Drunk Beaver The Forest Song

The Forest Song is an analog overdrive pedal by Drunk Beaver, described by RockBoard's PedalPedia as "a bold reinvention of the classic Tube Screamer" that boasts "both loud and transparent qualities" and can switch between clean and dirty sounds¹. Guitar Pedal X calls the v3.0 "Drunk Beaver's high-voltage, multi-clipping TS808-style overdrive," which places its circuit in the same family as the Ibanez Tube Screamer while changing what players usually find there².

Two things set it apart from a stock Tube Screamer derivative. First, it offers six clipping options on a selector, from a clean boost through five different clipping diode types. Second, it runs its internal circuit at high voltage, approximately 18V or 30V, while drawing from an ordinary 9V power supply¹².

Controls and clipping modes

The v3.0's control set is Volume, Resonance, Drive, and a Mode (Clipping) selector offering Boost / LED / MOSFET / Si / Ge / Asym Si². For a player coming from a Tube Screamer, the differences are immediate: instead of a single Tone knob, there is the Resonance control, and instead of one fixed clipping arrangement, there are six.

The Resonance knob is the tonal heart of the pedal. It combines two peak filters, at 500Hz and 800Hz, that are cut or boosted together². Both frequencies sit in the midrange where a guitar's body lives, so the knob shifts the pedal's midrange character as a linked pair rather than as a broad treble roll-off like a Tube Screamer's Tone control.

The clipping selector gives six flavors of overdrive in one box. Boost is the first option, giving the pedal its own clean boost onboard². The remaining five positions, LED, MOSFET, Si (silicon), Ge (germanium), and Asym Si (asymmetric silicon), are different diode arrangements that clip the signal in different ways, from the tighter, more compressed feel of silicon to the softer, more textured breakup associated with germanium.

Power and the high-voltage circuit

The Forest Song's unusual feature is that it operates at two high voltages, 18V and 30V, internally, while still using a standard 9V power supply¹. The Volts switch selects between approximately 18V and 30V². Higher internal headroom is the usual reason a maker does this: it lets the overdrive stay cleaner and more open before the clipping stages do their work.

Versions and editions

The Forest Song's version history is unusual. The first official release was a V3, and Guitar Pedal X's reviewer also owns an early V1 prototype in which the Germanium clipping was weak³. Before the official release there was a v1.3, which the reviewer owned for over a year².

The v3.0 was refined after the v1.3 to improve the Ge clipping mode, calibration, and voltage regulation, with designer Vitalii going "back to the drawing board twice"². The changes were aimed squarely at the v1.3's weak spots:

• On the v1.3, the Ge clipping mode suffered a volume drop and was not as harmonic².
• On the v3.0, all modes are balanced without significant volume drop².
• Ge on the v3.0 delivers especially strong breakup textures and harmonics².

The reviewer's verdict on the turnaround is blunt:

Guitar Pedal X, February 2024²

The first batch of the v3.0 sold out quickly, and a second batch was released alongside Guitar Pedal X's February 2024 review at $175 on the Drunk-Beaver.Rocks webstore². The pedal, listed as the Forest Song Resonant High Voltage Overdrive, still appeared at $175 in Guitar Pedal X's December 2024 roundup of the year's best new boost and overdrive pedals³.

Where it sits among Drunk Beaver's overdrives

Drunk Beaver has built much of its catalog around reimagined classic circuits, and the Forest Song is its take on the classic Tube Screamer. Other overdrives in the range include the Khmelnytskyi OD and the Olbia Overdrive. The Forest Song stands apart from both as a high-voltage, multi-clipping TS808-style overdrive¹².

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