Review of the Favoretti’s Yellow Cab Overdrive

A little while ago I got in touch with Marcelo Favoretti of Favoretti’s Custom Designs from Brazil. He wanted to send over his new overdrive for a review, and I was super down with that. A little while later I received the Yellow Cab Overdrive, and we were excited to test it out.

First reaction to this pedal, it was not like every other overdrive out there. It definitely had some good tones that could be pulled from it. This pedal is not “”tubescreamer” like. It did not add any low end and was very clear. The midrange was good as well. Overall, it’s a very versatile overdrive.. that just sounds real good.

First, let’s break the controls down. There are three knobs – Level, Gain and Tone. There are also three toggle switches – Shape, Smooth and Fare. The level, gain and tone are pretty self explanatory, but the toggles need some explaining.

Shape – This toggle adjusts the clipping mode. Center is filter, right is silicon diode and left is a combination of germanium and LED.

Smooth – This toggle adjusts the center frequency of the tone knob. Middle position is transparent or ‘off’, moving left or right will adjust the filter position.

Fare – This adjusts the level of compression. Left is more compression and right is standard compression.

For our demo, I again enlisted the help of Jimmy Rolle. For the Yellow Cab Overdrive demo he used his Les Paul Elegant Custom Shop into a Rivera Knucklehead 100 watt head through a Marshall 4×12 cabinet with Celestion Vintage 30s. The demo was recorded with Fathead SPII Ribbon Mic and Shure SM57. Also for this demo with thought it would be cool to try out a Armor Gold instrument cable as well.

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You can listen to the high quality MP3 clip via SoundCloud

Again, this is a great overdrive. If you’re thinking about purchasing a Yellow Cab Overdrive, check out Favoretti’s site and send him a note. Make sure you mention you saw the demo on EffectsBay.com. I really dig these pedals from outside the US -it’s a great way to pick something up that not everyone has on their board. Favoretti’s Customs is also on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to follow them and check out his other pedals. I’m hoping he’ll send a few more our way.

I will be planning on giving this pedal away some time in March. Be sure to sign up to the mailing list and to become a fan on Facebook so you don’t miss out on the opportunity to win the pedal used in this review.