The Shodhana nails that sweet spot between transparent boost and mid-forward overdrive with just two knobs. RhPf Electronics designed this Swiss-made pedal around a clever parallel circuit that blends a clean MOSFET boost with increasing overdrive saturation as you turn up the Drive control, evolving, as the builder puts it, from a transparent, punchy boost to a mid-forward drive with a single knob.
Controls
There are only two knobs to learn, Drive on the left and Level on the right, plus a status LED and a footswitch, so the panel takes about ten seconds to understand. At minimum Drive settings, you’re getting a pristine, full-range boost that adds harmonics and snap without much coloration. Turn the Drive knob clockwise and the overdrive circuit takes over, shifting the frequency focus toward the mids while adding increasing grit and harmonic density. The transition feels natural and musical, never jarring or abrupt. Level sets the overall output, and it has enough range to sit at unity or push the front of an amp harder.
In the demo above I’ve set up a Drive sweep across the full 0 to 10 range with Level held at 3, so you can hear the whole arc from clean boost to thick breakup in one pass.
How It Sounds
The presets map out the range well. Mild Drive (Drive at 4, Level at 2) sits in that clean-boost zone, adding snap and harmonics without pushing into overt overdrive. Boost with Bite (Drive at 3, Level at 6.5) keeps the Drive low but pushes Level up, so you get more of a pure volume boost with just a touch of edge. Rich Breakup (Drive at 8, Level at 4) is where the mid-forward overdrive side really shows itself, with denser saturation and a more focused midrange. There’s also a Gain Stack preset that pairs the Shodhana (Drive at 8, Level at 4) after RhPf’s own Mosferatwo, which gives a sense of how well it stacks with another gain stage in front of it rather than fighting for the same frequency space.
Shodhana vs Morning Glory V4
The JHS Morning Glory V4 is a useful cross-shop since both pedals land in low-gain, mid-forward territory rather than chasing full-on distortion. The Morning Glory has a baked-in mid hump and bass cut that give it a cutting, opinionated voice from the first click of the Drive knob, plus a gain toggle for a hotter second mode. The Shodhana takes a different route: at low Drive it behaves like a clean, uncolored boost, and the mid-forward character only builds in gradually as you turn the knob up, so the same pedal covers a wider stretch between transparent and shaped. If you want a pedal with one clear, assertive personality from the start, the Morning Glory delivers that immediately. If you’d rather have one knob quietly shift between clean boost and mid-forward drive, the Shodhana’s parallel circuit does that instead.
Who It’s For
The Shodhana suits players who want a single low-gain pedal that can cover both jobs: a clean, full-range boost for solos and a mid-forward, expressive drive for pushing an amp into breakup, without having to reach for two separate pedals or juggle extra knobs. It also works well as a stacking tool ahead of another gain pedal, since the Drive knob’s low settings stay clean and uncolored. If you’re after a pedal with a strongly shaped, opinionated voice or a wide high-gain range, this isn’t it, but for anyone chasing a natural, musical transition from boost to breakup, it’s worth a look.
Specs
Circuit: parallel MOSFET boost and mid-forward overdrive, transitioning with a single Drive knob
Controls: Drive, Level
True bypass
Power: 9V DC, center-negative 2.1mm jack, under 30 mA current draw
Enclosure: 125B, Pastel Pink, with DAVIES 1900H knobs and a warm white LED
