Good ol’ Matt Hoopes, guitarist extraordinaire of @RelientKBand , and more contextually important here to us at TPC as the founder and lead inventor over at 1981 Inventions, has given us several options of his wonderful DRV circuit. Paul here is taking four of them for a spin to hear the same riffs and rhythms through each to help you answer the ever-burning question of “Which DRV Am I???”
In today’s lineup, we have the OG DRV No3, in our favorite “Stranger Things” colourway, the white Mod 1, a black colourway of the White LED Clip, and Professional DRV (Germanium) with the cutesy DeLorean graphic.
Here’s a run down on the circuit differences, but tbh, watch and listen and let your ears tell you what your heart longs to hear!
DRV No3: The 1981 INVENTIONS DRV No3 features clear and harmonic-rich warmth with guitar specific midrange, which brings a lot of clarity to almost any instrument. The DRV really shines in the lower gain sections of the pedal, where preamp meets distortion. The DRV has a unique dynamic range and sensitivity, where instead of going clean to slightly overdriven, it goes from clean to slightly distorted. High gain settings provide a thick and yet clear fuzz sound that you’ll love!
Mod 1: The “DRV MOD 1” and it’s got most all you know and love about the DRV (with a slightly different feel in the midrange) but with this incredible zero gain feature/quirk. When you turn the gain to zero it removes the distortion from the circuit and allows you to access just the preamp and volume for a warm, woody, harmonically excellent way to push your amp into something wonderful.
White LED: The sound is less compressed, louder, and more clear on complex chord voicings. Slightly less gain than a standard DRV, but is much more “punchy.”
Professional DRV: Using NOS 1N34A germanium diodes, this is an extremely “professional” variation of the DRV, and the first variation to offer this spec. Just to be clear, this will not make the DRV circuit sound “more like another pedal”, but is a great sounding variation, and I think of it as a nice little homage. Straight class. This is only a tribute.
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