The Tanto Overdrive is a transparent guitar overdrive designed to deliver open, dynamic, low-compression saturation.
It preserves the character of the guitar and amp, while bringing grain, presence and precise control of the spectrum.
🎥 Video demo
A full demo will soon be available to demonstrate the pedal's response in different gain and EQ configurations.
Musical intent & use cases
The Tanto Overdrive is designed for edge-of-breakup, light crunch, and moderate overdrive tones, where dynamics and clarity are essential.
It excels as a low-gain main overdrive, as a character boost into a slightly driven amp, or as a secondary gain stage within an existing signal chain.
Its gain structure maintains excellent chord definition even as saturation increases, while remaining highly responsive to picking dynamics and the guitar’s volume control.
Active Bass and Treble controls allow precise adjustment of the spectrum balance, making it easy to adapt to different amps and guitars.
The internal clipping options, combined with the saturation trimmer, enable in-depth action on the pedal's gain structure and overall response, offering multiple behaviors within the same transparent architecture.
Who this pedal is for
The Tanto Overdrive is designed for guitarists looking for a transparent overdrive with EQ control, capable of fine-tuning to their setup.
It's particularly suited to musicians who want to keep their sound open while fine-tuning bass and treble to suit the context.
This pedal is for you if :
- you're looking for a transparent overdrive with active bass/treble control
- you play edge of breakup, blues, light rock or open crunch
- you want to adapt your sound precisely to different amps and guitars
Positioning in the range :
The 1985 Preamp is positioned as a clean boost without saturation or coloration.
The Centauride adds a Klon-type gain structure with a midrange emphasis to push and structure the signal.
The Tanto offers a more open, full-range approach, with active bass and treble control for precise sound sculpting.
Closing note
The Tanto Overdrive is a transparent and flexible overdrive, designed to offer control, openness and musicality, with a precision-oriented approach to spectrum adaptation.
Key design points
- Low to medium gain transparent overdrive
- Circuit philosophy focused on wide bandwidth and low compression
- Dynamic response, sensitive to playing dynamics and the guitar’s volume control
- External controls: Volume, Drive, Bass, Treble
- Clipping options configurable via internal DIP switches
- Internal saturation trimmer acting directly on the gain structure
- 100% analog circuit, hand-built with through-hole components
- True bypass
- Standard 9V DC (center negative)
- Compact 125B enclosure