Marla Amplification Geriatric Chihuahua Overdrive w/Boost

The Geriatric Chihuahua Overdrive w/Boost is an overdrive with a built-in boost side, made by Marla Amplification in Asheville, North Carolina. Pedal of the Day featured it on 21 July 2026 as the first pedal released by the company, built by founder Anthony¹.

At its core it is what Pedal of the Day calls "a wildly dynamic MOSFET overdrive," a clipping design known for responding closely to picking strength and guitar volume. The boost side sits on top of that: engaging it, in the site's words, means "the bark turns into a bite; tightening the low end, adding sustain"¹.

What it does

The pedal covers a wide gain range. Pedal of the Day describes it as "capable of everything from subtle 'always-on' amp enhancement to enough gain to rip paint off the walls of your rehearsal space," so it can be used as a light touch of grit in front of a clean amp or pushed well into heavier territory¹. For players comparing circuit types, it sits between the gentler end of Overdrive Pedals and the harder clipping of Distortion Pedals, with the boost side doing the work of a separate Boost Pedals unit.

The boost itself does three things at once: it tightens the low end, adds sustain, and increases saturation, which is a way of saying it firms up the sound and pushes the overdrive harder without adding a separate pedal to the board¹.

Build and controls

Each unit is built by hand. Pedal of the Day notes that "each Geriatric Chihuahua is hand-stuffed, hand-soldered, tested, and cranked irresponsibly loud" in Asheville, North Carolina¹.

One detail sets the control layout apart: the knobs carry no markings. As the feature puts it, "You might notice that none of the knobs are labeled," a deliberate choice meant to encourage listening and exploration rather than dialing to printed numbers¹. Players used to preset positions may want to mark their favorite settings themselves.

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