First Impressions: Tone City Sweet Cream Overdrive

The Sweet Cream Overdrive, next to the GOAT of tweed-tone pedals.

Back in May 2021 (where did the time go?!?), I picked up a second-hand Tone City Sweet Cream Overdrive pedal. I’ve finally put it onto my pedal board, to see what it can do.

Is it a outright clone of the Sweet Honey Overdrive, or does it have something different to offer? Read on for my First Impressions.

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New Arrivals For February

February has been a very strange month for gear.

The Winter NAMM announcements are over, and now we wait for actual stock to appear in the shops. Some items – like Marshall’s new Studio line of heads, combos and cabs – have arrived quickly (and largely sold out just as quickly). Other pieces – not so much.

eBay started slow, but in the middle of the month, there was a lot of great gear up for grabs at surprising prices. I was expecting most people to be waiting for the “free for private sellers” changes coming at the start of March. I was wrong.

Here’s a list of everything I’ve picked up in February, along with my initial impressions. I’ll write up a full article on each of them once I’ve had a bit of time with them.

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Wampler Launches The Pantheon – Their King of Tone Alternative

It’s finally here – the Wampler Pantheon overdrive pedal. Based on the original Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal circuit, it aims to be an alternative to that legendary pedal: Analogman’s King of Tone.

As well as Brian’s own demo (above), there are plenty of demos from the YouTube pedal demo community and several retailers.

As is usual with Brian, he hasn’t made a straight-up clone on the King of Tone. There’s an extra – and active! – bass EQ knob, and external switches both for the amount of gain and the kind of clipping available.

The Analogman King of Tone is possibly second only to the Klon when it comes to restricted supply and hype-fuelled demand.

The KoT is still in production. To buy a new one, you have to send an email to Analogman to join the waiting list. Unfortunately, they don’t send acknowledgements, so you’ve no way of knowing if you’re actually on the list or not. Then you have to wait until you’re at the front of the queue. At the time of writing, the queue is around two years long.

As a result, there’s definitely demand for a KoT-type pedal that is easy to obtain, and easy to replace if it stolen or otherwise lost.

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