Free The Tone RED JASPER RJ-2V

The Free The Tone RED JASPER RJ-2V is a low-gain overdrive pedal from Japanese maker Free The Tone. It is a revival of the original Red Jasper RJ-1V, which was discontinued in 2018; the RJ-2V brought the pedal back after three years¹. Premier Guitar describes it as an overdrive that "builds off of the original RJ-1V and features a sound resembling vintage tube amps"².

Free The Tone's own description of the sound is specific: smooth highs, punchy mids, full but tight lows, and a natural, pleasing compression feel, in the manner of a vintage tube amp³. Pedal of the Day echoed the same character list when the pedal was announced⁴. The RJ-2V's main addition over the RJ-1V is an internal mode switch with four low-frequency settings, so you can match the pedal's low end to your guitar and amplifier¹.

What the Red Jasper does to your sound

The RJ-2V is built as a low-gain drive, the kind of pedal you use to push an amp gently rather than to generate distortion itself. Free The Tone positions it as a player's pedal, describing it on its product page as a low-gain drive pedal that stimulates the player's heart³. The tonal target is a vintage tube amp: smooth highs, punchy mids, full but tight lows, and a natural compression feel³.

Because the gain is low, the pedal's job is mostly shaping where the signal sits. That is where its two tone-shaping features come in: a passive Hi-Cut circuit for the top end, and a mode switch with four settings for the bottom end. Neither is a full EQ; both are narrow, deliberate controls over the two frequency regions where an overdrive pedal most often goes wrong³¹².

The controls: DRIVE, HI-CUT and LEVEL

The RJ-2V keeps the same three-knob layout as the original RJ-1V: DRIVE, HI-CUT and LEVEL³.

The HI-CUT control is the interesting one. Delicious Audio describes it as working "in a way similar to the electric guitar's tone knob," gently cutting the amount of high end rather than acting as a wide tone stack¹. Pedal of the Day noted the same behavior, that turning the knob counterclockwise cuts the highs gently⁴. For a player, that means the control behaves like a familiar tone knob on the guitar itself: one knob, one direction, predictable results. Pedal of the Day's verdict on the control set was simple: "It's awesome what 3 knobs and a switch can do sometimes"⁴.

The mode switch: four low-end settings

The feature that separates the RJ-2V from the RJ-1V is the internal mode switch. Delicious Audio explains that it "newly adds a mode switch to select from four modes of different low frequency characteristics (cut-off frequencies) to adjust lower register output to suit the guitar/amplifier"¹. Premier Guitar describes it the same way: a mode switch to select low-end frequency characteristics from four settings².

The settings are made with two internal switches, SW1 and SW2, and the low end of the bass range is cut gradually as you move from setting A to setting D¹:

Setting C, with SW1 off and SW2 on, is how the pedal ships from the factory³¹. The practical use is matching the pedal to your rig: a bright single-coil guitar into a small combo might want setting A, while a bass-heavy rig into a big amp might tighten up at setting D.

The HTS buffer and passive Hi-Cut circuit

Inside the RJ-2V is Free The Tone's own HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit. According to the maker, this buffer performs impedance conversion while drawing out the guitar's sound character, combines sound quality with low noise, and prevents tone degradation when the effect is off³. Delicious Audio puts it in plainer terms: the HTS circuit "performs impedance conversion while fully bringing out sound characteristics of the guitar and prevents degradation of guitar timbre even when the effect is turned off"¹.

The Hi-Cut tone circuit is a passive design, chosen, as Delicious Audio reports, "to minimize phase error in guitar signal"¹. A passive circuit cannot boost anything, but it avoids the phase shifts an active tone stage can introduce into the signal.

The high input impedance of 390kΩ³ is part of how the buffer does its job: it lets the full character of the pickups through rather than loading them down, and it keeps the bypassed signal intact when the pedal is off.

Power, size and connections

The RJ-2V runs on a DC 9V center-negative AC adapter through its DC9V input jack, or on a 9V 006P-type battery³. Current draw is 11mA³, low enough that a battery is a realistic option and the pedal is easy on a pedalboard power supply.

The pedal uses 1/4-inch standard phone jacks for input and output, as on the RJ-1V⁵⁶, and weighs about 320g without the battery³.

The RJ-1V and RJ-2V compared

The original Red Jasper RJ-1V was discontinued in 2018, and the RJ-2V is its revival after three years¹. Both pedals share the DRIVE, HI-CUT and LEVEL control set³ and the same vintage-tube-amp tonal brief. The difference is the mode switch: the RJ-1V had no low-end mode selection, while the RJ-2V adds the four-setting switch for matching the low end to the guitar and amp²¹.

What reviewers said

Coverage of the RJ-2V at announcement was positive about the concept. Premier Guitar framed it as an overdrive building on the RJ-1V with a vintage tube amp sound and the new mode switch². Pedal of the Day highlighted the HTS buffer and the Hi-Cut circuit, and summed up the control set approvingly⁴. Delicious Audio detailed the mode switch settings and the passive Hi-Cut design¹.

On price, MusicRadar's review of the original RJ-1V, by Jamie Dickson, listed the pedal's drawbacks in one word: "Pricey."⁵ Free The Tone's Japanese product page lists the RJ-2V at 34,100 yen including tax³; no US price is given in the maker's specifications.

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