ToneCandy Sweet Drive

ToneCandy's aptly-named Sweet Drive is Mike Marino's goal to create a pedal that sounds as good at gigging volumes as it does at small room volumes. "That's my problem with TubeScreamers," he says, "They only really sound good when amps are really cranked. I think Stevie Ray Vaughan knew that."

Using the best electronics available, including SwitchCraft input and output jacks, a SwitchCraft on/off switch, true hardwire bypass, a Hammond-cast aluminum shell and back, all metal pots and military-style building techniques, the Sweet Drive is a three stage overdrive unit that allows the player to independently adjust each of the FET-based gain stages.

The Sweet Drive is aimed at players who are looking for a pedal that will take them from purring blues sounds, with its lower gain settings, to classic rock-level overdrive sounds when things really get cooking. With my Michael Dolan-made Strat, I fired up my trusty Princeton Reverb, set all of the Sweet Drive's controls at 12 o'clock and hoped for the best. The tone from the amp was fat, incredibly smooth, organic and extremely touch-sensitive, if a little on the dark side. Turning up the Tone knob to about 5 o'clock cleaned things up quite a bit, but interestingly enough it seemed to act more like a wet/dry knob on an effects loop rather than just a standard Tone knob. The guitar and amp's natural sounds became a little more apparent as the tone knob was turned up, but the Sweet Drive's original signal was still present and supportive.

Switching to a humbucker-equipped Guild Bluesbird, the pedal really came to life. The Sweet Drive churned out sticky sweet, tubelike tones somewhat reminiscent of Mesa's "blue" settings from their V-Twin pedal, only smoother and more refined. Kicking up the pedal's Intensity setting, it was easy to move into Billy Gibbons land with plenty of greasy goodness. This is definitely a pedal for those who don't have any need for ultra-saturated distortion—someone who is looking for something more akin to a totally dimed Gibson GA-40 rather than a Krank Revolution.

Buy if...
you are looking for a flexible pedal that will go from greasy blues to classic rock tones.

Does not come with the original box.