The Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive pedal is a highly sought after piece of gear among some guitarists in the know, and for good reason. It offers a specific range of overdrive tones, and its fair to say, it’s one of the quirkiest pedals I’ve ever owned. The pedal’s mosfet circuitry gives it a natural, organic feel that reacts musically to pick attack, allowing for dynamic control of your overdrive sound.

And thats the cliches out of the way, so here goes.

The Blackstone is crazy compact, you can fit it in your jeans pocket. And if you wanted to do that, your settings would likely not move, because all of the controls are flush with the chassis. You adjust them by using the corner of a guitar pick to slot in and turn the controls. 

The controls themselves are almost intimidatingly simple. Just gain and volume for each channel, and a universal control in the middle that either scoops the mids or flattens them, but no boost. I feel Jon Blackstone wasn’t using the “more is more” approach when he designed the pedal and I deeply appreciate that approach to making guitar gear. It also has an internal trim pot, that increases the maximum gain, it has a message next to it from Jon that simply says, ‘Stop obsessing and play your guitar’.

So it has a brown channel and a red channel. As far as I’ve used it, has been using the brown for rhythm and the red for lead, as the red has a more saturated feel, very very thick. I turned the trim pot up inside as it tends to open the tone a little more and thats what I wanted.

Something that surprised me, was that it gives you a dramatically different experience depending on what guitar you have. It’s always a very very tight sound, but on a humbucking guitar, it really barks and responds lively to everything you do. On the other hand with a single coil, it feels like it tightens things up a lot and makes it more punchy, it’s the most responsive pedal I’ve played. So this is absolutely not a bedroom players pedal. I’ve taken from home, to rehearsals, to gigs and I’ve never had a pedal that sounds so different in different situations.

The best pairing I’ve used it with has been my Gibson 335 into the Blackstone, then into my 1970 Fender Twin Reverb. I actually posted a pic of that rig before a gig and Jon Blackstone commented, saying that that was the exact setup that he was using when he was developing the pedal.

In terms of build quality, the Blackstone Mosfet Overdrive pedal definitely feels very chunky. For its size its heavy. The only issue I’ve ever had and still have sometimes, the input or output jack somehow shake out of the slots, even on a pedalboard. I was once in an orchestra pit and my guitar sound was gone. After scrambling for a whole tune, I could see that one of the jack plugs was maybe a quarter of an inch out of the slot. So I’ve had to keep an eye on it.

Overall, the Blackstone Appliances Mosfet Overdrive pedal is an excellent choice for guitarists looking for a versatile, high-quality overdrive pedal. Whether you’re playing blues, rock, or any other style of music, this pedal will give you the tone you need to take your playing to the next level.