Orion Effekte Western Drive 2

The Western Drive 2 from Orion Effekte is an overdrive pedal for guitar and bass, and like its predecessor, the Western Drive, it is built as an analog circuit¹. RockBoard's PedalPedia describes its sound as "dry, bony and rough with a vintage touch"¹. For a bass player looking at overdrive pedals or bass pedals generally, it is a straightforward drive unit: one pedal, one sound family, with a switch that opens up a second character.

What version 2 changes

The main difference from the original Western Drive is the case and the added switch. New to version 2 is a smaller case and a toggle switch that selects a second distortion characteristic¹. The toggle has two positions, and the first of them keeps the original sound of the pedal:

• Level 1: the well-known Western Drive sound with silicon clipping diodes¹

The second toggle position selects the added distortion characteristic, which is the reason a player would pick version 2 over the earlier Western Drive¹.

Power and setup

The pedal runs on 9V DC with a center negative plug and draws 4mA¹. That low current draw means it sits comfortably on any pedalboard power supply without worrying about headroom, and it is the kind of figure that leaves room for daisy chaining with other low-draw pedals on the same output.

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