Overdrive Review: Wounded Paw Black Sheep

Who: Wounded Paw Effects
What: Black Sheep
Price (MSRP/PAID): $185 – (Loaned from Builder)
Battery: Yes
Power Supply: Yes 9V Center Neg (Boss Style)
Size: 4.7″ x 3.7″ x 1.18″ (Approx: including jacks and knobs)
Available from: Direct
Bypass: True
Review Date: 11/27/2011

Marketing:

Black Sheep Bass Overdrive

The Black Sheep Bass Overdrive is now available. It’s a three band overdrive, the signal is split into lo, mid and hi bands and each one has it’s own drive knob and overdrive circuitry. Plus there’s a clean blend. And as an optional extra we will insert an effects loop into the clean channel to allow you to blend an external effects pedal with the overdrives.

Comments:

It’s hard not to be jaded when you’ve played as many different different pedals as I have, and sometimes it takes me awhile to get into the right frame of mind to really dig into something new. The Black Sheep overdrive is another well crafted pedal from Wounded Paw Effects that gives a new perspective and toolkit to tailor a sound ‘just for you.’ The three-band drive knobs provide the opportunity to customize your sound without making the whole operation overly complicated.

There are some quirks to the way the pedal operates which make it a tad less than optimal. The first is that drive pots almost seem an either on-or-off proposition (with the exception of the Hi Drive) but Preston from Wounded Paw informed me that is already something that has been changed.

I’ve changed the drive pots from linear to logarithmic so that you can sneak up on the drive settings a little slower. Meaning you won’t hit the full on distortion as soon, for a more accessible range of settings.

The second issue I had is the Hi drive knob really lets through a ton of cleans as well at the top end, and significantly changes the character of the pedal when turned up. This is more obvious on brighter basses like my jazz, and when the tone knob is really cranked up. This isn’t really a problem per say, because you can still dial around it, but keeps the controls from being perfectly intuitive for me.

Those things aside the pedal can really dial in a nice growl right in the frequency range you that suits you. The control layout is one of those ideas that feels so natural to me that I’m surprised every bass drive pedal isn’t designed around it. There isn’t a ton of gain range available, as this is clearly an overdrive, you aren’t going to be able to wander into distortion or fuzz territory. The pedal itself looks and feels solid, and is finished with a thick powder-coat that can take a beating. Top mounted jacks and power supply always suit me best, and I’m glad to see them here. In the ever shrinking pedal world it would be nice to see it in a smaller enclosure as some of the top competitors for a pedal like this are delivered in the smaller MXR sized enclosure.