Description
Your New Favourite Overdrive Pedal
Not All Overdrive Pedals are Created Equal
The early 70s saw the release of the first overdrive pedals – the Ibanez Tube Screamer 808, the Boss OD-1, and many others – and what absolute beauties they were. Many people have been copying these pedals ever since, with some going to great lengths to clone the exact circuits that were available in the 70s. We decided that we’d change things up a bit for our own overdrive pedal – after all, what’s the point of doing what everyone else is doing?
We’ve taken the best of what nearly 50 years of overdrive has taught us, and added some fresh new options and ideas to push the bar that little bit higher – so your overdrive tone can sound better than ever before.
A new player has entered the game.
Analogue, 808 Inspired Overdrive
The Angel of Blues offers it all. Winding the gain control allows to choose from a vast array of tones; from a subtle, warm, beautifully harmonic push for mellow lead work, to a huge, crushing, all-out roar – and anything and everything in between. It’s an incredibly versatile pedal, able to offer a great range of amazing overdrive tones.
You can even back the gain right off and max out the volume control to get a smooth, clean, powerful boost. Most overdrive pedals can do this, but few can do it as cleanly and convincingly as the Angel of Blues.
But, with so many other factory-made and handmade boutique overdrive pedals to compete with, why would we create a new one? How can we possibly compete? Well, the Angel of Blues builds on a legacy of pro quality overdrive tone, and adds a few improvements which guarantee it will soon become your new favourite pedal. These improvements include:
More Gain
Since the 70s, tastes and tones have changed, and modern music requires a little more bite. Of course, modern rock, metal and blues need more gain that was available even 20 years ago, but even clean-tone genres like funk and R&B can make great use of a huge, versatile overdrive. That’s why the Angel of Blues has a little more gain than the old circuits.
Classic Mid-Range Boost vs. Modern Flat Boost
The classic 808 circuit was famed for the mid-range boost tone character, with quite a bit of bass roll-off. Mid-range boost helps you cut through a band’s noise and is a major factor in what made the original 808 circuit so popular. Some people swear by it, while some others find it they want a flatter sound with no bass frequency attenuation. It’s a matter of personal taste.
So, why not have a handy switch to control which you prefer?
Why not indeed.
A Range of Diode Clipping Options
Overdrive as an effect is the sound of your signal’s wave form being pushed to its limits, until the peaks of the signal wave are forced to square off, or clip. This effect was originally achieved by pushed vacuum tubes in amps further than they could comfortably handle. Since the 70s, audio engineers have used diodes to simulate this phenomenon to great effect. They found that using an even number of diodes allowed the clipping to occur on both the positive and negative sides of the audio wave, and an uneven number clipped more on one side, and less on the other. This affects the character of the overdrive tone. Generally speaking, the symmetrical option will offer smoother, mellower overdrive, and asymmetrical will offer more aggression and bite. The original 808 circuit used symmetric diode clipping.
Alongside the original Ibanez Tube Screamer, Boss’ original OD-1 Overdrive unit paved the way for god-tier overdrive units, but unlike the Tube Screamer, the OD-1 used asymmetric clipping. Some thought that this was a massive positive on the part of the OD-1 – others vastly prefer the symmetric clipping sound.
Don’t Make Me Choose!
We’ve added a conveniently placed switch so you can make your own choice as to whether you prefer symmetric or asymmetric diode clipping. Again, it’s up to you to decide which sounds best for you.
Over the many hundreds of hours we spent testing the Angel of Blues at the development stage, we found that the diode clipping switch and the EQ character switch had a very close relationship – that the flat boost seemed to marry well with the asymmetric clipping circuit for a loud, rude, transparent roar, and the mid boost married well with the symmetric clipping circuit for a classic, smooth, warm, 70s – style drive. Of course, the choice is yours!
A Single Tone Control Keeps Everything in Check
We’ve kept it simple with our tone control: wind it anticlockwise to boost bass frequencies, and wind it clockwise to boost the treble. This helps make the Angel of Blues the incredible versatile pedal it is.
With True Bypass Switching
Another departure from traditional the traditional 808 circuit is a lack of buffers. A buffer is a small circuit designed to preserve your pickups’ original sparkle, and can be especially useful for guitarists with large pedalboards, or who use long cables. On most vintage and modern overdrive pedals, a buffer is always active, even when the pedal is de-activated. Some guitarists swear by buffered inputs.
The opposite of a buffered input is true bypass wiring, which uses mechanical switching to remove the circuit from the signal path completely when disengaged. Some guitarists claim this is the only way to prevent tone suck, and keep their signal pure.
There’s a huge debate about whether pedals and pedalboards should be wired with buffers or with true bypass, with many people prepared to fight and die (or, at least, start a flame war on a forum) over their preferred choice.
Here at Vein-Tap.com, we believe that our pedals should be wired with true bypass, so that people who prefer true bypass can enjoy it – and those who prefer buffered inputs can add an external buffer at the beginning of their pedal chain. That way, you make your own choice and get the best of both worlds.
Your New Favourite Overdrive Pedal
Buy the Angel of Blues now! It makes more sense than breakfast!
£79.95Add to basket
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Douglas (verified owner) –
This is not the first overdrive pedal I have bought, but it may be the last. It is such a usable pedal. it offers everything from sweet and subtle through to driving and aggressive, not just the one elusive “sweet spot” of so many of the others. There are classic tones and more modern sounds: more than I will ever use. Build quality is excellent and the price point remarkable. I have paid twice as much for pedals that do not come close.
Vein-Tap are consistently hitting their stated objective (see the Home page). Finally, being a customer of Vein-Tap confers added benefits when it comes to further purchases and great service is a given.
Highly recommended.
graeme1878 (verified owner) –
I dont get on with overdrive pedals.No matter which ones ive tried there is always something not quite right. Not anymore though. The angel of blues is quite simply the best overdrive ive used. It suits me perfectly. I bought it after seeing the video as i was impressed with how it boosted the orange amp. I have a TH30 and the angel of blues blends so well with the amps own distortion. I use it to boost a distortion pedal and play through the clean channel as well and its excellent. The angel of blues can be used in so many ways to suit any style from a clean boost to a marshall crunch and more. Excellent work Ben.
epiphone_chris –
I flipping love this thing! I’ve been using an Angel of Blues for quite a while now. I usually keep it cranked for my main overdriven lead tone which totally sings and sustains for ages. However, it’s only recently that I’ve discovered the true versatility of this little beauty; I’ve started using a few different amps for various venues and the “tweakability” of this pedal is like no other. It sounds good with EVERYTHING! Bravo vein-tap, bravo!
gbvrxtc (verified owner) –
I was looking for a pedal basically for a raunchy American sound like some of my fave 60s/ 70s records , after trying out the usual suspects, you know the ones.. i came across the `Angel of blues ` pedal from Vein-Tap and knew it was what i was seeking , the sound is magnificent and sheer range of tones i would say knocks most others into a cocked hat plus its design as well as being very simple is real class , then of course theres the prompt service from this company .
All in all a very pleasant experience and very pleased with the company and the product , thanks Ben
ax10 (verified owner) –
I bought this to go alongside my Keeley Java but frankly, when I plugged it in on its own the sound blew me away, and the KJ has remained unused ever since.
I can’t believe that Ben and his crew can produce such a good pedal for the cost. I have a number of other so called “blues distortion” pedals which cost a lot more than this. They’ve also all been relegated to dusty corners of the room since I got this pedal. However, every now and again I’ll get one of those old faithful pedals out to see what I’m missing, but not for long, as I always go back to the Angel because for me it delivers all of the tone one could possibly hope for in a blues distortion pedal.
David (verified owner) –
I don’t review gear as a rule but The Angel of Blues is so good that I feel I have to.
I stumbled across vein-tap and I am so glad I did. I watched the video and was hooked, this is what I had been looking for. Could it really be that good? It’s easy to make claims for your product but it’s another matter entirely to produce the goods in the real world. Buying little known stuff can be scary as you wonder if you’re just chucking money down the drain but you get a feeling from vein-tap that you are dealing with regular guys who are going to have your back. And they can afford to cos their product is awsome.
I’m not going to attempt to describe what you can do with this pedal, watch the video. It’s all subjective anyhow. What I will say is that I now have a Plimsoul and a Soulfood that don’t get a look-in. If you are looking for a quality pedal that you can have enormous fun with,that is built to last, for very little money, the Angel of Blues is where it’s at.
blane (verified owner) –
It has been a couple of months now that I have been using the angel of blues pedal. I am also using the angel of rock. There is just a bit of crossover between the two, but for the most part they are quite different. I have the AoB set to a softer and cleaner tone while the AoR is set to really rock. I am able to get multiple sounds and they are all very responsive to guitar volume and how hard I hit the strings… very nice. Honestly, the more I use them the better I like them
Douglas (verified owner) –
This is ridiculously good for the money. Very solidly built, great sounds. Works great with my strat responding to the volume control nicely. Very flexible sounds from subtle breakup to amp almost at meltdown. For blues / rock I really couldn’t ask for anything more. I tend to favour this over my vintage chandler tube driver, it’s really that good.
Only slight (trivial) issue is the on / off light is very bright if you’re in a dark place.
Ross C (verified owner) –
If you can’t afford to fork out the best part of £200 on a Keeley overdrive pedal, but you’re desperate for something with that quality of thick, tubey overdrive, then spend less than a third of that money on one of these and it will be the only overdrive pedal you will use. Plus you’ll have money left over for the usual rock ‘n’ roll folly of hard drugs and alcohol.
I play mostly post-rock which requires a vast array of overdrive tones.
The Angel of Blues provides them all and more, beautifully.
I’m so impressed. I can’t believe other companies can charge what they do when pedals of this quality are available for this price.
It’s also as good at providing full-on distortion as many dedicated distortion pedals I’ve tried or owned.
Build quality is fantastic too. Really sturdy, robust feeling. The switches “click” properly into place and the pots are smooth.
This is the second Vein-Tap pedal I’ve purchased in the past 6 months and on the basis of how good both of them are I can confidently say it won’t be the last one I buy. In fact, I’m seriously toying with the idea of buying yet another Angel of Blues so I have a couple of it’s settings instantly available at all times without having to bend to turn a knob or flick a switch. That’s how much I love it. And I’ve only had it a week!
My Big Muff Pi Wicker and Boss BD2 are both already obsolete and yet they both cost more than the Angel of Blues.
Get one. Get two. Actually, wait until I’ve got another. I don’t want them to run out of stock.