Midway Fair | 1 decade ago

The Azabache is Runoff Groove's Fender amp sim. It uses JFETs and clipping diodes in multiple stages to emulate classic amplifiers. It's also my favorite overdrive pedal and I've been using it on my main pedal board for several months now.

I prefer to place a mild compressor (Bearhug) in front, with the gain set to a low-medium breakup point and the tone at noon or just above. A fuzz placed before the compressor takes care of any higher gain needs. I've run this setup (along with the rest of my board) both into my amp and into a PA successfully.

For reference, the modes are:
Bright + no scoop: Tweed
No bright + no scoop: Blond
Scoop + no bright: Black
Scoop + bright: Silver

My favorite modes are the tweed and silver modes, but I use the tweed most often.

The pedal is built stock except that I used an asymmetrical arrangement of diodes in the final clipping stage. I found this opened the pedal up a little bit and kept it from getting too gainy in the final stage. (Also, I like asymmetrical clipping.) One change I would recommend is to consider using a reverse log taper for the gain control, as most of the action happens at noon or above. Also consider increasing the minimum resistance on the gain.

Gear used:
Tone King Imperial
Don Quixotecaster (w/ Reilander Vintage Strat pickups)
Aza