AD Pedals Gladiator Overdrive

The Gladiator Overdrive is an overdrive/boost pedal from AD Pedals, a maker of compact effects pedals. Pedal of the Day describes it as "creating a new and exciting overdrive/boost with lots of range to experiment with", and notes that it takes elements of the famous Klon pedal and puts its own spin on those tones, "but with a little more grit and dirt to it"¹. If you are weighing it against other circuits, it sits in the territory covered by Overdrive Pedals and Boost Pedals.

What it does

The Gladiator is built around range. Pedal of the Day found that the Gain control sweeps through two different distortion sounds at either end of its travel, with the cleaner sounds focused around the 10 to 11 o'clock position of the knob. That makes it usable both as a light, always-on push and as a fuller overdrive, depending on where the Gain sits¹.

The reviewer's overall verdict was enthusiastic:

Pedal of the Day, 30 May 2019¹

Where it came from

The Gladiator takes its starting point from the Klon, the overdrive pedal that Pedal of the Day calls "that certain mystical pedal that few of us can afford". Rather than reproduce it directly, AD Pedals kept elements of that circuit and voiced it with a little more grit and dirt¹. Aion FX, an independent project page, also documents a Gladiator Dual Overdrive, a dual-channel overdrive project in the same family².

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