Okko Diablo GH

The Okko Diablo GH is a signature overdrive pedal from German maker Okko FX, built in collaboration with blues guitarist and guitar collector Gregor Hilden. It is a two-in-one pedal: a dynamic overdrive circuit descended from the Okko Diablo, plus an independent, footswitchable clean boost with its own tone control placed after the drive section¹. Okko FX describes it as a "super-dynamic overdrive and clean boost" offering "exceptional dynamic qualities and super-clear, warm tone in a precisely adjustable 2-in-1 Overdrive"².

The Diablo GH launched on 20 April 2017 at $249 USD, with a European recommended price of €249¹³. Its Dyn(amic) control adjusts an internal voltage doubler from six to 18 volts for tweaks to sag and compression².

An overdrive with a footswitchable clean boost

The Diablo GH is, at heart, the Okko Diablo circuit, a pedal Okko FX has built its reputation on. Gearnews characterized the original Diablo as "a versatile low to medium gain overdrive with an exceptionally dynamic response," one that preserves the character of your instrument and stays sensitive to your playing technique⁴. That low to medium gain character carries into the GH: this is a drive pedal for touch and dynamics rather than high-gain saturation, sitting closer to the overdrive end of the spectrum than distortion or fuzz.

What separates the GH from the standard Diablo is the added boost stage. MusicRadar described it as "an independent footswitchable clean boost with tone control, positioned post-overdrive," promising a "clean boost for tone connoisseurs"¹. Because the boost sits after the drive, it raises the volume of your driven sound rather than pushing the overdrive into more gain, which makes it a natural fit for jumping from rhythm to lead levels. The boost knob is simply a master volume for that stage, with its gain fixed².

Okko FX also makes a point about how the drive section behaves with amplifiers: "Unlike many other overdrives it works perfectly with clean amps"². Many overdrives are voiced to stack into an already-breaking-up amp; the Diablo GH is designed to create its own overdrive character into a clean platform.

The controls

The Diablo GH carries the Diablo's unusual control set, which goes beyond the usual gain, tone and level knobs⁴. Each control is documented by the maker², with the press filling in details at launch¹³.

Two of these deserve explanation. The DYN control is the most unusual: by sweeping an internal voltage doubler from six to 18 volts, it changes the pedal's headroom. As the maker puts it, "Increasing the headroom results in less compression, tighter bass and more punch"²¹. At lower internal voltage the pedal sags and compresses more; at higher voltage it opens up and tightens. The INPUT mini-switch serves a similar matching role, letting you set input sensitivity to suit the output of your particular pickups, a feature Gearnews highlighted for dialing in optimum sensitivity³.

On the original Diablo, the Body control affected mids and compression⁴. On the GH it is voiced differently, adding low mids in the first gain stage specifically for thicker, singing lead sounds².

Gregor Hilden's signature Diablo

The GH exists because of a long relationship between a player and a pedal. Gregor Hilden was one of the first players to buy an Okko Diablo when Okko FX started out, more than ten years before the GH's release, and according to the maker he "kept the Diablo as THE overdrive ever since that day, playing it in hundreds of shows and the numerous guitar demo videos in his GregsGuitars Youtube channel"²³. Gearnews noted he is famous for continually using the pedal on his YouTube channel to demonstrate vintage guitars³.

The signature model was Okko FX's way of acknowledging that loyalty: as the maker's page puts it, "High time to say THANK YOU with this signature model"². MusicRadar reported the collaboration between Okko FX and Hilden at launch¹.

For players interested in the Diablo family more broadly, the regular Diablo has a long history with Gregor Hilden himself: he has kept it as his main overdrive, playing it in hundreds of shows and in the numerous guitar demo videos on his GregsGuitars YouTube channel². The Diablo GH Signature grew out of that relationship, made by Okko FX as a thank you to Hilden for more than ten years of demonstrating the pedal on his channel².

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