Coggins Audio Dinosaural Hypoid Drive

The Dinosaural Hypoid Drive is a British-made overdrive pedal designed by Dan Coggins, the designer formerly of Lovetone. It is a wide-gain drive: Guitar.com's Richard Purvis described it as a transparent-ish overdrive with a much wider gain range than most, running from light crunch to something close to full-on fuzz, with a distinct softening of the midrange, rounded bass and clear treble¹. Guitar World's Trevor Curwen called it "a stunning drive pedal that will run the gamut from boost through to fuzz-flavoured distortion, all with tonal opti[ons]"².

What it does

The gain range is the pedal's headline. With Sustain down and the Volume up, it works as a clean boost; advancing Sustain takes it through break-up and on towards fuzz territory. On That Pedal Show, Mick and Dan demonstrated it going "from clean boostish... all the way through to fairly intense b[orderline fuzz]" with Sustain at zero and Volume high³. Guitar.com's buying guide put the same range another way: "a gain range that goes from gently fluffy grit all the way to a full-blown fuzzy roar"⁴.

The midrange character is deliberately softened rather than scooped flat, which is where the Shift switch comes in¹².

Controls and the Shift toggle

The Shift switch is the pedal's tonal second stage. Guitar.com's review describes a three-way toggle for reshaping the mids, with the middle position fully open and the outer settings offering "effectively a choice of two kinds of dip to the lower mids"¹. Guitar World's Curwen describes the same switch as bringing in three distinct midrange contours, with the central position the flattest and fullest in the midrange and the other two carrying different degrees of mid scoop². In the same buying guide, Purvis summarized the outer settings as "a couple of tone-thinning options"⁴. On That Pedal Show, the presenters noted that the tone control in conjunction with the switch gives three distinct mid-range characters³.

Where the circuit came from

The Hypoid Drive has a long lineage. Guitar.com's Purvis traces it as "the latest evolution of his first offering under the Dinosaural name, the Tube Bender of 2003. That later turned" into the OPA-101 and then the central section of the Cogmeister¹. The OPA-101 Overdriven Preamp is described by Aion FX as "an extremely rare overdrive pedal designed by Dan Coggins (formerly of Lovetone)"⁵. The Hypoid Drive is also available as that central section of the Cogmeister boost/drive/boost unit, and Dan Coggins announced the stand-alone pedal as identical to the Cogmeister's Drive section⁴.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com's Richard Purvis reviewed the stand-alone pedal in October 2025 and, referring back to it later, noted "considering I gave that pedal 10/10"⁶¹. Curwen's Guitar World review was equally warm, concluding that it runs from boost through to fuzz-flavored distortion with tonal options to match it to any rig².

Videos

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