Death by Audio Interstellar Overdriver

I have only had this a few days so this is an initial review.

I love Death By Audio effects. I am a blues rock guy but I still love using pedals to experiment and to get to the sounds in my head. That said, I am a simple guy and while I intellectually appreciate pedals that are infinitely tweakable, I also like things that make it fun to use. The Keeley Katana - great example. One knob, the knob is on the side of the pedal, and you can turn it up or down with your foot.

The Interstellar Overdriver pedal has that same simplicity - there is a master volume (harder to get to with the foot) and a BIG overdrive knob. Big enough that you can use low gain during a song then easily crank it up during a solo with your foot. The range of tones is great - from a fairly grumbly drive to a quite fluid drive with lots of sustain. Always an undertone of grit in there, it never entirely smooths out.

There are no tone knobs, but this responds well to your guitar's tone controls. The sound is definitely mid-emphasized. Not like a Tube Screamer, but nor does it have the wide open tone of the DBA Apocalypse (setting 3) or EQD Plumes or Wampler Pantheon. That said, if you are using the pedal in a band setting you might not want that openness.

Is this 100% the tone I would chose? No... but 1) that is why we need many many many different drives and 2) the trade off between tone and ease of use makes this a perfect partner for playing a range of parts with easy access to that range.

Update - I actually sold the pedal then bought it back. It is now back on my board as a fixture. I find it works best at the end of the overdrive chain, acting as a pre amp (I don't think it is a traditional pre amp pedal) - it saturates really nicely with other drives, fuzzes, or even clean boosts.