Dirty Shire Overdrive

The Dirty Shire Overdrive is an amp-in-a-box overdrive designed to reproduce the feel, response, and dynamics of a driven tube amplifier.
It draws from two complementary Friedman amp approaches: a warm, organic vintage foundation, and a tighter, more defined modern response as gain increases.

Rather than relying on multiple channels or complex modes, Dirty Shire condenses these behaviors into a single progressive gain structure, designed to evolve naturally with both the controls and the player’s touch.

Musical intent & use cases

At low to medium gain, Dirty Shire delivers an expressive, singing crunch, with present midrange, natural compression, and a supple response reminiscent of a pushed JTM-45-style amp.
As the gain increases, the pedal shifts toward a more modern character, with tighter low end, firmer attack, and denser saturation, while maintaining clarity and note definition.

Thanks to its full EQ, Presence control, and Tight adjustment, Dirty Shire adapts easily to different amplifiers and setups.
It can be used as a main overdrive, as a preamp in front of a clean channel, or as a saturation stage within an existing gain chain, for both rhythm and lead applications.

Who this pedal is for

Dirty Shire is for guitarists looking for an amp-like saturation, with real dynamic response and a natural feel under the fingers.
It is particularly well suited to players who want to move from vintage crunch to more modern saturation without changing pedals—simply by adjusting gain and EQ.

This is not a transparent overdrive or an extreme distortion, but an expressive saturation tool, built around feel, dynamics, and control.

Closing note

The Dirty Shire Overdrive is a coherent and musical amp-in-a-box overdrive, designed to deliver a wide range of crunch and saturation inspired by high-end amplifiers, in a simple and direct format.