Electric Love and Brian Wampler unveil Aquatone overdrive pedal

October 19, 2023 · 4 sources

Electric Love, the effects brand founded by Ben Carlin, announced the Aquatone on October 19, 2023, an overdrive pedal designed in collaboration with Brian Wampler and described as a reimagining of the Boss Blues Driver¹². The pedal is sold on Reverb in support of breast cancer research¹.

The Aquatone has five knobs, Gain, Volume, Bass, Mids and Treble, and a two-position toggle switch for lower gain overdrive and higher gain distortion modes¹². The original Blues Driver offers only Tone, Level and Gain knobs¹. The mids control is active, and the pedal uses buffered bypass switching and runs on a standard 9-volt external DC supply with no battery compartment²³.

The Aquatone is priced at $199¹³. Guitar Pedal X reported that after an initial run of about 80 units, preorders reopened for shipping in late November or early December, with shipping to the UK at $30³. Carlin assembles the pedals himself, that report said³.

Electric Love said 100% of Aquatone profits go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for the 2023-2024 fiscal years, with a pledged minimum donation of $1,000 and the total to be disclosed on its Reverb shop²⁴. Guitar World reported that 100% of profits go directly to the BCRF¹.

Carlin told Guitar World that pedal making became a creative outlet after his wife Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015¹. Electric Love's first release was a trio of fuzz, overdrive and delay pedals in 2022, and Guitar Pedal X reported that these caught Wampler's attention and led to the collaboration¹³.