Visual Sound has completely re-invented the Route 66 pedal with the new V3 Series version. All new circuitry takes the best tones of previous versions and makes them even better, with far more versatility. We recently managed to get our hands on one of the units for a live test, here is what we found.
What you are essentially presented with is two pedals housed in the same chassis- on the right, a compressor and on the left, an overdrive based on the Reverend/GarageTone Drivetrain pedal.
Overdrive:
• Anyone familiar with earlier versions of this pedal will recognise the main controls as these remain mostly unchanged (Overdrive: Drive, Treble, Vol).
• A Voice switch toggles between bright, open tone with “A” and a more saturated mid-scooped sound on “B”.
• The V2’s Bass Boost switch has been swapped in favour of a variable pot allowing for more flexibility than the previous “on/off” feature.
Compressor:
• The Compressor's Gain pot has now become another volume control, which enables the user to cut or boost the volume of the signal, with no tonal changes to the overall sound.
• A subtle noise gate circuit has been introduced. This, especially present when using single coil pickups or venues running “dirty-power”, cancels out any low levels of unwanted background noise on your signal without affecting and cutting off any sustained note.This gives a more natural fade-out.
Both sides can be run independently or together and utilise Visual Sound’s Pure Tone Buffer, which can be turned on or off via internal switches. As well, each offers an individual “Clean Mix” knob which, very responsively, blends your wet and dry signal and allows varying degrees of compression and drive and the ability to be used as a warm clean boost.
No Battery power, power supply only, which is not included. You may think that's a bit harsh, but the Visual Sounds guys think that most people have a multiple power supply setup or already possess a power supply that will do the job. Also it gets round the "different countries have different power outlet styles". Our recommendation is the One-spot power supply.
