Electric Love Aquatone

The Electric Love Aquatone is an overdrive and distortion pedal built as a collaboration between Ben Carlin's Electric Love brand and Brian Wampler of Wampler Pedals. It is a reworking of the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver circuit, and what sets it apart from most Blues Driver derivatives is its active three-band EQ, which Guitar Pedal X called "the first proper 3-Band EQ take on the Blues Driver"¹. A two-position toggle switch moves the pedal between a lower-gain overdrive mode and a high-gain distortion mode².

The Aquatone was also a charity release. Launched for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2023, Electric Love pledged that 100% of profits from Aquatone sales would go directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), with a minimum donation of $1,000²³.

A Blues Driver with a three-band EQ and a gain switch

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver that the Aquatone builds on is itself a well-established design. Boss designed it with a flatter EQ profile and a very reactive first gain stage, aiming to capture the complexities of a cooking tube amp, in contrast to the Tube Screamer's approach of boosting your tubes⁸. Guitar World describes the result as a fuller, more amp-like tone with extra volume and gain compared with the Tube Screamer⁹.

The Aquatone takes that platform and expands it. Delicious Audio calls it "a reimagining of the iconic Boss Blues Driver" and notes that it provides both lower-gain overdrive and higher-gain distortion options². The additions over the stock BD-2 format are:

• An active three-band EQ (Bass, Mids, Treble) for tone shaping⁴²
• A two-position toggle switch selecting Overdrive or High-Gain Distortion modes²
• A gain structure that Guitar Pedal X later summarized as "a brilliant expansion of the Boss BD-2, with 3-Band EQ, and 2-way Mode Switch"¹⁰

Pedal of the Day framed the pedal's appeal in terms of that flexibility, describing "an ingeniously designed switch to transition from lower gain overdrive to higher gain distortion, all while offering an advanced, active 3-band EQ"⁴.

The controls

The Aquatone carries five knobs and one toggle. Guitar World notes that both gain modes "are answerable to Gain, Volume, Bass, Mids and Treble parameters"³.

Because the EQ is active rather than the BD-2's single passive tone control, the three bands can boost as well as cut, which is what Guitar Pedal X meant in calling it the first proper three-band EQ take on the Blues Driver format¹.

The charity angle

The Aquatone was a charity-driven release for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2023⁴. The donation terms were set out at launch:

• 100% of all Aquatone profits pledged to BCRF in fiscal years 2023 to 2024²
• A minimum donation of $1,000 committed by Electric Love²
• The total donation amount to be disclosed on Electric Love's Reverb shop²⁴

Guitar World reported the same arrangement, noting the pedal "is being sold on Reverb in support of breast cancer research"³.

Release and availability

The Aquatone was released in 2023 at $199⁷. An initial run of about 80 units was followed by reopened preorders for late November and early December 2023 shipping, at the same $199 price¹. Sales ran through Electric Love's Reverb shop, where the donation total was to be posted²³.

What reviewers said

Coverage of the Aquatone was positive across the outlets that wrote about it. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson, writing at launch, expected it to displace his current favorite in the genre¹:

In Guitar Pedal X's roundup of the best new boost and overdrive pedals of 2023, he went further⁷⁵:

In a follow-up Blues Driver survey, he called it "one of my big hits of 2023" and said it "really takes the Blues Driver format forward in the best way," describing it as a more granular, extended-range Blues Driver for BD-2 fans⁷. Pedal of the Day highlighted the same qualities at launch, praising the gain switch and the active EQ for "unparalleled tone-shaping possibilities"⁴.

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