By my track record, June 2020 was a very quiet month for trying gear. The second-hand market’s been very quiet, and to be honest, my appetite for new (to me) gear has been too.
With music kind-of on the back burner at the start of the month, I went into July without any real plan for the month. Did I get anything at all, and if so, why?
Keeley D&M Drive
I’m a huge fan of That Pedal Show, and I’ve wanted to do something to show my support and appreciation for Dan & Mick and the fantastic quality content they put out every single week. It’s just taken awhile before they had any in stock atThatPedalShowStore.com.
There’s another purpose behind this purchase. After Mike Fuller showed the world a side of his character that many of us don’t like, and got his products dropped by many outlets, there’s been a bit of a drive to help people find alternatives to his products. Say what you want about Mike, he has made some good – and original – pedals over the years. Chief among them is the Fulltone OCD, a pedal that’s been often cloned, but never replicated well.
Until now?
Dan’s side of the D&M Drive is said to be based on the OCD. Can it slide it into the conversation as a viable replacement for the OCD? Here’s what I think.
Websmurfer Champ Drive Pedal
Websmurfer is a local pedal maker. He makes and sells high-quality, cheap clones direct on eBay here in the UK. I’ve bought a lot of pedals from him over the last few years, and had a blast with pretty much all of them.
This is a pedal I’ve not noticed him selling before. The description says that it isn’t an overdrive pedal, it’s the sound of a cranked Champ amp. I saw the word ‘Champ’ and immediately thought that this could well be a clone of the Lovepedal Champ pedal.
One of my favourite clone makers, making a clone of a pedal from one of my favourite pedal designers? At a time when said pedal designer appears to stop trading? Definitely a pedal I wanted to buy and check out.
Turns out I was wrong. It isn’t a Lovepedal Champ clone. It’s far more interesting than that.