OK, this review has nothing to do with the late-'90s handheld game Bop It, but the Push me Pull me overdrive pedal by Custom 77 is just as addicting.
The French-designed pedal is like having three different overdrive sounds at your disposal in one box.
Without any cheat or CAPTCHA codes to enter, the Push me Pull Me couldn’t be any easier to use. The three knobs are Level, Tone and Gain. On the top right, there’s a three-way toggle switch that is labeled Vintage, Wild and Modern. Vintage gives a softer, bluesy tone; Modern offers a harder crunch and Wild takes you over the top with a significant, yet very usable gain boost.
Another plus about the pedal is an array of useful powering options. The Buffer is great if you plan on running this in front of a longer chain of pedals. Other features are an On/Off Ground Lift switch and the ability to power this pedal with 9 or 18 volts.
Look under the hood and you’ll notice the pedal also can run on a supplied 9-volt battery. I applied my own clear tape to keep it from rattling around during transport. The soldering looked very clean to me. The on/off switch is true bypass. Included in the packaging was an instruction booklet, optional Velcro strips and a Custom 77 sticker.
Here are two quick clips I put together to show the pedal’s versatility. Clip one is a humbucker-equipped Les Paul. I start with the pedal bypassed, strum some open chords and then switch the pedal on and play the same chords starting with Vintage mode, then
Modern mode and finally I back off a bit when I play through Wild mode.
Clip two is a Strat into my blackface Bassman. I have the pedal set to vintage mode and I’m just riffing around trying to channel Jimi Hendrix’s rhythm playing.
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You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
