Winnipeg Electrical Co Blues

The Winnipeg Electrical Co Blues is an overdrive pedal made by Winnipeg Electrical Co, handmade in Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba¹. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio describes it as a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver variant with extended tonal controls, including a fuzz mode¹. Where the Boss original gives you gain, tone and level, the Blues adds Low and Mid controls and a toggle switch that changes the character of the drive, so it covers more ground than a stock Blues Driver.

The pedal was included in Delicious Audio's article on Blues Driver-style pedals, which describes it as a Blues Driver variant with extended tonal controls¹.

What it does

At its core this is a Blues Driver design: a warm, slightly pushed overdrive that players commonly use to fatten up a clean amp or push an already breaking one into a natural-sounding drive. The Blues keeps that foundation and extends it in two directions. First, the tonal controls go deeper than the original. Second, a toggle switch introduces a fuzz mode with higher gain and more low end, turning the pedal into something closer to a fuzz when you want it¹.

Controls

The Low and Mid controls are the main departure from the Boss original. On the BD-2, tone shaping is a single tone knob; here, the Low and Mid controls let you adjust those frequencies at the clipping stage itself, with the Tone knob then acting on the whole signal¹. Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson notes that the pedal's 3-band EQ has broad range², which in practice means the Low and Mid controls move a useful amount rather than making subtle changes.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X reviewed the pedal in January 2024 as part of Winnipeg Electrical Co's Homework Series, and Karlsson's verdict was strongly positive²³:

Karlsson also singled out the fuzz mode, calling it his preferred mode overall on this pedal². In a later piece on Blues Driver originals and derivatives, he placed the Homework Series Blues close to a heavily modified reference point:

That comparison is worth unpacking for players who know the BD-2 ecosystem: the Keeley Freak Fuzz Modded BD-2 is a Blues Driver that has been modified toward fuzz territory, and Karlsson's view is that the Blues reaches a similar place through its own built-in fuzz mode, with what he describes as a little more range and granularity³.

How it fits among Blues Driver variants

The BD-2 has spawned many derivatives, from simple clones to heavily reworked circuits. The Blues sits toward the extended end of that range: it keeps the Blues Driver character but adds the three-band EQ and the fuzz toggle, where many variants change only the clipping or the gain structure. If you want the stock Boss format, the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver remains the reference; if you want the same basic circuit with more tonal control and a second drive personality on tap, the Blues is built for that. Players comparing it with other compact takes on the format may also want to look at the Mooer Blues Crab, a mini enclosure Blues Driver-style pedal¹²⁴.

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