Gus-Drive - Summer School Electronics

Sep 10, 2022

The Gus-Drive by Summer School Electronics is a wonderful take on the classic distortion/overdrive topology based on the DOD 250.

This is my first time playing a 250-style drive, so I can’t tell you how it compares with the original. According to Summer School Electronics, it’s a modded 250 with more output, compression and a few other little tweaks.

Whatever tweaks were done to the circuit, this thing rips. At higher gain settings, it comes close to a RAT-type distortion, but with more clarity and punch. At lower gain settings, it feels like a recording console preamp that is working extra hard.

Recording Notes

Guitar

Fidelity Guitars Stellarosa Lite II with Lollar Firebird pickups (bridge pickup)
Gus-Drive
Strymon Iridium (chime)

Overdubs

Stellarosa with different pickup configurations
Most parts double tracked and hard-panned left and right
Overdubs in the first half of the loop are:
Catalinbread Soft Focus, mix about 50% and tamed decay into …
Gus-Drive
Walrus Audio Polychrome and Slö used selectively to add movement and space

Ambient Pad

I used the the D.I. signal form the main guitar track and reamped it to the following chain:
Catalinbread Soft Focus Reverb, fully wet
Walrus Audio Polychrome
Gus-Drive
Iridium

Bass

JMJ Fender Mustang
Keeley Compressor Mini to even it out
Gus-Drive, unity volume and gain cranked. Works surprisingly well on bass.
Strymon Iridium (round) with bass cabs
Mixed with some D.I. signal, low-passed, to recover some bass frequencies.

Drums

GarageBand Drummer Gavin (indie rock) on the Brooklyn kit
Kick and snare treated with the stock GarageBand RAT-style pedal plugin

The whole mix was “mastered” with exciter, limiter and mild compression in the DAW.

Similar Pedals

Polychrome - Walrus Audio

Soft Focus - Catalinbread

Snow Day Delay - Summer School Electronics

Science Fair - Summer School Electronics

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Soft Crush - Freqscene Effects Co.

Knife OD & Fuzz - Lateral Phonics

The Guitar Butler - Orange

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