JHS Pedals has packed two of its most popular overdrive pedals into an all-powerful twofer pedal, the Wanderer – and taken the two-in-one concept to a new dimension.
The Wanderer houses both the Morning Glory, a Bluesbreaker-inspired transparent overdrive, and the Notaklön, the company’s celebrated Klon clone.
Josh Scott’s firm, then, is understandably billing this as “the ultimate overdrive,” and it’s the first pedal to feature JHS’ new vertical two-in-one format.
With top-mounted jacks offering separate in/outs and effects loops for each pedal, players can weave them into different spots in their pedalboard signal chain. It’s also compatible with JHS’ Red Remote switch (sold separately) to unlock four separate gain stages.
That unit-splitting independence also means each pedal can be run on separate sides of a loop on a switcher, and have settings saved in different presets. It’s leaning hard into the two-in-one concept.
For those unfamiliar with how each of the pedals are designed, Morning Glory “delivers all the tonal and responsive nuance that your amp is missing” and is very-much intended to be on all the time.
The Notaklön, a take on the lauded Klon Centaur that first launched as a DIY pedal pack, pushes clean tones to edge-of-breakup and injects further vintage rock grit to already pushed tones.
The pairing means stacking them on top of one another could have some seriously entertaining and timeless tonal results. Scott has had them both on his ‘board for years, stacking the Notaklön atop the Morning Glory for his rhythm tone, and then using the Red Remote for an extra gain boost when playing leads.
All the controls for both pedals remain, with a total of six dials, two footswitches and two miniswitches. That’s Volume, Drive and Tone for the Morning Glory, and Volume, Gain and Treble, for the Notaklön.
For the Morning Glory, flipping the Gain toggle engages high gain mode, while the +/- switch of the Notaklön kicks things up by 4 dB, increases the midrange and engages an additional stage of hard clipping.
For fans of both pedals, and for pedalboard space saving, the JHS Pedals Wanderer could be a real doozy for $299, as buying both separately would set you back a good $30 more. Plus, if the build-it-yourself element of the Notaklön was off-putting, this one comes ready made.
The JHS Pedals Wanderer is available now for $299.
See JHS Pedals for more.
Also this year, JHS Pedals has corrected its biggest mistake with the relaunch of its cult classic DIY Dumble pedal, and its latest reverb has found a fan in Guitar World’s Matt McCracken.
