Death By Audio – Intersteller Overdrive Deluxe Guest Review

The following is a guest review of the Death By Audio – Intersteller Overdrive Deluxe by Giovanni Lanese (@joGlitterball). If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Ok, what you can take out of this box is something very different from any other fuzz or overdrive. Two channels:

Channel 1
interstellar overdriver – the one on the right, with drive and master Knobs;

Channel 2
Master and drive knobs + the six position selector:

1 thin drive
2 matched interstellar overdriver
3 bass overdrive
4 octafuzz
5 oscillating fuzz
6 voltage controlled tremolo / fuzz

It can be powered both with 9v battery and standard power adapter + daisy chain (I use 1spot); no polarity problems…

Basically it comes with no manual, ’cause you really don’t need it; it’s a pedal to use with a lot of imagination…

I use a Fender Stratocaster made in Japan ’86,  and a Fender ’65 Super Reverb reissue, and with this one I’ve always had matching problems with fuzzes; only a few sound great with it and Interstellar Overdriver is one of these. The Channel one goes from a slight overdrive to a high gain sound, without affecting your touch and dynamic. It sounds HUGE. Basically, alone it gives you one sound, but when you add it to the second channel a whole world of sounds opens. The coolest thing is that the sound changes a lot according to the master and the drive knob distinctly(master a little bit more influential). Sometimes you get a particular sound only in a specific position on the master knob-This is its “Ki” ; obviously this will force you to keep the 1st channel master very low. However you can get lots of nuances and really create your own sound.

Channel two starts with a thin drive:  it sounds like a lo-fi sound ideal for strange kind of solos but works very well also with overdrive arpeggios.

Matched interstellar overdriver has a more ‘standard’ sound, compared to the others, very warm and full of harmonics, almost a tube-like sound.

Bass overdrive is very fat and loud. Your guitar seems to have the tone control all the way down.

Octafuzz is a crazy drive with a fantastic hiss (see WTF- Ok Go) starting from the master knob in a 10 o’clock position, your amplifier seems to be broken, but when you sound in a band it will be harder to notice it. Imagine your sound turned into pixels…

Oscillating fuzz is very vintage, reminds me of malekko b:assmaster, it’s the most compressed sound of the pedal.

Voltage controlled tremolo / fuzz – just a thing: the more you turn up 1st channel master, the more tremolo begins later and its rate decrease according to the intensity of your touch!