
Gus-Drive - Summer School Electronics
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.
Links
- Get detailed specs on Summer School Electronics' website
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