A ’70s amp in a box

The Getaway Driver is an amp-in-a-box type pedal with just three dials – Volume, Bite (tone) and Gain. While the pedal adds its vintage vibe on all amplifiers, it really excels when used with the amplifier’s clean channel, even ones with a bright cap. It also makes a great clean boost, with lower Gain and higher Volume settings pushing amps over the edge into classic overdrive.

The gain structure is produced using single-ended JFET circuitry running in Class A, just like a valve amp. The input buffer, output buffer and Cab Sim are handled using op-amps, using a charge pump to give 18v of headroom.

The pedal features the same transparent, buffered output used on the Orange Two Stroke and Kongpressor pedals. While the second output is a buffered Cab Sim/headphone amp which can also work into a PA (via a DI box) or directly into a recording interface. The first output is transparent when bypassed, however, when using the second output, the Cab Sim remains engaged. This means that the Getaway Driver can be used as just a Cab Sim on its own if needed.

The voicing and gain structure of this pedal is based on a cranked modded ’70s valve amp. Running at 9 Volts, the pedal will have the character of EL84 valves, whereas 12 Volts will give an EL34 flavour. Use a regulated 9-12V DC centre-negative power supply.