Free The Tone OVERDRIVELAND ODL-1A-CS

The Free The Tone OVERDRIVELAND ODL-1A-CS is an analog overdrive pedal from Free The Tone's Custom Shop line. Free The Tone says it was built to express a player's individuality with the glossy, commanding character of Dumble amplifiers, which the maker notes are now hard to obtain¹. The reference circuit for the design was the later-type Dumble Overdrive Special¹.

The designer is Free The Tone's representative, Hayashi, who the maker says has serviced and repaired more than 20 Dumble amplifiers and owned several himself¹. That service history is the basis of the circuit: the normal channel deliberately uses no clipping diodes or LEDs, so the overdrive comes from the amplifier-style circuit itself rather than from diode clipping¹.

The ODL-1A-CS is a customized version of the ODL-1-CS: the sound is unchanged, but a CH.CONT terminal has been added so an external switch can select between the NORMAL and DRIVE channels¹.

A Dumble Overdrive Special in a pedal

Dumble amplifiers, and the Overdrive Special in particular, are hand-built amps that rarely change hands, which is why so many pedal makers try to capture their character in a stompbox. Free The Tone's approach differs from most Dumble-inspired pedals in one stated way: the normal channel of the OVERDRIVELAND uses no clipping diodes or LEDs at all¹. Most overdrive pedals get their distortion from diodes shunting the signal, so a diode-free circuit behaves more like a small amplifier being pushed.

Free The Tone describes the result this way: raising the normal channel's GAIN gradually adds distortion, and even with the GAIN knob below 12 o'clock the clean sound contains rich harmonic content¹. The DRIVE channel adds the second voice, and the two channels have independent level controls, so the pedal can work as a clean-ish platform on one channel and a lead voice on the other.

The controls

The control set is shared with the ODL-1-CS and is dense for a compact pedal¹²:

The GLASS position is the one Free The Tone explains in detail: with the TONE circuit bypassed, the normal channel takes on a glassy tone the maker compares to a blackface Fender Vibroverb with its Bright switch on¹. That makes the EQ ON/GLASS switch a choice between a shaped tone and a brighter, more open one, in the way an amp's bright switch works.

Power: 9V, 120mA, with an internal boost to higher voltage

The pedal runs from a DC9V center-negative AC adapter and draws 120mA¹. Free The Tone lists its own separately sold SP-9, FA-W0905-DJA and FA-0905D-JA adapters as compatible, and says any regulated DC9V center-negative adapter can be used¹.

The interesting part of the power design is inside. The pedal contains a boost power circuit that raises the voltage supplied to the analog circuit from DC9V up to a maximum of DC19V¹. In the standard version the choice is between the external DC9V input and the internal boost supply at DC14.5V¹. The DC9V/VARIABLE switch and the voltage adjustment trimmer are how the player selects and sets this¹.

For a player, this matters because a higher internal supply voltage gives the op-amp circuit more headroom before it clips, which changes both the clean headroom and the character of the overdrive, in the same way an amp's supply voltage shapes its breakup.

External channel switching

The difference between this pedal and the ODL-1-CS is the CH.CONT terminal, a 1/4-inch standard phone jack that accepts Free The Tone ARC series control terminals or latch-type footswitches¹. With a latch-type footswitch connected, you can switch between the NORMAL and DRIVE channels remotely, which suits a larger board where the pedal sits out of foot reach, or a rig where you want channel changes on a secondary switcher¹.

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