The junior-sized guitar and bass overdrives replace the original screamer-style mode with MOSFET clipping, and only 3,000 will be made between them.
EarthQuaker Devices has moved two of its best-known overdrives into smaller enclosures for a pair of limited-edition pedals, the Plumes Jr MOSFET Mod Small Signal Shredder and Blumes Jr MOSFET Mod Low Signal Shredder, and given each a new clipping mode along the way.
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The full-size Plumes is EarthQuaker’s tube-like overdrive with three switchable clipping voices, while the Blumes adapts the same circuit for bass with double the gain and a deeper low end so it holds onto the bottom end of the instrument. Both Jr versions keep the first two modes from the originals, now labelled L and N instead of numbered. L uses symmetrical LED clipping for the crunchiest, most compressed and mid-focused sound, and N drops the clipping diodes altogether for a wide-open op-amp drive that works as a clean boost or as a push into an amp that’s already breaking up.
Mode M replaces the asymmetrical silicon diode arrangement from the standard pedals, which is similar to a stock screamer-style circuit, with MOSFET clipping. EarthQuaker says the result is a harmonically rich, focused overdrive with more low end and a response closer to a cranked or modern high-gain tube amp.
“I thought it would be cool to further differentiate these variants from the stock versions,” says EarthQuaker founder and president Jamie Stillman. “The MOSFET Mod retains a little of the classic character of the original Mode 3, but adds more low end crunch and sustain for those looking for a heavier option.”
Controls run to level, gain and a tone knob that moves from bass on the left through mids to treble on the right. The pedals run on a standard 9V supply with true bypass switching, and the Plumes Jr measures 38 x 95 x 51 mm with knobs, with artwork by Stillman.
The Plumes Jr MOSFET Mod is limited to 2,000 units and the Blumes Jr MOSFET Mod to 1,000, each built by hand in Akron, Ohio.
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