Will Killingsworth has played in a lot of bands. Fans of one in particular, Orchid, have often asked him what distortion pedals went into crafting the guitar tone he used on those records. The answer is none of them. At the time, Killingsworth's raw sound came from plugging straight into his solid-state Marshall.
Today, however, with Orchid reunion shows on the horizon and newer, nicer gear on hand to play, Killingsworth had a tougher time trying to get his modern tone to sound more definitively like it did in the past. Luckily, Killingsworth has also been making his own pedals under the Dead Air banner since 2021, so he set to work on creating the Chaos Drive.
"The Chaos Drive is designed to invoke the aggressive characteristics of old school solid state amplifiers," the listing for the new Dead Air pedal reads. "As an overdrive, it works in conjunction with your amplifier to sculpt and enhance your tone. It is not an amp-in-a-box, or an existing pre-amp design in a pedal form. The goal of the Chaos Drive is not to emulate a specific tone, but rather to elevate and expand the possibilities in that style."
The new Chaos Drive is a great pedal for players who want to retain the power and feel of their tube amp without losing the aggressive, high-gain flavor of solid-state counterparts. This batch of the pedal is limited to just 300 units, so be sure to check out the full demo above and grab one while you can.