1981 Inventions DRV

The 1981 Inventions DRV is a handwired low/mid gain overdrive and distortion pedal, made in the USA, that arrived in 2019 and, as Guitar.com put it, "instantly became the most hyped pedal of the year"¹². It was born as a mod of the RAT distortion circuit, but it is a long way from a stock clone: designer Matt Hoopes says it has about 1/20th the amount of gain of a traditional RAT circuit, though it still gets plenty fuzzy³. Inside are two circuits, one distortion and one preamp boost, running at 18 volts via an internal voltage regulator⁴⁵.

The pedal sits in a uniquely designed steel enclosure made with quality components throughout, including Switchcraft 11 open frame jacks and a super quiet soft touch switching system via an internal relay⁴. It launched at $250¹, and the maker's current DRV MONO limited run lists the regular DRV price as $250⁶.

A RAT-derived drive running at 18 volts

The DRV started as a modification of the Pro Co RAT circuit, a distortion design that dates back to the late 1970s. What 1981 Inventions built from it is a much lower gain take: about 1/20th the gain of a traditional RAT, in Hoopes' own words, though he notes it still gets plenty fuzzy⁴. That puts it closer to the overdrive end of the spectrum than the RAT itself, with room to push into fuzz territory at higher settings.

The circuit is not a straight copy. Reviewers noted that "the low end, midrange, filter sweep, level, switching system and LED have all been carefully revised"⁸. The two internal circuits, one distortion and one preamp boost, run at 18 volts through an internal voltage regulator, which means the pedal gets the headroom of an 18v circuit from an ordinary 9v supply⁹.

Hoopes described the result in his own words:

The controls

The control set is minimal: three knobs plus an on/off footswitch and corresponding LED¹.

The control set stays simple, and the Tagboard Effects circuit analysis focused on how the pots behave: it found that "the DRV Pot isn't doing/changing very much. VOL & CUT are fine and fun to play with"⁷. The maker lists the Volume (VOL) pot and the Drive (DRV) pot among the pedal's controls, alongside the CUT filter⁷.

The simple three-knob layout is also what the Tagboard Effects circuit analysis came back to: with the effect off, the reviewer found the DRV pot "isn't doing/changing very much" while "VOL & CUT are fine and fun to play with," so most of the player's tweaking happens on the Volume and CUT controls⁷.

Power and switching

The DRV runs on 9V DC, center negative, drawing 53mA⁹. The maker's DRV MONO page gives the accepted input range as 9v to 18v⁶; the internal voltage regulator then runs the circuit at 18v regardless⁶⁴. There is no battery option in the listed specifications.

History, batches and colorways

The DRV was the first official release of 1981 Inventions. Matt Hoopes, the company's owner, had been working on the project for the better part of three years as a collaboration with engineering by Jon Ashley of Bondi Effects before deciding to make it the debut product⁴⁵. The design is a collaboration between company owner Matt Hoopes and Jon Ashley of Bondi Effects⁴. The first batch of the pedal sold out pretty fast, and a second one, with a case slightly different in color, was on the horizon⁴.

Since then the pedal has appeared in limited batches and colorways rather than as a continuously stocked product. Documented versions include⁴¹¹¹²:

• DRV - White
• DRV - Silver
• DRV - Greyscale
• DRV - Pink
• DRV - Gold/Cream
• DRV - Stranger Things
• DRV ALT UNIVERSE, a limited edition with retro artwork announced in August 2022

Guitar.com's 2019 review noted the range of finishes available, "in vaporwave, blacked out, pink, solid silver or any other of the myriad colourways offered"¹. Delicious Audio reported in July 2022 that the first batch had sold out pretty fast and a second one, with a case slightly different in color, was on the horizon⁴. As of October 2026, the maker's pages for the DRV MONO, DRV2 No3, DRV BASS MOD V2 and DRV MOD 2 HYPERFADE are all marked sold out⁶¹⁰.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the DRV in December 2019 and gave it a rare perfect score². The verdict from the site's best-pedals-of-2020 feature:

The hype was real but, in Guitar.com's view, so was the pedal. Reviewer Michael Watts highlighted the CUT control's range and the pedal's handwired, made-in-the-USA build, in an enclosure measuring 86 x 107.5 x 46 mm¹.

Value on the used market

Guitar World reports that 1981 Inventions pedals "typically hold their value on the used market, too"³. With limited runs that sell out overnight and a steady stream of new colorways, the DRV trades actively secondhand. The maker's own store currently lists the regular DRV price in GBP, with the regular price shown as £190.00¹³.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load

Questions