First Impressions: Demonfx 83 Drive

I recently picked up an 83 Drive by Demonfx.

What did I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.

What Did You Buy?

I bought an 83 Drive, by Demonfx. It’s a dual-overdrive pedal: bluesbreaker on one side, and a Klon klone on the other.

I got mine from the second-hand market.

From the name, I’m assuming that it’s basically a Far Eastern clone of the Nordvang 83 Drive. I’ve never played a Nordvang 83 Drive, so I’ve no idea how faithful a clone this is.

Why Did You Buy It?

My friend Adam bought a Demonfx King of Drive (their King of Tone clone) fairly recently. He A/B’d it against my original King of Tone, and said that the Demonfx pedal got close enough for his needs.

He’s got taste, so that caught my attention. I decided that I’d pick up one of their pedals to try out if I could snag one for a good price.

And then, recently, this pedal turned up on the UK second-hand market.

It wasn’t just the price that made me decide to get it. I’m planning on doing a series of posts looking at Klon klones and bluesbreaker-circuit pedals – and this pedal has both. The left-hand side is a Marshall Bluesbreaker clone, and the right-hand side is a Klon klone.

If the pedal’s any good, I’ll be able to write about it in both blog post series. If it isn’t, I’ll still be able to write about it in both blog post series – just not for the reason I’d prefer to 😁

What Does It Sound Like?

My Rig Today

I’m playing Spot (my American Deluxe Telecaster with Twisted Tele pickups) through my 65 Clean pedal platform preset for the Axe-FX 3.

I don’t have time today to capture any audio demos. They will come in follow-up blog posts.

Left-Hand Side Matches My Memory Of A Marshall Bluesbreaker

The 83 Drive is off to a good start.

I’m just running the left-hand side of the pedal, and immediately I feel like I’m using my actual Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal. I’ve had to set the controls in the same way to get the tones I want.

And I’m getting those tones too – or, at least, my memory of them.

I haven’t dug out my Marshall Bluesbreaker for a proper A/B comparison. Please keep that in mind! But I like what I’m hearing, and there’s no surprises.

Right-Hand Side Does The Klon Clean Boost Thing

I’m running the right-hand side of the 83 Drive into a clean Princeton amp model, and I like what I’m hearing. My Tele’s single-coil neck pickup sounds big and snappy and warm all at once.

This puts the 83 Drive into quite a select club, imho.

Most Klon klones that I’ve tried don’t work for me in the Klon clean boost role. The problem’s normally the low-end (they shelf off too much low-end). Occasionally, the top-end’s not right too (I suspect they’re missing the Klon’s buffer).

I haven’t done any A/B testing here either, and I haven’t tried using it to boost an overdrive pedal yet. But I’m going to at some point soon, because I really like what I’m hearing, and I am surprised that it hasn’t (yet) failed the clean boost test.

Final Thoughts

This is a very quick post, written after an hour or two with the pedal – a true First Impressions for a change!

I bought this thinking that it’ll be interesting to compare it to the NUX Morning Star and NUX Horseman pedals. A battle of the budget clones, if you like.

While I’m still going to do those comparisons, I’m genuinely looking forward to putting Demonfx 83 Drive up against the original Marshall Bluesbreaker and Klon KTR pedals. Especially the Klon klone side.

I don’t want to sing the 83 Drive’s praises until I have done that comparison, just in case. I’m encouraged, though, by what I’ve heard in this first hour or two. (I’ve not been able to say that about every pedal recently!)

And I might just have to add the Nordvang 83 Drive to the bucket list for next year too. If the Demonfx clone sounds this good, I can only imagine just how good the original Nordvang pedal may sound.