The MXR Sugar Drive provides a diverse range of clear and transparent overdrive tones, from sauced up boosting to blown-tube distortion. It’s based on a rare overdrive pedal that has acquired a mythical reputation among fanatical tone-seekers thanks to its unique circuit design.

The key elements of that circuit design are the Drive control and something called a voltage doubler. First, the Drive control on this pedal doesn’t just increase the intensity of the overdrive pedal. It starts with your clean signal and then blends it with the overdrive effect as you turn it up, replicating the smooth transition of an amplifier going from clean to dirty. The voltage doubler increases overall headroom, which opens everything up nicely.

Of course, we had to put the MXR touch on this circuit. If you’re all about true bypass, then you’re in luck—this pedal uses it by default. The original used buffered bypass, though, and we know there’s a lot of players out there who don’t want to fix something that isn’t broken. They’re in luck, too—just flick the Buffer switch on the side of the pedal to enable buffered bypassing.

Features

-Brings out the best of your guitar and amp sound
- Based on a rare & elusive overdrive circuit
- Diverse range of tones, from boosting to overdrive
- Blends in clean signal to maintain your guitar's personality
- Buffer switch toggles between true & buffered bypass switching
- Clear & transparent performance
- Increased headroom for dynamic, wide open sound

- Input Impedance: 600 kO
- Output Impedance: 3 kO
- Nominal Input Level: +6 dBV
- Maximum Output Level True Bypass without Buffer selected: +26 dBV
- Tone control (@ full CCW): -20 dB @ 3 kHz
- Current Draw: 18.5 mA @ 9 VDC
- Power Requirements: 9 VDC (IAC Adapter not included)
- Throughput Gain: up to +50 dB @ 1kHz