The magical Optimist is still one of the most natural-sounding overdrives ever created and has cemented its reputation in the history of guitardom. OD1 is based on the most expensive, hard-to-find, mythical overdrive ever created!
Jackson Audio reproduced this circuit in perfect detail to provide the stock tone that people are looking for from this legendary pedal. We updated it with an active EQ (bypass-able) to take this classic circuit into uncharted territory!
Just like the original circuit, OD1 features impossible to find (unless you know how to use eBay) germanium diodes that have been carefully washed in unicorn tears to deliver the best tone possible! Why? Because you deserve the best. You deserve diodes that have been washed in unicorn tears.
OD2 of the OPTIMIST stands in stark contrast to the mid-focused tone of OD1. Designed to be perfectly flat across the full range of the guitar, OD2 is perfect for rhythm work and is a perfect harmonic enhancer for OD1 when you want to boost OD1 even further!
Based on the legendary Baxandall EQ that is featured in countless studio EQ’s, The Optimist EQ takes this circuit and tailors it for guitarists! We spent tons of time on this EQ dialing it in so it would hit all the frequencies that guitarists need to adjust and then sweet- ened it by removing the ear fatiguing highs and lows that can appear at extreme settings.
Studio-grade EQ with High Bandwidth and Flat Response at 12:00
+/- 12dB Boost/Cut per control
Center Detents on the pots that make it easier to get back to a neutral or flat response.
The Optimist features MIDI control over all functions! OD1, OD2 and EQ can all be controlled via MIDI for an unlimited selection of tones.
Jackson Audio always want to make sure that our pedals are as easy to integrate into complex rigs as they are into simple rigs and MIDI makes that happen!