Free The Tone SOV-2

The Free The Tone SOV-2 is an analog overdrive pedal from Japanese maker Free The Tone, designed by Yuki Hayashi¹. Its defining feature is its power circuit: a high-performance DC-DC converter inside the pedal steps the 9V input up to plus and minus 15 volts DC to feed the signal circuit, which Free The Tone says gives the pedal a wide dynamic range and rich expressiveness². MusicRadar's reviewers described its character as running from a strong, cleanish boost through to a thick overdrive, with a punch in the midrange that does not cut away bass and treble¹.

The pedal is discontinued: Free The Tone's product page lists it as production ended, at a list price of 40,040 yen including tax². The line's final form, the SOV-2-CS, ended production in 2018³.

The controls

The control set is minimal: three knobs on the red metal casing, labeled DRIVE, TONE and LEVEL²⁴. MusicRadar put it plainly in a later review of a hand-built iteration: "the 'standard' SOV-2 features remain: level, tone and drive controls and, well, that's it!"¹

On the hand-built version MusicRadar reviewed, the hand-written labels give what the reviewer called an ultra-boutique vibe, and Yuki Hayashi's signature on the front edge confirms the maker¹.

Power: 9V stepped up to plus and minus 15V inside

The SOV-2 runs on DC 9V, from either a 9V 006P battery (one ships with the pedal) or an AC adapter through its DC9V input jack². Inside, the story is different: the pedal uses a high-performance DC-DC converter in its internal power supply to step the 9V up to plus and minus 15 volts DC, which supplies the analog signal circuit². MusicRadar's 2012 review described this as "a special bipolar power supply that powers the internal circuitry with +/-15 volts"⁴.

That internal voltage is the whole point of the design. Free The Tone says the plus and minus 15Vdc internal step-up is what gives the pedal its wide dynamic range and rich expressiveness². The trade-off is current: the pedal draws about 90mA, a figure Free The Tone lists in its specifications² and which MusicRadar's reviewers called "a whopping 90mA current draw"¹.

The SOV-2's output load impedance is specified as 200 ohms or less².

From the SOV-1 to the SOV-2 and SOV-2-CS

Free The Tone tells the SOV-2's development story through its predecessor. The maker says explaining the SOV-2 requires first explaining the SOV-1, the previous model². The SOV-1 used an AC-powered supply circuit like recording equipment, and for the SOV-2 the maker decided to run the signal circuit at the same plus and minus 15Vdc⁵. To get there from a 9V pedal, Free The Tone adopted a high-performance DC-DC converter, which the maker notes was very expensive, and added a strong filter circuit to reduce converter oscillator noise².

The line did not stop at the SOV-2. The SOV-2-CS, a CUSTOM SERIES version, kept the same DRIVE, TONE and LEVEL controls and the same 9V power arrangement, with the internal converter boosting the 9Vdc input to plus and minus 15Vdc for the signal circuit³. Free The Tone says the SOV-2-CS uses no vacuum tubes, but was designed over many years with various measures to obtain soft harmonics and dynamics like a tube amplifier³. Its output load impedance is specified as 10k ohms or more³. Free The Tone calls the CUSTOM SERIES SOV-2 the final form of the SOV overdrive line, and states it ended production in 2018, missed by its users³.

A related pedal carries the SOV-2 name outside the Free The Tone line: the Providence Stampede OD SOV-2, which Providence describes as using a Single Contact True Bypass configuration so the signal passes through only one switch contact when bypassed⁶.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar reviewed the SOV-2 twice. The 2012 review found the pedal "primarily designed to offer natural overdrive while retaining the guitar's tone," and concluded that it "excels in all manner of blues and classic rock flavours," calling it a classy pedal with many options available through the guitar's pickup and volume controls⁴.

The later review, of a hand-built iteration from the designer's own hands, summed up the standard pedal's qualities¹:

MusicRadar review team¹

The same review noted the price as a reason to avoid, while conceding that "This iteration isn't cheap, but coming from the very hands of its designer, the custom kudos is undeniable"¹. Designer Yuki Hayashi maintains that his Free The Tone iteration is a more evolved entity¹. The review also names a player: UK blues guitarist Matt Schofield has been using a custom-made SOV-2 for years¹.

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