Fender Santa Ana Overdrive V2 effects pedal

General

With the Fender Santa Ana Overdrive V2, you can give your guitar sound the vibrancy of a Fender valve amp cranked right up. This overdrive pedal uses a JFET-based Class A circuit that operates internally at 18 volts, delivering plenty of headroom and a touch-sensitive response. The Voice switch lets you choose between two character settings: position A delivers a natural, tight overdrive, whilst position B offers a smoother and fuller sound for lead parts. The Drive and Tone controls let you adjust the amount of overdrive and the presence of high frequencies. Fancy a bit more tightness in the low end? The Tight switch on the rear reduces low frequencies before the overdrive, giving your drive an even more focused feel.

An equaliser that does more than just fine-tune

Surrounding the overdrive circuit is an independently switchable 3-band equaliser, allowing you to further tailor the character of your sound to your liking. The active Bass, Middle and Treble controls can boost or cut their respective frequency ranges. Thanks to the tactile centre position, you can easily return to the neutral setting. With the EQ Placement switch, you can position this equaliser either before or after the overdrive. Placing it before the drive allows you to determine which frequencies are overdriven more strongly, thereby influencing the circuit’s response. Placing it after the drive, on the other hand, shapes the final overdriven result, for a more pronounced equaliser effect. This enables you to tailor the sound to your guitar and playing style.

Practical switching on your pedalboard

The Santa Ana Overdrive V2 also gives you the freedom you need when switching. With the Multiswitch function, you can choose between permanent activation with a tap of the footswitch or temporary activation by holding it down. On the rear panel, you can also switch between true bypass and buffered bypass. If the power supply fails, a relay automatically switches to bypass mode. The aluminium casing is designed for use on the go, and the connections are located on the top, which is handy when organising your pedalboard. The pedal has a Sea Foam Green finish and requires a 9V adaptor with a negative centre pin; this power supply is not included.