Mad Professor Amplification debuted in 2002, and ever since it released its first guitar pedal there have been many additions to its catalog, some of which have remained in the range while others have been discontinued.
One of the last Mad Professor pedals we took a look at was the Loud’n Proud, which offered the sound of a vintage Marshall amp with a fuzz pedal causing mischief in front of it. That is one of those now-discontinued models, but the Royal Blue Overdrive we’re looking at today has never been out of production.
Mad Professor's pedals are very well put together, each with the same form factor with inputs/outputs on the sides. There’s also a nine-volt connection on the right-hand side, but all will run from a PP3 battery accessed by removing four crosshead screws and the bottom plate.
The Royal Blue Overdrive covers a higher gain range than the Sweet Honey, and has a pair of very effective tone controls that offer plenty of scope in dialing in your tone.
Both controls offer boost/cut shelving EQ and, besides offering tweaks to top-end presence and bottom-end girth, the Treble and Bass can be combined in the absence of a Mids knob to influence the midrange – turn them both up for a scoop or down for a Tube Screamer-style mid boost.
Incidentally, with the Drive knob at zero and the Volume knob at full, you’re pretty much at unity gain, allowing you to use the pedal purely for its EQ capabilities with the Treble and Bass knobs set accordingly.
Like the Sweet Honey Overdrive, this is another very responsive overdrive pedal that delivers an excellent range of rich, cranked-amp style drive.
Specs
- PRICE: $229/£179
- ORIGIN: Finland
- TYPE: Drive pedal
- FEATURES: True bypass
- CONTROLS: Volume, Drive, Bass, Treble, Bypass footswitch
- CONNECTIONS: Standard input, standard output
- POWER: 9V battery or 9V DC adaptor 3.5mA
- DIMENSIONS: 63 (w) x 111 (d) x 50mm (h)
- CONTACT: Mad Professor Amplification
