EarthQuaker Devices Plumes vs MXR Sugar Drive

Aug 19, 2026

Plumes vs Sugar Drive comes up whenever someone is choosing between a flexible low-gain overdrive and a compact Klon-style mid boost. Both sit in the same gain territory and both stay usable cranked, but they get there through very different circuits. The widget above plays them through the same loop, the same chain and the same room at three gain settings, so you can hear the difference before reading a word about it.

EarthQuaker Devices Plumes

The Plumes is a Tube Screamer derivative that doesn’t sound like one. EQD swapped the classic 4558 op-amp and BJT buffers for JFET operational amplifiers and converts the 9V supply to a bipolar rail internally, which is why it never sounds congested even with the Gain maxed out.

The three-way Mode toggle is where the Plumes actually differs from a fixed-voice pedal like the Sugar Drive. Position 1 is symmetrical LED clipping, full and compressed. Position 2 pulls the clipping diodes out entirely for straight op-amp drive, light and open enough to work as a clean boost. Position 3 is asymmetrical silicon, closer to a stock Screamer but with more clarity and output. The Tone control reshapes the whole voice rather than just rolling off treble, and it stays useful across its entire sweep. More detail on all three modes lives in the full Plumes demo.

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MXR Sugar Drive

The Sugar Drive is a Klon-style circuit in MXR’s compact mini housing, and its character comes from three things working together: a mid push, a bass roll-off, and hard clipping diodes. The Drive knob is a clean/dirt blend rather than a straight gain control, so turning it up layers saturated signal on top of your clean tone instead of replacing it outright.

There’s no mode switching here. What you get instead is a fixed, chewy compression that shows up most clearly at medium Drive, plus a voltage doubler inside that gives the circuit more headroom than a standard 9V supply would normally allow. A side-mounted switch toggles the buffer in bypass, useful if the Sugar Drive sits at the front of a long cable run or a high-impedance chain. The full Sugar Drive demo walks through all three gain settings and the Tone sweep.

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Get This One If…

Get the Plumes if you want one pedal that covers a clean boost, a Screamer-style crunch and a compressed LED-clipped voice depending on the Mode toggle. The extra headroom also makes it the safer pick if you play with a bassist and want your low end left alone.

Get the Sugar Drive if you know you want a Klon-style mid push and would rather have one great fixed voice than three to choose between. The mini housing and buffer toggle also make it the easier fit on a crowded board or at the end of a long cable run.