J Rockett Blue Note Overdrive Tour Series

The J Rockett Blue Note Overdrive Tour Series is a compact, low-gain overdrive pedal from J Rockett, released in November 2016 as part of the company's Tour Series line. It is a small version of the Pro Series Blue Note, built for players who want that pedal's warm, dynamic break-up in a tougher, smaller box for the pedalboard¹².

MusicRadar described it at launch as "subtle, dynamic overdrive that sits on the edge of break-up" and called it "one of the warmest" overdrives around, a pedal suited to jazz and blues³. J Rockett's own product page says it is identical in sound to the original Blue Note and aimed at the jazz and blues world⁴.

A compact Blue Note for the edge of break-up

The Blue Note sits at the low-gain end of the overdrive spectrum. Premier Guitar's launch coverage quoted the company calling it "one of the warmest, most musical overdrives on the market, with amazing touch sensitivity and responsiveness"⁶. Guitar.com's Richard Purvis, reviewing the Tour Series in August 2016, found that character held up in practice:

That places it with pedals designed to push an amp that is already working rather than to create distortion on their own. Delicious Audio's write-up of the Blue Note family makes the same point about how to use it: the best results come when the amp is just past the minimum edge of breakup, so the pedal adds grit and touch response on top of that⁷.

The Blue Note circuit is widely considered J Rockett's take on the Blues Breaker circuit, though the company has been challenging that assumption⁷. Pedal of the Day's earlier review of the original Blue Note instead framed it as a TS-style circuit, comparing it to a Tube Screamer⁸.

Controls and the Speed Switch

The Tour Series keeps the Blue Note's four-knob control set, plus a bypass footswitch¹⁵:

The "Speed Switch" system is the Tour Series' headline feature: J Rockett built the pedal for the touring musician with a rugged, steel enclosure and this new switching setup, which MusicRadar described as Speed Switch true bypass switching⁴¹². The input and output jacks sit at the head of the pedal rather than the sides, which saves board space⁶.

How it differs from the Pro Series Blue Note

The Tour Series is a small, compact version of the then-current Pro Series Blue Note⁶. J Rockett says it is essentially the same pedal as the Pro Series Blue Note OD, except for one omission: the Hot Switch¹. That toggle, in the middle of the original pedal, adds gain and a volume boost when engaged, which Pedal of the Day's reviewer found gave "a great singing lead tone that is perfect for blues"⁸. The Tour Series does not offer it⁴¹.

The maker says the sound is identical to the original Blue Note⁴. The practical trade-offs are size, the tougher steel enclosure, and the missing Hot Switch. Tone Island's Adam Connell, in a buying guide on Blues Breaker-style pedals, noted one drawback from his own unit: "The Tour Series version that I have is a bit lacking in the gain and level department"⁵. He also observed that both the Tour Series and a newer Pro Series version appeared to still be in production at around the same price⁵.

The line continued after the Tour Series. J Rockett later released the Blue Note Select, a V2 combining features of the Pro Series (with its Hot switch) and the Tour Series (without), reinstating the Hot toggle in a compact pedal with a reworked circuit, at $229⁷⁹. Guitar World's Trevor Curwen called the Select "an excellent overdrive that may find its best use as the sole dirt pedal in front of an amp that's starting to cook"⁹.

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