Dirt Review: ElectroniX (zeibek) GeminiDrive (v1)

Construction and cosmetic concerns:

This is a pedal with tons of sonic options. Three two-position switches and four knobs give you a vast array of controls on hand to try and dial in your sound. Physically it’s a small pedal with the jacks on the side and the power mounted on the top. The graphics are a little busy looking and feature at least three representations of duality. Division of the volume knob between the overdrive-volume and clean-boost means that you can preserve low as much (or as little) as you desire. In fact, if you turn the overdrive all the way down you can use the pedal as… gasp… a clean boost. The pedal features bypass switching and high quality parts throughout, but the circuit itself is floating (as with the other ElectroniX pedals). It’s wrapped in electrical tape to prevent unintentional grounding and kept mostly in place by the many cables coming off the plethora of controls. Not a work of pure design beauty if you are into that kind of thing, but it gets the job done.

Conclusion:

This is one of those pedals where the number of options overwhelms the heart of the thing a bit. Just like a good musical group can find themselves underedited when left to their own devices, so it is with the GeminiDrive. Making choices is part of the design process and I think the modes on this pedal aren’t distinct enough to merit all the add-ons. I’m not sure if the planned GeminiDrive Lite ever made it into existence, but would be curious to see what balance was struck. The gemini mod is the most significant of the available mod settings, as it reduces the amount of lows present on the overdrive side. At first this seems like it might be a bad idea, but when you already have lows coming from the clean side, it helps tighten up the sound of the pedal and keep it from getting too muddy. The twin volumes causes a lot of touchiness in terms of finding volume equity when changing the other settings.

All that said, I find the tone of the overdrive to be very very fizzy and raspy, nearly fuzz-like in fact. If you are looking for a basic tube grunt replacement pedal, this is not going to make you happy.

As always, if you have any questions, leave a comment or let me know Note: A rating of 5 = acceptable and should considered a good basic score