Hamstead Soundworks Odyssey

Hamstead Soundworks Odyssey:  Intergalactic Driver

An Unbelievable Journey Through Tone

Hamstead Soundworks’ obsession with tone and electronic design has driven them to push the boundaries of what a drive pedal can be. The result is the Odyssey Intergalactic Driver – a single analogue circuit by Peter Hamstead.

With interactive controls for unbelievable versatility, Odyssey can take you on a tonal journey. From clean boost with tone shaping, to classic rock, through to heavy metal and all the way to oversaturated fuzz, the sweet spot is wherever you want it to be. Whether you simply want to find your sonic nirvana or embark on an epic adventure of discovery, Odyssey gives you countless classic and contemporary tones, all just waiting to be unleashed.

Hamstead Soundworks Main Features:

• Boost/Overdrive/Distortion pedal with powerful Guitar & Amp Tone Shaping
• 3 Clipping Circuits:
  • C1: symmetrical clipping – for consistent classic pedal drive tones
  • C2: asymmetrical clipping – creates transparent low gain drive with defined attack
  • C3: two clipping circuits – for natural, amp-like drive and distortion
• 3 Input Gain Boost modes – for up to +14 dB boost
• (Unity, Double and 5x times Gain)
• Switchable order of the Drive & EQ circuits
• Active EQ with +/-18 dB of Clean Treble & Bass Boost & Cut
• All-analogue design with silent optical switching and OptoKick footswitch
• Powered by 9V DC PSU
• (Centre -, 2.1 mm, 65 mA current draw)

Odyssey takes all-analogue Drive & EQ circuits and pushes them to their limits, creating possibly the most versatile analogue drive pedal ever made. The Drive circuit features three clipping modes each with its own character and voice, while the Gain knob has a wide range – from very light breakup to incredibly saturated distortion.

The key to Odyssey’s versatility is how the Drive circuit interacts with the EQ to create an entire galaxy of tonal options. The EQ circuit is very clean and very powerful, allowing the tone to be sculpted when placed after the Drive circuit in ‘Post’ mode or used to drastically alter the response and character of the breakup when before the Drive in ’Pre’ mode.

Clipping stages can be boosted by the ‘X’ switch, setting the input level to X1 (unity), X2 (twice your original signal) or X5 to boost the input level by almost 14 dB. Boosting the level into the Drive circuit creates anything from a subtle increase in saturation and harmonics at low gain levels, but can also be used to push the clipping all the way to fuzz and even octave style effects.

While the Tone control is a low pass filter that controls the high frequencies in the Drive circuit, which is very useful for tailoring Odyssey to your set up. Alternatively, this can be used with the Treble control to fine-tune the high end.

Odyssey features silent optical switching, plus OptoKick footswitch from our friends at The GigRig for excellent reliability. The pedal has been extensively tested with a large range of familiar guitars and amplifiers, ensuring that it will work superbly with any setup.