The Donner Tube Drive Mini is a compact overdrive pedal from Donner, part of the company's Nano Series of very small analog pedals1. It is an overdrive that can range from off-clean up to heavy classic distortion, and it is built into one of the smallest enclosures a reviewer from intheblues had seen1.
What it does
The pedal is essentially an overdrive that can go anywhere from off-clean to balls-to-the-wall classic distortion, in the words of the demo reviewer, and he found it works for both rhythm and lead guitar1. Despite its tiny size, he felt it "absolutely packs a punch"1.
"it is absolutely Tiny But it absolutely packs a punch"
Controls are the standard overdrive set: a volume knob, a tone knob and a gain knob1. A toggle switch selects between normal and boost mode, with boost mode adding a little more guts, more low end and more overall chug1. The toggle also gives access to more gain and sustain1.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Sets output level1 |
| Tone | Shapes the frequency balance1 |
| Gain | Sets drive amount, from off-clean up to heavy distortion1 |
| Toggle switch | Normal or boost mode; boost adds more gain, low end and sustain1 |
One characteristic the reviewer highlighted is touch sensitivity: pick softly and the sound cleans up, pick hard and it drives hard. He noted it is not a typical off-clean overdrive, and that winding up the gain takes it all the way1.
"it's very touch sensitive if you pick soft cleans up if you pick hard it really goes for it"
In his demo, Shane played an ES-335 electric guitar into a Fender Blues Deluxe reissue amplifier, starting on the clean channel with the bright setting1.
Videos
The Tone King
Kennis Russell
Questions
What does the Donner Tube Drive Mini do?
It is an analog overdrive pedal that can range from off-clean to heavy classic distortion. It has three knobs, volume, tone and gain, plus a toggle switch that moves between normal and boost mode, where boost adds more gain, low end and sustain. It is part of Donner's Nano Series of very small analog pedals.
How touch sensitive is the Donner Tube Drive Mini?
In a demo video, reviewer Shane of intheblues found it very touch sensitive: picking softly cleans the sound up, while picking hard pushes it into drive. He noted it is not a typical off-clean overdrive, and that winding up the gain takes it toward classic distortion.
Sources (1)
- Donner Tube Drive Pedal, intheblues (YouTube), 2016-09-30