The Laffing Dog Blue Dog is an overdrive pedal from Laffing Dog Musical Entertainment, first announced in August 2012 as the first in the company's line of US-built, boutique-style effect pedals1. What sets it apart from a straightforward overdrive is that it carries two signals in parallel: a clean boost channel and an overdrive channel, which you blend against each other with the knobs. Premier Guitar's reviewer listed this as a pro, finding that the "blendable clean-boost and overdrive, in parallel channels, offers a very wide range of tones"2.
Tonally, the pedal aims at warmth rather than aggression. Premier Guitar described it as "delivering old-fashioned tube-y warmth rather than radical distortion"2. It was also designed to be interactive with the guitar's volume control: the overdrive cleans up nicely by simply rolling down the guitar's volume knob3, which is the behavior players expect from a good low-gain overdrive.
Overdrive blended with a clean boost
Most overdrive pedals process your whole signal through one clipping stage. The Blue Dog instead splits the job: one channel stays clean and boosted, the other is overdriven, and the two are summed at the output. The practical benefit is that you can keep the body and clarity of your clean tone underneath the drive, rather than having your entire signal clipped. Premier Guitar's reviewer found this parallel arrangement gave the pedal a very wide range of tones2.
The Gain knob determines the amount of overdrive2, and the character stays in warm, tube-like territory rather than pushing toward radical distortion2. Players who want a slightly boosted, slightly dirty edge can run the gain low and the clean level up; players who want more grind can push the gain and dial the clean channel back.
The five knobs
The Blue Dog carries five controls: Volume, Tone, Gain, Drive, and Clean2. Each has a distinct job, and two of them (Drive and Clean) work together to set the blend between the two channels.
| Knob | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Sets the overall output level of the summed signal2 |
| Tone | Cuts or boosts high-end in the overdriven signal2 |
| Gain | Determines the amount of overdrive2 |
| Drive | Sets the level of the overdriven signal in relation to the amount of clean boost2 |
| Clean | Controls the level of the clean boosted signal, attenuating low-end content and subtly boosting the highs as it is increased2 |
A few things follow from that layout. Tone cuts or boosts high-end in the overdriven signal, not the clean channel, so the clean path keeps its own character. Clean does more than a simple level control: it controls the level of the clean boosted signal while attenuating low-end content and subtly boosting the highs as it's increased. Drive and Clean together are the heart of the pedal, since Drive sets the level of the overdriven signal in relation to the amount of clean boost2.
Cleaning up with the guitar volume
The Blue Dog was designed from the start to respond to the guitar's volume knob. Rolling the guitar volume down cleans up the overdrive nicely3. In use, that means one setting on the pedal can cover several levels of intensity: full up for drive, rolled back for a cleaner, quieter tone. Premier Guitar's review found the pedal's voice sat in old-fashioned, tube-y warmth rather than radical distortion2, which is the territory where this kind of volume-knob cleanup works best.
Build, power, and origin
The Blue Dog is housed in a rugged, fairly innocuous looking aluminum chassis that Premier Guitar's reviewer found reasonably light, with a modest footprint2. It was designed and built in the USA3, and Guitar Interactive reported it as the first in Laffing Dog's line of US-built, boutique-style pedals1.
Power comes from 9-volt operation with a standard DC input3. There is a 9V adapter jack on the pedal, and a removable back plate for battery access, taking one 9V battery2. So it works either on a powered pedalboard or on its own with a battery.
The Blue Dog has both a 9V adapter jack and a 9V battery compartment accessed through a removable back plate2. If you run it on battery, remember that most pedals of this kind drain the battery whenever a cable is plugged into the input, so unplug when you are finished playing.
Videos
Lasse Lammert
Gordon Power
Questions
Is the Laffing Dog Blue Dog true bypass?
Yes. The Blue Dog has a true bypass on/off switch, so when it is off the guitar signal passes through without the pedal's circuitry in the path. This was listed in the original 2012 announcement and confirmed in Premier Guitar's review.
Does the Blue Dog take a battery?
Yes. It runs on one 9V battery, accessed through a removable back plate, and it also has a 9V adapter jack for a standard power supply. Either option works, so it fits a pedalboard with a power brick or stands alone.
Does the Blue Dog clean up with the guitar volume?
Yes. It was designed to be interactive with the guitar's volume control, and the overdrive cleans up nicely by simply rolling down the guitar's volume knob. That makes it easy to move from driven to cleaner tones without touching the pedal.
Where is the Laffing Dog Blue Dog made?
The Blue Dog was designed and built in the USA. It was the first in Laffing Dog's line of US-built, boutique-style effect pedals when it was announced in August 2012.
What does the Clean knob do?
The Clean knob controls the level of the clean boosted signal, while attenuating low-end content and subtly boosting the highs as you turn it up. It sets how much of your untouched tone is blended with the overdriven signal.
Sources (3)
- Laffing Dog Unveils Blue Dog Overdrive Pedal, Guitar Interactive Magazine, 2012-08-03
- Laffing Dog Blue Dog Overdrive Pedal Review, Premier Guitar, 2012-12-10
- Laffing Dog Unveils Blue Dog Overdrive Pedal, Premier Guitar, 2012-08-02