Electro-Harmonix unveils Spruce Goose Bluesbreaker-style overdrive

October 17, 2023 · 3 sources

Electro-Harmonix has unveiled the Spruce Goose, an overdrive pedal based on Marshall's classic Bluesbreaker circuit, which the New York company is describing as "a new interpretation on a responsive classic"¹. Gearnews reported the pedal on October 17, 2023, and Guitar World and MusicRadar published their coverage on October 18¹²³.

The Spruce Goose has Volume, Gain, Bass and Treble controls; the two-band EQ boosts and cuts frequencies, and the Bass control is active². A three-way Lift switch selects between three levels of input gain, which EHX describes as goosing the front end of the drive circuit so it hits harder and produces a more compressed, saturated tone². Guitar World describes the switch as acting like an in-built boost, letting the pedal span edge-of-breakup tones to more distorted sounds¹. MusicRadar calls the pedal Nano-sized and says it adds more output, an active bass circuit and two extra levels of input gain compared with the Bluesbreaker³.

The pedal is true bypass and uses a soft footswitch with selectable latching and momentary action²³. It runs from a 9V battery or a power supply¹.

The Spruce Goose is priced at $129 and is available to preorder¹². Guitar World notes that this is almost half the price of Marshall's $249 Bluesbreaker reissue¹.