The Kartakou Amplification Warmer Drive is a guitar overdrive pedal built in Belarus and based on the classic Tube Screamer circuit, as many overdrives are. What sets it apart from the many Tube Screamer-style pedals on the market is how far it opens the circuit up to the player: alongside the usual Volume, Gain and Tone knobs it carries two toggle switches, and it ships with five different interchangeable internal chips included so you can experiment with the voicing yourself1.
Controls and the interchangeable chips
The front panel carries the three knobs you would expect on a Tube Screamer-style overdrive: Volume, Gain and Tone1. The two toggles are where the Warmer Drive departs from the original design:
- Bass Boost toggle: Pedal of the Day's reviewer found that "the boost does just what it should, beefing up the low end and giving you that extra bass-y punch"1.
- Asymmetrical Clipping toggle (the Crunchy switch): a clipping mod that, in the reviewer's words, "basically gives you a little more 'oomph' in your sound, turning things a bit" heavier and crunchier1.
The chip socket is the deeper tweak. Some of the included chips have more of a volume boost, turning the drive into a higher-gain pedal, so the same box can be voiced anywhere from a clean-ish boost to a harder overdrive depending on which chip is installed1.
Swapping the internal chip means opening the pedal up. It is designed for quick changes, but it is still a modification inside the enclosure, not a panel control.
Power
The Warmer Drive runs on a DC 9V supply and draws 10 to 20 mA, with a dedicated Adaptor Jack alongside the input and output jacks1. At that draw it is an easy fit on any standard pedalboard power supply.
What Pedal of the Day said
Pedal of the Day featured the Warmer Drive in 2015, with reviewer Mike B noting that the pedal "has traveled to us all the way from Belarus"1. His verdict was positive on first contact:
"This one not only has great sounds right out of the box"
The related Warmer Overdrive, and the Warmer Drive name
Kartakou's line includes a closely related pedal, the Kartakou Warmer Overdrive. The Warmer Drive's asymmetrical clipping toggle, which gives a little more "oomph" and turns things a bit heavier and crunchier, is the kind of voicing mod that connects the two pedals' shared Warmer approach1.
A separate earlier pedal, the Andy Green Pedals Warmer Drive, was reviewed on Pedal of the Day in 2014; that unit was described as capable of adding 18db of boost to your signal, with the reviewer finding that "the Gain on this thing is awesome"2. It is a different maker's pedal that shares the Warmer Drive name, not a version of the Kartakou unit.
If you want to hear how the Warmer Drive's Tube Screamer roots compare with the original, see our Boss SD-1 vs Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer comparison, or browse more Overdrive Pedals.
Videos
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Questions
How much current does the Warmer Drive draw?
Pedal of the Day's review lists the current draw at 10 to 20 mA. That is a light load by pedal standards, so it sits comfortably on a daisy-chained supply alongside other compact pedals, as long as the supply itself is rated to cover everything plugged into it.
What does the Crunchy switch do on the Warmer Drive?
The Crunchy switch is an asymmetrical clipping toggle. Pedal of the Day described it as giving a little more oomph in your sound, turning things a bit heavier and crunchier. Delicious Audio, covering the related Warmer Overdrive, describes the same asymmetrical clipping mod as giving a little bit more of a crunchy sound.
Can the Warmer Drive run on a 9V adapter?
Yes. The review lists the power requirement as DC 9V, with a dedicated adaptor jack alongside the input and output jacks, so a standard 9V DC pedal adapter is what it is designed to use.
Sources (2)
- Kartakou Amplification Warmer Drive, Pedal of the Day, 2015-07-09
- Kartakou Warmer Overdrive, Delicious Audio, 2019-05-06
