Precision Overdrive Unleashed – The Barber Electronics Compact Direct Drive V4 Overdrive Effects Pedal
Measuring only 2.3” wide, the NEW Compact Direct Drive brings a colossal catalog of vintage British voice to your pedal-board. We packed the most desirable sounds of the Direct Drive, Direct Drive Low Gain (LG) and Super Sport into one clean and compact pedal. If you like the sound of the early UK combos with kt66 tubes, it’s in there. If you bleed for the sound of a 4 input head with a wall of 4×12 cabs, it’s in there. If you live for the sound of a carefully modified master volume gem from the early 80’s, it’s in there too. The Compact Direct Drive uses a simple layout of three knobs, a gain toggle and a harmonics toggle to delivery it’s wide array from elastic-bells of GZ34-sag, to the hells-bells of a tight EL34-crush. Throw away the clock, tell the family you’re taking a solo holiday, there is a Compact Direct Drive on the way.
The Compact Direct Drive has real honest solder lugs for jacks, true-bypass footswitch, toggles and pots. There are no worries about PCB mounted thru-panel parts that can’t be serviced on the road, or that lead to high cost repairs. Nothing but the best tried and true hand-built methods adorn the interior of the Barber Electronics Direct Drive. The Direct Drive has a generous 2 1/2” of clearance between the front edge of the footswitch and the back edge of the knobs, no fear about accidentally changing your settings with each click of your footswitch.
Updated in 2020 with a new look, v4, 3 levels of midrange selectable with 3-way toggle, gain switch expanded to 3way toggle which adds 3rd hyper dynamic “4 in input” style sound.
The Direct Drive v4 is designed to impart a range of British overdrive and
distortion sounds into clean and distorted amplifiers. The V4 version has a total of 9 sounds
accessible through the two 3-way toggle switches.
The toggle switch on the left is the Midrange Switch, this switch can take you from fat squawky
lead sounds to modern alternative sounds. Left position is neutral-mids, middle position is full
and fat, and right position is clear with strong fundamentals.
The Right toggle is the “Gain Switch.” This switch has three settings, higher-gain set to the left.
Ultra-Dynamic set in the middle, and low gain set to the right. The Ultra-Dynamic mode is
getting into the very early “4 input” vintage amp sound, really raw, looser thicker lows, and an
open but sweet top when combined with the neutral-mids setting on the midrange switch.
Experiment with both toggles, try setting the gain switch high, but the drive knob very low,
each guitar will have its own best settings, there are loads of sounds and flexibility in the DDv4,
explore!
The volume control sets the output of the pedal; most players can find unity between 10 o’
clock and 2 o’ clock, depending on their pickup output and the guitar’s volume setting.
The Tone control is a simple high-end roll-off. A good starting point for balanced sound is 2-3 o
clock.
The Gain control sets the amount of sustain and drive. Lower setting give your guitar a nearlyclean gutsy-edge without losing the wound strings, rotate to the middle and you start cooking
with a throaty grind, wind it all the way open and you are greeted with singing sustain and
harmonics. Use the gain switch to take it over the top!
Make sure you use a 9-18 volt DC adaptor, it must be negative tip (center) or damage will
result.
Manufacturer: Barber Electronics
Model: DIRECTDRIVEV4BLK
SKU: I758299-N-1-WHXX
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