get all the sounds it has. No manual needed. Wave is something like presence control. The position of the buttons could be better. In live situation you may push them both at once, even if you don't want it. And the leds are hidden from your foot.

From bluesy to hard distortion everything is there. The little reduce in bass is not annoying, it's not a modern hi-gain distortion, it has a nice '70-s vibe!And more.. whit gain at 2 o'clock I always have to play the main riff of Pearl Jam's Alive...
Boost is wonderful!
Best thing, that the GAIN setting don't really affect the overal OUTPUT LEVEL!Very useful if you tweak a lot!!
No noise!!
I use it whit Fender Stratocaster whit lace sensors and dimarzio humbucker a Laney Vc 30 210 combo whit 4x12 cab sometimes.. beast:)
Tube distortion is unbeatable... so 9

Built like a tank!No problems!

Very friendly folks!Reply per email in 1-2 days.

I play in bands 8 years ago. Sometimes alternative-funk stuff, but in my main band psychedelic/progressiv rock. This pedal fits the most of styles except for nu-metal. It sounds very musical, so very inspiring!! Never want to sell it!! I also use a Carl Martin DeLayla, another great product of this company. These pedals are expensive. But in sound ten times better than any boss.. and others , great value!! I hope the will last for lifetime!

I have to tell you the overdrive side is very poor. The boost side is good. You can buy the boost as a stand alone pedal the "hydra boost".

There is low level hum from the internal power transformer that bleeds into the signal even when the pedal is in bypass. It's not very bad but put it in a bypass loop, you will hear it.

I would give the boost a 9, but the overdrive is several points below a run of the mill tube screamer. worst tubescreamer copy I have heard.

I had to tweak it for a bit to get what I wanted with the drive side. The boost side is just a matter of dialing in the amount. I bought this new in 2001 ( i think ) - no mods done.

I have used the same set-up for a while - strat ( EJ model for past year ) >>>> Carl Martin compressor ( REALY LIKE THIS ) - on subtle compression always >>>>>>> drive 'n boost >>>>> sparkle drive >>>>>> old Ibanez AD 99 delay >>>>>> tweed bassman ( re-issue )

I use the sparkle drive as my rock rhythm sound - on bridge PU most of the time - this turned out to be my favorite overdrive ( tried TS 10, 9, Keeley mods of both, maxon , Phatman , etc over many yrs ) and have stayed with it for the past few yrs. I hunted around for something to add to it ( it works best IN FRONT of the sparkle drive ) to kick in once-in-a - while for more distortion - solos. The drive 'n boost is the one I have preferred ( by the way the drive 'n boost is a distortion box - NOT an overdrive - your ears realize this after the first 3 seconds of hearing it - and it's a good distortion. )

I have it set for wave full counter-clock ( I'm on the bridge PU which is already treble, right? ) gain at about 11:00 - volume for slight boost - I use this for a more mayhem sounding solo sound when I want it.

The boost, as others have noted, is a pretty over-the-top bonus - great for clean solo boosts.

5 years - gigging 2-4 X per month - much at home noodling.

never needed it.

played 40 yrs - for past 10 in a pop-rock, R+B,heavy vocal oriented etc cover band - prefer to play rhythm oriented solos ( I have never accused myself of being a Santana kind of guy ) but everyonceinawhile I will bend that 4th up to a 5th and shake the wang bar a tad ) - I get my thrills from really good clean single coil strat out of phase tone most of the time. - mostly it's strat mid-bridge combo - compressor - bassman sound. But this box gives me something to mess with in 4-5 songs. I don't think I would change this - I tried other distortion/fuzzy boxes before my sparkle drive and like this one best. When I added this to my pedal chain about 4 yrs ago it took some patience to get it set just right to push my sparkle drive the right amount ( like everybody knows - you set your sound at home, like it, then play in a big bar with sound bouncing around, and need to tweak it). But once I got it right the knobs have not been moved on this for a long time. Honestly - it's the least important box on my board for over-all style but I like it.

Really Easy.
It's simple to get a good tone: for almost all the settings the result is really appreciable.

no manual required

My setup is HUGE. I possess and I've used a pletora of crunch/od/dist pedals and I think I've a good bank of comparison for what I test.
A lot of pedals give me ONLY one good sound, exception for Fulltone OCD, the HDnB is really amazing and it goes from a good crunchy for rhythm and blues/slow solos to very very hard rock, I think it goes good even for metal.
Simply "playing" with the knobs I achieved modern blues sounds, a very good sound to play ACDC, Led Zeppelin and other british stuffs (yes, Young was from Scotland), and a creamy, huge and intense distortion for my music graal: southern rock. Only the OCD was capable of this.

It's noisy, yes, maybe a little more than other pedals: but this is because it has a lot of gain, really. Stay low than 2 and the trick is done.
I really don't know an od pedal that doesn't add a noise: I love the expandora (every version of it) and this adds more and more and more hiss than HDnB.
Simply it's natural.

The boost section is awesome. It seems to be not trasparent, and I think it's a good thing (take a look at my review for Fulltone Fatboost): the sound is warmer and huge, and a little crunchy. It's a thing you must ear: I love it!

I think it's a pedalboard, not a pedal :)
in my pedalboard (only the OD section!) I have fixed:
3 expandora (2 old version, 1 second version)
1 Blackbox Xray
1 OCD
1 Menatone Red Snapper
1 Fatboost
and there was some good things such as:
ts9 mod 808
ts 855
sparkle drive
route 66
EH Hot Tubes
HK Tube Factor
and others

I guess I'll use it alone, maybe with an expandora or the red snapper: they gives me all the options to sing everything in our music selection.

The pedal is very well built, very strong.
I think I'll try to buy another Carl Martin Pedal.

Fantastic.
Really.
I did a mistake and damaged the pedal. They give me all the support needed to repair it and within a little time: they were faster than me! And, most important, they were very very friendly.

It's the best pedal customer support I tried.

It's for almost every genre. Tweak a little with the drive and the wave and the trick is done.

i use it with:
Fender Hot Rod Deluxe / Hughes & Kettner Attax 80 (an old transistor, but still very good)

Jimmie Vaughan Strat
Nashville Tele
Godin LGXIII

It sound amazing with every guitar and every amp.

Definitely I'll buy another if stolen or lost.

Very easy to use. Four knobs. No need for a manual. Separate boost and distortion in one pedal.

If you know what to use it for, this pedal is great. What I use it for, and think it really excels at, is new rock ala Killers, Bravery, Franz Ferdinand. In these cases you want a distortion where you can play distorted chords with clarity and also get a lot of body and punch when you play single or double note riffs. The Carl Martin nails this genre. I run mine in front of a Soldano, and they work great together. Don't look to this pedal for heavy metal deep bottom scooped mids, it's just not built for that. I have come to love this pedal. Works great alongside a Wylde Overdrive as well.

Very reliable. Built like a tank.

Can't say

Looking at my pretty extensive set of pedals and rack gear, this pedal stands out and has really become an integral part of my sound. If it were lost/stolen I would immediately get a replacement, no question about it. One reviewer mentioned noise but I play live (and loud) all the time and have not had any noise problems, so perhaps in his case this has more to do with power conditioning, pickups, etc? In any case, I am really picky about my gear and everything in my signal chain is top shelf - the Carl Martin fits perfect.

I wrote the previous review. Based on over a month of use, I want to note several issues with this pedal. First, the overdrive half of the pedal is quite noisy. I have found that I can only use it with a noise gate at band volumes or the noise/hum is excessive. This is not as noticeable at "bedroom" levels. I compared it with a Reverend Drivetrain (a "tube screamer" clone), and the Drivetrain adds very little noise to the signal at similar gain settings.

The other issue is that the overdrive does not really do a good blues crunch/light overdrive. I think that is because it cuts too much of the low end out of the signal and seems to boost the midrange. So, I am using the Drivetrain for crunch and light overdrive sounds and using the Hot Drive overdrive function for heavier 1970's "British" distortion. The Drivetrain has a lot less gain available, but is quite transparent. I think these two overdrive pedals complement each other pretty well, and the boost on the HD&B is always useful for leads and solos. The boost on the HD&B is not noisy and it does not alter the guitar's tone when engaged.

So the bottom line is that the HD&B overdrive function covers the classic "British" sound quite well but adds lot of noise to the signal. The boost function is very useful and transparent for lead guitar.

Very easy to use. This is a two-in-one pedal with separate clean boost and overdrive functions that can be used separately or together. Volume ("Level") knob for the boost function and level, gain, and tone knobs for overdrive function. Tone control is not particularly sensitive; it basically affects the treble and high midrange frequencies. Sounds good at almost any setting.

I used this with a Reverend Slingshot Custom (strat-style guitar with 3 ballsy p-90's) into vintage Fender tube amps. I bought this because I was looking for a clean boost pedal for solos in a classic rock context. Previously, I was using a Fulltone Distortion Pro pedal for overdrive and a EQ pedal for boost. I have now put the Fulltone pedal away, as it lacks the clarity and harmonic richness of the Carl Martin pedal. I had great difficulty getting the Distortion Pro pedal to sound brilliant with full harmonics, but the Carl Martin requires very little tweaking. It is a nice fat and creamy tube-like overdrive that is perfect for classic rock and blues. With the overdrive and boost both engaged, this thing makes me sound almost like Brian May, which is something the Fulltone promisea but does not deliver. I am surprised that more people are not aware of these pedals as I feel that it is superior in sound to the Fulltone.

One thing I should mention is that some of the low end drops out of the sound when the overdrive function is engaged (but not when the boost is engaged.) This is actually a good thing because it keeps the sound from becoming muddy. The sound is fat yet has a treble boost that helps the guitar cut through the mix. This is perfect for that classic '70 rock sound.

This is a AC unit with a regular-sized AC plug (not an oversized wallwart!). So no hassles with batteries or adapters. Seems to be well built, although the switches appear to be a bit light-duty.

Don't know anything about the company.

If I lost this I would seek out another. Sounds great and is easy to use. It lacks a sophisticated eq, just one tone control, but captures the sound of overdriven tube amps circa 1975.

Very easy to get a good sound out of. Manual is idiot-proof!

I use this with an ash strat with tex specials into a modded Fender HRDeluxe(Weber speaker and JJ tubes). It is a fairly quiet pedal, but I rarely run the drive past 1 o'clock. The boost is wonderful, it makes my amp sound huge. This pedal is my rock sound, but it can do blues also. At first I thought it sounded on the bright side, but in a band setting it sounds very good, tight, tube-like, and it cuts through nicely. It's not perfect, but it is versatile and it works for me. I would keep it just for the boost even if I didn't like the drive.

It seems to be made pretty well. Switches seem to be solid. I know Carl Martin makes some high quality effects. Has held up so far, but I don't stand on it or abuse it! I usually have a back up OD pedal on gigs(mainly in case I don't like my tone!), but I feel pretty confident with this one.

Knock on wood, but I haven't had to deal with them.

I've been playing for about 25 years, but just in the last two years I've gone back to gigging and playing electric. I would consider myself a tone-freak and haven't found the perfect OD pedal yet, but this one is a quality effect. I play blues, southern rock, blues rock and rocked-up country and this pedal fits in nicely. It can nail the tones for "Call Me the Breeze", "China Grove", "Already Gone", "Keep Your Hands to Yourself", and more. I might give this pedal a 9.5 if it had seperate bass and treble controls. I would probably buy it again, unless I found something better, but it sounds pretty good through a tube amp. The boost is an added bonus to this quality pedal that works great for clean and dirty solo work.

"wave" is the only ambiguous knobs

i used a telecaster through either a twin reverb oir champ for practice. the boost is super great, i use it for jazz, it's so clean. but it can be a heavy dose of overdrive too. the overdrive half sounds fabulous, can be grainy or smooth. it's not a perfect pedal, but it is unique and versitle

highest quality pedal i have seen.

website is informative, and they respond to questions pretty quickly

it needs no help in the quality section, if it were a little more smooth sounding i'd like it better, but im using bright amps and guitars, so it seems like a great pedal. highly recomended for classic rock, blues, anything really

The effect pedal is very easy to use! There is only one bottom that is improtend, the wave bottom.

It has a warm and tight sound, a sound that I love and has looked for for many months.

It is almost perfect for my kind of music, Rock alternative Rock.
I love the Boost bottom....

Easy to get a good sound. Creamy distortion from slight breakup to full on O.D. Great for blues. I got it used with no manual, and I think it is very easy to set up. Use the boost for db gain going in and out of solos without touching your guitar, or use it to overdrive your amp. The LED's are B R I G H T and you can definately see them on stage, almost too bright in fact.

My set up is American Strat, G&L Classic Tele, and Guild Bluesbird to Boss tuner to Hot Drive N Boost to Boss Chorus to 65 Re-issue Twin Reverb. I realize the Twin isnt the best amp to get a distorted sound from, however the covers my band does require more clean than drive sounds. This pedal is not at all noisy unless you push it all the way to max settings. The pedal works just fine for what I need.

They built this like a tank, the AC cord is fool proof and it has held up to the rigors of countless bar gig set ups and tear downs. The paint is starting to chip a little, and I had to re-solder a LED after it got stepped on, other than that no backup needed and it's always reliable.

No Opinion on this one.

I play blues, rock-a-billy, classic rock, country. I have been playing for 34 years and currently gig with a band 5-6 times a month. This pedal is exactly what I need for it's reliabiltiy and tone. My suggestion is BUY ONE! I would get another if it were lost or stolen.

basic set up in-out. very simple.

my set up is a 74 paul gold top deluxe to boss chorus ensemble to boss digital delay to carl martin hot drive n' boost to a/b out to alpha 112 and fender preformer overdrive channel.
average on noise, although quiet compared to most.
warm, creamy and very tube like. the best thing is the boost feature. saves you from adding more units to your chain for soloing.
and it has a self contained power plug.

seems built to last. just got it, but the metal chassis seems like it could take the rigirs of the road.
would use it without a back up.

havent dealt with them yet

i play funky rock with an edge, but classic feel. so the warm tube sound is exactly what i was looking for. and believe me, i looked.
i wanted the classic tube, but not a replica. something that seemed new and updated. so the way i split it through a fender and a alpha sunn 112, it is classic but original.

Very easy to use.

Tried it with a Carvin DC-400 Koa, through a Carvin MTS-3212 and the clean output through a Tech 21 Trademark 10.
I was checking some of my pedals (Fulldrive II, Tone Pump II, PE Germ, and TubeWorks Real Tube ovedrive), and I wonder why the Carl Martin is not used by more people. This is a fine sounding pedal.

I don't foresee any trouble.

I had a couple of questions before buying the pedal. I sent them an email and got a response a couple of days later.

I have a bunch of overdrives, and the Carl Martin is definitely a keeper. It's versatile, offers a boost, and a clean output. I'm glad I bought it.