Bondi Effects Del Mar

The pedal is made by Bondi Effects, the Australian builder founded by designer Jon Ashley¹. The current version is the Del Mar Overdrive mk2, an update of the original Del Mar whose tone Bondi describes as faithful to the first version¹.

Klon, Tube Screamer and Blues Breaker in one overdrive

The Del Mar's family tree is unusual. Bondi Effects says the pedal "was conceived in an effort to add a Tubescreamer-style clipping stage to the Klon Centaur"². Delicious Audio reports that the design ended up incorporating aspects of the Klon, Tube Screamer and Blues Breaker, but that the combination "resulted in something that is not" any of them¹. Jon Ashley himself will tell you the Del Mar mk2 is not a Klon, nor a Tube Screamer, nor a Blues Breaker¹.

A 2014 Pedal of the Day review of the original put it more simply: "The Del Mar takes two equally renowned circuits, the Tubescreamer and Bluesbreaker, and brings them together under one pedal"³. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, reviewing the mk2 in 2025, placed it among Klon-derived pedals but noted that "it's not a straight take on a Klon - more of a hybrid that touches on that flavour somewhat"⁴.

The pedal runs as a clean boost, an overdrive, or a blend of the two². The 2014 review of the original found it "very dynamic and natural, responsive to your pick attack or volume knob," and noted that "it's so clear and articulate even when blasting the preamp," with all of the gain range usable³.

Controls

The mk2 carries four knobs and a toggle:

Bondi describes the tone stack as a "powerful active tonestack, capable of 15dB of boost or cut"². Guitar Pedal X lists the toggle's two positions as up for more compression and drive, down for less compression and more bass⁴. The 2014 review of the original described the up position as "your screamer style sound, more compressed and middy, but still clear and articulate," while the down position gives a significant volume boost, tighter bass, more defined highs and a more open sound³.

Power: 9V in, 24V inside

The mk2 runs on a normal 9V DC supply drawing 100mA, and Bondi boosts that internally to 24 volts². In the maker's words, "just plug in your normal 9V power supply and we take care of the rest"². The higher internal voltage is what gives the pedal its headroom for the clean boost mode.

The original Del Mar handled power differently: a 2014 review listed its current consumption at 20mA and described it as "internally boosted to 18 volts for maximum headroom and clarity"³. The mk2 also adds what Bondi calls robust power input protection, and Delicious Audio quoted the maker calling its supply "our cleanest, most robust power supply ever"¹.

Mk1 and mk2

The original Del Mar was reviewed by Pedal of the Day in October 2014 as a clean booster/overdrive with volume, gain, bass and treble knobs and soft touch bypass switching³. The mk2 arrived later as an updated version, with Bondi saying the tone is entirely faithful to the original¹.

The maker's measurable improvements in the mk2 include a 22dB improvement to the signal-to-noise ratio compared to the Del Mar Overdrive mk1, along with the robust power input protection and the cleaner internal power supply². The internal voltage also changed between versions, from 18 volts in the original to 24 volts in the mk2²³.

Bondi's line has since grown around the Del Mar's ideas. The Breakers Overdrive, released in 2017, was a revision of the Del Mar that took on a whole new character, and the Sick As overdrive line continued the Klon-inspired direction, including the limited-run Sick As High Shredroom collaboration with Earthling Designs in 2018.

What reviewers said

Reviews of both versions have been positive, with one recurring caveat about humbuckers⁴¹³.

• Pedal of the Day (2014, original): "Very dynamic and natural, responsive to your pick attack or volume knob," and clear and articulate even at full preamp gain³.
• Delicious Audio (2024, mk2): "a refined modern mid-gain overdrive that is hard to get a bad sound out of"¹.
• Guitar Pedal X (2025, mk2): Stefan Karlsson found it "gets quite boomy with my humbuckers" even with the Bass control turned down, and concluded it "seems to be primarily engineered for single coil pickups"⁴.

That last point is worth weighing if your guitar carries humbuckers: the active Bass control gives you 15dB of cut to work with, but the reviewer still found the low end boomy⁴.

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