GEAR SPOTLIGHT
PEDALPALFX
PAL800 GOLD
OVERDRIVE
REVIEW BY DAVID A. EVANS
STREET PRICE $184.90
Some pedals call out to
this reporter the moment
he strums the first chord.
PedalPalFX’s new PAL800
Gold Overdrive is just such
a pedal. Perhaps its gold
housing ought to have
given a hint that the unit
is golden in more than one
sense. Its build quality is
excellent, and the pedal,
which aims to emulate the
classic Marshall amp sound,
accomplishes this task
easily.
The PAL800 Gold features
the distinctive Marshall-
style, gold-top knobs on its
six controls. In addition to
Volume, the pedal includes
controls for Presence, Gain,
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GEAR SPOTLIGHT //
Bass, Middle, and Treble.
On the righthand side of
the pedal is a small, three-
way toggle switch which
allows the user to choose
different Gain Voicings.
The middle setting on
the Gain Voicing toggle
seemed to be the “neutral”
position. It offered clear,
resonant, and ringing tone,
with perhaps less treble
than I would hear from the
clean signal. The tone was
warm, but with enough
sparkle to shine through a
dense mix.
True to PedalPalFX’s claim,
the Gain Voicing switch was
most effective when the
Gain knob was set below
PedalPalFX PAL800 Gold Overdrive
noon. Higher Gain settings
produced an almost
indistinguishable difference
between the different
voicings. This was fine.
At the lower gain levels,
the difference between
voicings was dramatic. The
neutral setting was not only
quieter than the up and
down toggle settings, but
it was also warmer because
it lacked the definition in
the high end. I don’t mean
that the neutral setting was
totally without high-end—
far from it. The “up” toggle
position, on the other hand,
was noticeably louder and
offered greater clarity in
the high end. The pedal
could become pretty thin if