Free The Tone RJ-2V Red Jasper Overdrive

The Free The Tone RJ-2V Red Jasper is a low-gain overdrive pedal from Japanese maker Free The Tone, a redesigned reissue of the original RJ-1V Red Jasper¹²³. It is built around a sound the maker and press both describe in the same terms: the character of a vintage tube amp, with smooth highs, punchy mids, full but tight lows, and a natural, pleasing compression feel¹⁴.

The RJ-2V keeps the Red Jasper's three-knob format and adds one new feature over the original: an internal mode switch with four settings that shape the pedal's low-end response²⁴. Free The Tone positions it as a drive pedal that stimulates the player's heart, in the maker's own words, a low-gain drive pedal¹.

A vintage tube amp style overdrive

The Red Jasper line began with the RJ-1V, which MusicRadar billed as Free The Tone's first "low-gain overdrive"⁶. The RJ-2V builds off of the original, and Delicious Audio calls it the redesigned reissue of this popular Japanese low-gain overdrive²⁴.

The sound both versions aim for is described in nearly identical language by the maker's own materials and the press: smooth highs, punchy mids, full but tight lows, and a natural and pleasing compression feel, with the maker adding that the pedal is sensitive and responsive¹⁴⁵. In other words, it is voiced for the gentle breakup of a tube amp pushed into overdrive rather than high-gain distortion.

Part of how it gets there is the tone circuit. Instead of a conventional tone control, the Red Jasper uses a passive hi-cut circuit with minimum phase error in the guitar signal, which Free The Tone says attains high-fidelity amplification and keeps the guitar's original timbre⁴. Delicious Audio also credits the RJ-2V with an astoundingly excellent signal-to-noise ratio².

The controls: Drive, Hi-Cut, Level and a four-way mode switch

On the outside the RJ-2V is simple: three knobs and a footswitch⁴.

The HI-CUT control is worth a note for players used to a standard tone knob. Because it is a passive hi-cut circuit, it only rolls off high frequencies, and it does so gently as you turn it counterclockwise⁴. It cannot boost treble, it can only tame it.

The fourth control lives inside the pedal. The RJ-2V newly adds an internal mode switch that selects from four modes of different low-frequency characteristics, expressed as cut-off frequencies, so you can adjust the lower register output to suit your guitar and amplifier²⁴. Premier Guitar describes it as a mode switch to select low end frequency characteristics from four settings³.

The four settings are set by two internal DIP switches²:

The low end of the bass range is cut gradually as you move from setting A to setting D². Setting C, with SW1 off and SW2 on, is how the pedal ships from the factory².

Pedal of the Day summed up the control set: "It's awesome what 3 knobs and a switch can do sometimes"⁴.

Power and connections

The RJ-2V runs on a DC9V AC adapter with a center-negative plug, connected through a DC9V input jack, or on a 9V-type 006P battery¹. Current draw is 11mA¹, low enough that it is easy on most pedalboard power supplies.

For signal connections, the pedal has an input impedance of 390kΩ and is designed for an output load impedance of 10kΩ or higher¹.

The HTS buffer and bypass

Inside the RJ-2V is Free The Tone's original HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit⁴. It performs impedance conversion while fully bringing out the sound characteristics of the guitar, and it prevents degradation of the guitar's timbre even when the effect is turned off⁴. In practice this means the pedal acts as a buffer in bypass, so long cable runs after it lose less high end than they would through an unbuffered true-bypass pedal.

What reviewers said

Pedal of the Day, covering the RJ-2V around its release, found a lot of range in a low-gain box⁴:

They concluded it could serve as an always-on unit, a solo boost component, or an all-show rock and roll machine⁴.

On the original RJ-1V, MusicRadar's Jamie Dickson noted the pedal was pricey⁶. The RJ-2V was announced as an upcoming release in March 2022, with availability expected about a month later⁴.

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