An extremely well-built Marshall-in-a-box (MIAB) overdrive for any situation.

A great-sounding and versatile overdrive that makes achieving classic-rock sounds a breeze

Pros

+Well-designed

+Well-built

+Offers toothsome overdrive tones

+Easy access to the hallowed “woman tone”

As the name implies, Aclam’s product designers were inspired by Eric Clapton’s legendary Cream-era “woman tone” to create the Spanish company’s latest release, and the result promises an impressive shortcut to that sound.

The truth is, if you just need an extremely well-built Marshall-in-a-box (MIAB) overdrive for any situation in the broad range of rock sonic stylings – one that also happens to carry a nifty bonus feature – read on.

It’s simply a handsome pedal by any measure, with custom Gibson-style black top-hat knobs, and graphics designed by Marijke Koger, the former leader of the Dutch art collective The Fool, which famously painted Clapton’s SG.

It’s best to approach it as a straight-up, Plexi-voiced overdrive first and foremost.

First off, as hinted at above, this is simply a great-sounding overdrive pedal by any measure. The voicing is certainly in the cranked-vintage-Marshall ballpark, but that’s a broad and extremely versatile crunch and lead tone for many genres and playing styles anyway.

Setting aside the woman tone feature, the pedal makes achieving classic-rock sounds a breeze. But the pedal is also dynamic and expressive when applied to other styles as well, adapting to everything from roots and alt to indie and other more-contemporary gain-ramping needs.

The gain control offers a usable range, from mild dirt to floored-tube amp mayhem, and the volume control packs a real punch and can drive an amp hard, so I mostly kept it below the halfway point.

Even if you consider its eponymous leftward foot switch and related knob a mere bonus, it’s a great-sounding and versatile overdrive that deserves an Editors’ Pick Award.