Tasty Overdrive from Slide Master Joey Landreth
Slide master and modern guitar hero Joey Landreth prefers his overdrive transparent, full of detail, and soaked in harmonics. So, he and Jackson Audio collaborated to create his ultimate transparent overdrive: the Golden Boy. Based around a bluesbreaker-style overdrive circuit (Joey’s favorite), the Golden Boy is a versatile tone machine, which, like Jackson Audio’s Broken Arrow overdrive, is loaded with four clipping diode presets, a MOSFET boost circuit, and a 3-band Baxandall-style EQ for putting the final touches on your tone. Additionally, the Golden Boy includes Jackson Audio’s innovative Gain Cycle feature, which allows you to ramp up the pedals maximum gain across four progressively heavier gain settings. And all of Golden Boy’s parameters are controllable via an external MIDI footswitch — an attribute gigging guitarists at Sweetwater love. For those familiar with Joey Landreth’s work, you know that he is an unabashed tone chaser, and the Golden Boy reflects his dedication to classy, crunchy, and cool 6-string sonics!
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Four clipping diode presets for ultimate flexibility
For the Golden Boy, Jackson Audio pulled out all the stops to empower guitarists with a massive range of overdrive tones, starting with four selectable clipping diode presets. Indicated by the color on Golden Boy’s Drive LED, the clipping modes include a “classic screamer” setting with two symmetrical silicon diodes (green), a chewy asymmetrical clipping mode with three silicon diodes (magenta), a focused and direct 4-diode symmetrical clipping mode (blue), and a vintage British-style amp overdrive with a wide-open sound (amber). Additionally, the Golden Boy presents four boost presets: bright boost, mid boost, tailored boost, and full range. Jackson Audio has made selecting presets on the pedal extremely intuitive, and it’s even easier when connected to a MIDI controller.
Sweet-sounding Baxandall-style EQ
Sometimes overlooked by guitarists, an equalizer can be the difference between a good guitar tone and a stellar guitar tone, and the Golden Boy contains a 3-band Baxandall-style EQ section for sweetening your sound. Baxandall-style EQs feature gently sloping curves that provide natural and flattering tone shaping, which is why they’re one of the most popular EQ types for studio recording, mixing, and mastering applications. With Golden Boy’s EQ section, you can subtly enhance your tone or completely restructure it. Additionally, Golden Boy’s EQ can be a lifesaver when you’re playing through a bad amp, allowing you to compensate for a less than satisfactory sound.
Innovative Gain Cycle feature
Golden Boy’s Gain Cycle mode is a standout feature not found on other overdrive pedals. Essentially, it splits the maximum gain into four equal parts, which allows you to ramp up your crunch tones to fit the shifting dynamics of a performance. Start out with a light overdrive, then progressively get heavier and heavier, until you reach maximum saturation. Throw the MOSFET boost on top, and you’ll have an endlessly screaming lead tone and squelching slide guitar howls.
"The bluesbreaker circuit has been my favorite overdrive circuit forever. I have a collection of clones that I love. The Golden Boy takes that classic tasteful circuit, adds some 3D depth, marries it with the modern ideas of Brad Jackson, and turns it into an absolute Swiss Army knife for just about any pedalboard." — Joey Landreth
Jackson Audio Golden Boy Overdrive Pedal Features:
- Developed in collaboration with slide master Joey Landreth
- Based on Joey’s favorite bluebreaker-style overdrive circuit
- Versatile overdrive pedal for serious tone chasers
- 4 selectable clipping diode presets
- Baxandall-style 3-band EQ for flexible tone shaping
- MOSFET boost circuit exhibits amp-like breakup
- Innovative Gain Cycle mode with 4 maximum overdrive settings
- MIDI input for selecting presets and controlling parameters via an external footswitch
- Rugged and compact brushed stainless-steel enclosure
