Harsh Hands
$160
The Harsh Hands Octave Driver is a more than just an overdrive, it’s a dual gain stage vintage Amp-in-a-Box with a foot-switchable transformer based octave up. The Dirt knob is the first gain stage with a silicon diode clipping amp; the Clean knob is the second gain stage with a clean boost that has some grit. The mids knob is an active tilt eq, counterclockwise from center is a mid cut, clockwise from center is a mid boost. With no gain engaged and the mids knob centered, you’ve got a pretty scooped vintage amp sound.
Stage 2 is going to add in some beefy mild tube breakup to your signal, crank it and you’re sounding pretty bluesy. If you want to start getting dirty, juice up gain stage 1 for some gnarly clipped drive. Drive both gain stages for some seriously heavy drive, getting into fuzz/distortion territory, switch on the octave and unlock screeching hot octave up tones. Blend the gains to experiment with a wide range of drive that gets into fuzz territory when both are cranked.
The octave is heard most cleanly when played around the 12 fret of a guitar on a neck or bassier pickup, cut the tone on your guitar to hear even more octave ringing, or play multiple notes at a time to unleash a ring mod traffic jam that’s blended with your driven signal sounding even more chaotic and distorted.