Review : Revival Drive Compact by Origin Effects
As guitarists the correct answer for how many overdrives we have seems to be at least one more than what we already have. I count myself in this space. I've not thus far been much enamoured of distortion and fuzz pedals but overdrives are an issue for me, and while I sometimes find other reviews to be JAFO content, I have to say that the Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact does not fit in that bucket.
The Compact is a smaller version of the double sized and nearly double priced full unit.
You'll notice that the Compact has half the functions of the full size leaving out the Silicon Rectifier side. This was ok with me and why I chose the Compact model.
The controls are incredibly simple, and Origin provides some suggested settings in their documentation to get you started for different configurations.
My test environment is a very lean board (tuner, Revival Drive, Keeley Delay) into the front of a Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue. I love the Twins enormous power and tendency to stay clean at all volume levels. Twin users know that at full pop, a Twin will blow you through a wall, so I tend to play it with the volume relatively low. Using the Revival Drive gives me a lot of tone control without having to have the amp too loud not that it would overdrive much anyway.
I have tested the unit with single coils from an SRV Strat which has the Texas Specials pickups, an Eric Johnson Strat, a rosewood Telecaster from the 80s, a Gretsch White Penguin 59VS and a Les Paul 57 Black Beauty. Obviously I need to alter the settings on the Revival Drive for these different guitars, but in every case I have been successful quickly in getting an overdrive tone that I like without having to resort to black magic in the guitar settings. If I could say that about all the other overdrives that I have owned and tried, I would have a smaller number of them.
My Revival Drive Compact came from my good friends at Electric Mojo Guitars. They are my primary dealer for boutique stuff and my provider for my other Origin Systems gear. I find Charles to be both knowledgeable and helpful with excellent pricing and very fast delivery. Origin Effects kit is not found in many stores, partly because they are a small company and also frankly because the price points are well over better known overdrives and the buyer market is fairly vertical.
However, if you are tone hound and are looking for an overdrive that really kills it, but that is also versatile enough that it's not a one trick pony and that plays nicely with other amps (I have used it with an AC30, Marshall 2555, PRS Dallas, Kock Multitone and Blackstar Club 40). I even tried into the front of the tiny Yamaha THR30 II. All good sounds, although I admit a preference for valve (tube) amps.
If you can handle the cost of acquisition, this pedal is the finest that I have found for this kind of task.