SolidGoldFX Commodore

The SolidGoldFX Commodore is a low to mid-gain overdrive pedal inspired by the early 90s Marshall BluesBreaker, built by the Canadian maker SolidGoldFX and hand-made in Montreal, Canada¹. Its circuit mates a specially tuned Bluesbreaker-style drive stage with asymmetric clipping to the tone-shaping output section of the company's Imperial MkII fuzz, and its most distinctive feature is its control layout: four oversized sliders, with no knobs anywhere on the enclosure¹².

SolidGoldFX describes the result as "organic and natural sounding drive ranging from sweet and mellow to hot and spicy," with the Tone and Contour sliders able to dial in anything from black panel spank to Vox-ey chime and British growl¹. It launched on 15 March 2022 at a list price of $199, and MusicRadar reported it as available now at launch²³.

A Bluesbreaker-style low to mid-gain overdrive

The Commodore belongs to the family of pedals descended from the Marshall BluesBreaker, the low-gain overdrive that gave this circuit style its name. Delicious Audio's coverage put it plainly: "This pedal ain't a fuzz, though, but a Marshall Bluesbreaker overdrive variant"⁴. What separates the Commodore from a straight clone is its output section: the tuned Bluesbreaker-style drive stage feeds the EQ output section taken from SolidGoldFX's own Imperial MkII fuzz, consisting of the Tone and Contour sliders⁴.

The clipping is asymmetric, which SolidGoldFX says contributes to the organic, natural drive character, ranging from sweet and mellow to what the maker calls "hot and spicy"¹⁴. Gearnews framed the pedal as combining a BluesBreaker and SolidGoldFX's in-house fuzz circuit into an old-school distortion, and called it one of the latest reinterpretations of the classic low-gain overdrive sound⁵.

The company also designed the Commodore with stacking in mind. SolidGoldFX says it is "designed to be placed before or after any other drive or fuzz," and that it "enhances anything else and sends it soaring"¹. For a player building a pedalboard around a fuzz or another drive, that is the pedal's stated purpose: a shaping and pushing stage rather than a one-sound box.

The controls: four sliders

There are no dials on the Commodore. SolidGoldFX instead uses a quartet of oversized sliders for Volume, Tone, Contour and Drive, a layout MusicRadar's news coverage called "hard to ignore"⁶. The Commodore is the second SolidGoldFX pedal to use a set of four sliders, after the Imperial MkII fuzz⁴.

The Tone and Contour pair is the heart of the pedal's flexibility. Because they sit in a separated EQ section, they shape the sound after the drive stage rather than before it. Gearnews found the arrangement "somewhat cumbersome but effective," a fair summary of the trade-off sliders bring: less familiar than knobs, but with a wide range of shaping on tap⁵. SolidGoldFX says the two sliders together can dial in anything from black panel spank to Vox-ey chime and British growl¹.

On the Drive control, the maker's range runs from what Gearnews reported, quoting the manufacturer, as a "slight sound change" at the low end to a "sizzling" drive sound cranked up⁵. At low settings the pedal works as a tone sculptor or boost; at higher settings it delivers the extra sizzle SolidGoldFX describes¹.

Power: 9V to 18V, about 10mA

The Commodore runs on a regular 9 to 18V DC power supply, center negative, with a 2.1 mm barrel connector and a current draw of about 10 mA¹. Delicious Audio noted the practical benefit of the voltage range: you can power it from any standard 9V DC supply, or raise the voltage to 18V for extra headroom⁴.

At roughly 10 mA, the pedal draws little current, so it is easy to place on a shared supply alongside other drives. True bypass switching and top-mounted jacks round out the pedalboard-friendly features, and the enclosure carries dual LED indicators along with the retro sliders and vintage-inspired artwork¹⁴.

History: a Bluesbreaker crossed with the Imperial MkII

The circuit's parentage comes straight from the maker. SolidGoldFX says the Commodore was "inspired by another one of our all-time favorites, the classic Marshall BluesBreaker and crossbred with our beloved Imperial"¹. The Imperial side of the family matters: the Imperial MkII is itself based on a rare 70s Muff clone, the JEN Jumbo Fuzz, and it is the Imperial's tone-shaping output section, its slider EQ, that the Commodore inherits⁷.

The Commodore also fits into a longer history at SolidGoldFX. It is the Montreal builder's second pedal to feature a set of four sliders, following the Imperial MkII fuzz, which itself is based on a rare Muff clone from the 70s, the JEN Jumbo Fuzz⁴⁵.

What the press said

Coverage at launch was consistent about what the pedal is. Gearnews described the Commodore as "a flexible yet natural-sounding overdrive," built from a BluesBreaker circuit crossed with the in-house Imperial MK II Fuzz⁵. MusicRadar likewise framed it as a Marshall Bluesbreaker overdrive variant rather than a fuzz, noting the slider quartet in place of conventional knobs².

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