Free The Tone Red Jasper

The Free The Tone Red Jasper is a low-gain overdrive pedal from Japanese effects maker Free The Tone, the company's first drive pedal of that type¹. It was designed around the sound of a cranked vintage tube amp: RockBoard's PedalPedia describes smooth highs, punchy mids, full but tight lows, and a natural, pleasing compression feel¹. Designer Yuki Hayashi told MusicRadar that both the natural overdrive of cranked valve amps and the Klon Centaur inspired the pedal², and Pedal of the Day's 2015 review called it "a wonderful overdrive that mimics a certain horse-graphic-inspired pedal that shall remain nameless"³.

The original RJ-1V was discontinued in 2018 when some of its component parts became hard to obtain⁴, and the pedal returned three years later as the reissued Red Jasper, which builds on the original design⁴⁵⁶.

A Klon-style overdrive and boost

Free The Tone bills the Red Jasper as a low-gain overdrive built to capture what RockBoard's PedalPedia calls "these magical attributes that only superb vintage tube amps can usually produce"¹. In practice that puts it in the same family as the Klon Centaur: a pedal that can sit nearly clean as a boost and push an amp into breakup rather than generate heavy distortion on its own.

Pedal of the Day's Mike B found exactly that range in the original pedal⁴:

The 2022 review of the reissue made the same point about range, calling it a pedal that "could be an always-on unit, a solo boost component, or an all-show rock and roll machine"⁴.

The pedal sits in a slightly larger die-cast case than a compact mini pedal, a choice Free The Tone made with "first priority placed on sound"⁹. MusicRadar notes the RJ-1V is similar in size to Free The Tone's Heat Blaster HB-2 distortion, with a fairly wide 100mm die-cast enclosure².

The controls: Drive, Hi-Cut, Level

Both versions keep the control panel to three knobs: DRIVE, HI-CUT and LEVEL⁷⁵. MusicRadar called the layout "simplicity itself"².

The HI-CUT control works differently from a typical treble-cut knob in that it can also add high end. Mike B described it as "a treble boost/tone control, adding in as much high-end as you need, without piercing your eardrums"³. The tone circuit is a passive type, adopted to minimize phase errors in the guitar signal and obtain a natural tone⁹. On the Level control, he found "there's enough to make it stand out, but not too much in that it will totally overtake your amplifier and guitar's original tone"³.

The original and the reissue

The RJ-1V was Free The Tone's first low-gain drive pedal and won popularity in that role⁴. Production ended in 2018 because some parts became difficult to obtain⁵, and after three years the Red Jasper returned in reissued form⁶.

The main functional difference is that mode switch. Premier Guitar describes it as a "Mode switch to select low end frequency characteristics from four settings"¹⁰, and Delicious Audio lists the four positions:

According to Delicious Audio, the low end of the bass range is gradually cut moving from setting A to setting D⁶. Pedal of the Day summed up the reissue's control set as "It's awesome what 3 knobs and a switch can do sometimes"⁴.

The two versions also differ slightly in current draw: about 15mA for the RJ-1V⁷ and 11mA for the reissue⁵. Both run on a 9V DC center-negative supply or a 9V type 006P battery¹⁵, and both measure 100(W) x 123(D) x 53(H) mm including protrusions such as the footswitch and jacks, weighing about 320g without the battery⁷⁵. The reissue lists an input impedance of 390kΩ and an output load impedance of 10kΩ or higher⁵.

What is Free The Tone HTS circuitry?

Inside the Red Jasper is what Free The Tone calls its Holistic Tonal Solution (HTS) circuitry². Guitar Interactive Magazine described it as "Free The Tone's original HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit that manages signals comprehensively from input to output"⁹.

The HTS circuit performs impedance conversion while drawing out the guitar's sound character, combining sound quality with low noise⁵. Its most practical benefit for a pedalboard: the maker states that the HTS circuit prevents tone degradation even when the effect is off⁵, so the pedal buffers your signal in bypass rather than passing it through unbuffered. Delicious Audio and Pedal of the Day both note this same behavior on the reissue, describing it as preventing degradation of the guitar's timbre even when the effect is turned off⁴⁶.

Premier Guitar also highlighted the reissue's "Astoundingly excellent signal-to-noise ratio"¹⁰.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's review of the RJ-1V found "warm, natural overdrive tones. Ideal for classic rock and blues," while listing the pedal as pricey². The same review noted a pairing caveat: into a 6L6-powered amp with more headroom, the pedal accentuated softer fuzz-tones at the cost of some bite and definition, and worked best as a clean boost with the gain low and the level high².

Pedal of the Day's 2015 review of the original was more casual in its verdict³:

On the reissue, Pedal of the Day concluded that "The range from [boost] to breakup to crunch to amp-driving glory is impressive"⁴.

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