GEAR SPOTLIGHT
ONE CONTROL
CRANBERRY
OVERDRIVE
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $145.00
The little Cranberry
Overdrive from
OneControl is the second
pedal I’ve reviewed in
which Björn Juhl of Björn
Juhl Amplifier Electronics
had a hand. Yes, the
pedal is red and tiny like
a cranberry, but unlike
the fruit, OneControl’s
pedal isn’t grown in a
bog and, its tone is a
whole lot sweeter than its
namesake’s flavor.
The Cranberry Overdrive
presents the user with
three simple knobs and
a footswitch. All the
essentials are covered:
one knob for Treble,
one for Volume, and one
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GEAR SPOTLIGHT //
for Drive. In reality, the
pedal actually features
a fourth tone control.
Perhaps for reasons
of space, OneControl
placed the Low control
beside the output jack.
Adjusting it requires
a small Philips-head
screwdriver, because
the control is actually a
trimpot, yet accessible
through a small hole.
In low Drive settings, the
Cranberry produced very
little distortion, as might
be expected. The pedal
is highly transparent. I
turned down the Treble
knob to its lowest
position and toggled the
One Control Cranberry Overdrive
footswitch to hear the
difference but did not
hear much of one. With
higher Treble settings,
however, the Cranberry
added some sparkle to
my tone with just a hint
of breakup. I appreciated
that the Cranberry didn’t
meddle with my default
frequency spread to the
point at which I would
need to adjust the
EQ to tame any stray,
undesirable frequencies.
I suppose that’s one way
to define “transparency,”
and, therefore,
excellence of tone.
As I eased the little
Cranberry into higher