Way Huge Overrated Special

This post is geared to all of you pedal junkies…

The pedal sitting on my amp in this picture is called an Overrated Special built by Dunlop. It came out of the box with a logo font matching exactly to that of an Overdrive Special created and built by Dumble. The sense of humor at Dunlop never ceases to amaze me!

Designed specifically for Joe Bonamassa, this pedal brings bold and punchy overdriven sounds. In designing this pedal, Jeorge Tripps took an old school Green Rhino pedal, beefed it up, and added the 500HZ knob to allow you to really dial in the low/mid frequencies of your tone. With volume, drive, and tone knobs this pedal is incredibly user friendly and easy to create a wide range of tones.

My favorite feature is the addition of the 500HZ knob. I really like having that extra mid boost in my sound. It’s what initially turned me on to this pedal! That, and the killer sustain! When dialed in just right, you get screaming lead tones and that

“hiss-like” sound out of your amp, similar to tones you hear regularly on Joe Bonamassa albums. And who wouldn’t want to sound like Joe Bonamassa?

Its predecessor the Green Rhino is limited by a 100HZ knob but has a curve control to round out corner frequencies in your tone. Both are great pedals, but I like the grittiness of the Overrated Special best.

My favorite use is to put it in front of an already overdriven amp. I run my Vibrolux at about 5 on the volume knob. Then I like to stomp on the Overrated Special to give it that extra gain for a lead. Or sometimes, I will leave the pedal on and roll off my guitar’s volume knob for a different texture while playing rhythm.

With a cool back-story and ties to Joe Bonamassa, Dunlop only manufactured 1,000 of the Overrated Special pedals. If you have the means, just under two hundred bucks, I’d highly recommend getting your hands on one of these pedals.

Until next time, Thanks for reading!

~Brian