"It's dangerous to go alone, take this!"
How often do you want to go it alone? Whether that's with your rig or something more universal in life, it's always a welcome idea to bring a friend.
For years, Caroline Guitar Company has been a pillar in the independent boutique effect community. Their catalog has seen plenty of changes, earned many fan favorites, and still carries on and evolves to this day. With their classic analog wizardry, some new ideas, and a solid dose of love from their fans, their new overdrive effect has plenty to talk about – but never giving up on that creatively-inspiring intuition that makes Caroline pedals so beloved.
This is the Caroline Guitar Company Aaron Graves Overdrive.
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10,000 Spoons
Introducing the Caroline Guitar Company Aaron Graves Overdrive
South Carolina's Caroline Guitar Company are no strangers to a good overdrive. Though they peddle premier pedals of plenty sorts, their overdrives are among their most coveted – and fan-requested. With a heartwarming dose of "If you know, you know," Caroline's overdrives, even those solidly out of production, still get love from the many, many players who supported the brand from the very beginning.
Of those many, many players – plenty originating from Caroline's native Columbia – was Aaron Graves. A beloved member of the Columbia DIY music scene, Graves is remembered today with the Aaron Graves Overdrive. With this pedal, a portion of profits go to Fork & Spoon Records, the label started by Graves in 2010 and maintained until his death in 2019 from astrocytoma. Caroline's love for the close-knit Columbia musical community comes through with the Aaron Graves Overdrive, packed with plenty of treats for longtime and newcomer fans of Caroline alike.
Let's discuss.
Match Game
Caroline Guitar Company Aaron Graves Overdrive Design and Controls
As we said, the Caroline Guitar Company has a history with overdrives. Longtime players of Caroline pedals might remember their Haymaker, their Cannonball, their OG Wave Cannon, but would be hard-pressed to get their hands on one these days. Caroline has their fair share of retired designs. Where you might find elements of past designs in newer production pedals, nothing lasts forever. Them's the breaks.
The Aaron Graves Overdrive is an original overdrive from Caroline with a number of fan favorite characteristics carried over from past Caroline pedals. Putting forward a full, crispy, punchy overdrive and preamp effect full of form and character, the Aaron Graves Overdrive is one of those "matchmaker" drives. You know the type. A preamp or overdrive to stick in between your favorite guitar and any amp you'd like. Spin the wheel on your pickup configuration, your amp choice, your other effects in the stream, drop in one more "matchmaker" pedal and sort it all out easily. The Aaron Graves Overdrive is that type of drive.
Centered around a straightforward three-way control scheme with two toggle switches, the Aaron Graves gets on to overdriven matchmaking quickly. An intuitive tone-shaping experience with Level, Drive, and Tone controls align with a two-way preamp/power amp clipping control and a three-way bass boost/cut control. Here, the Caroline history comes knockin' with their "Mode B" comp-cut circuit – originally found in their Haymaker Overdrive and Icarus V1 Boost models.
With plenty of angles for preamp boosting, overdrive clipping, drive distorting, and more in between, the Aaron Graves Overdrive is an exceptional entry to the Caroline line.
Skeleton Keys
Caroline Guitar Company Aaron Graves Overdrive Tones
What's in a drive, these days? "A rose by any other name is still just as overdriven," you know what we mean? A sizable market for overdrives these days makes the task harder than ever to pick a good overdrive. Fair enough, but maybe being a bit more utilitarian with our choices could be a helpful means of picking one overdrive out of millions. Let's talk about a couple use cases we've got with the Aaron Graves Overdrive.
Amp MatchmakerAs we alluded to, the Aaron Graves Overdrive is one of those drives to act as the skeleton key for every and any style of amp to every and any style of guitar. The pedal's deep interactivity with its versatile drive shaping and "Donut" bass boost or cut toggle makes it ready to smooth over bright amps, spike darker ones, lift a low-watt combo, or reel in a big guy. The Aaron Graves' simplicity offers utility as not only an overdrive pedal but a useful in-between for hitting amps in the unique way they need to be hit. Bring the Aaron Graves to the studio for a go-to amp voicing tool or to the stage for that weirdo amp that you've always wanted to try live.
Grab-and-Go DistorterWhile it's got its "preamp" utility, the Aaron Graves Overdrive is no slouch when it comes to punching up a clean or teetering amp. The pedal's "Beard" drive control beefs up a signal considerably. When used in tandem with the "Megabyte" two-way clipping toggle turned to its left position, the Aaron Graves Overdrive swings with the best of 'em in terms of thick distortion. A loving helping of bass boost inches this overdrive towards pure tube-style saturation to make your Marshall proud and put some hair on your chest.
Beyond your two usual overdrive use cases, it should not go without saying that the Aaron Graves Overdrive is incredibly versatile. Owing to its mix of Caroline components under the hood – including the preamp circuit from their "pawnshop" Parabola tremolo and Météore – the Aaron Graves hits many overdrive bases from a full-bodied boost to add breadth to any amp to a cantankerous distortion flirting with pseudo-synthetic sounds from its fizzy, bubbling undercurrents.
Further, the Aaron Graves Overdrive follows in tradition with other Caroline overdrives in a more interactive palette of controls to work with than your usual "zero-to-one-hundred" drive pedal. Its "Cloud" level control and "Beard" drive control interact closely, offering more nuance and activity with one as the either moves. Different volume levels, gain characters, and playing responses bloom from these two dials as you finagle with them. Though as always, it's never hard to find a good sound.
Caroline Guitar Company Aaron Graves Overdrive Final Thoughts
With the Aaron Graves Overdrive, Caroline brings a healthy balance of old and new. For its "old," we get the preservation of fan-favorite Caroline components like the Haymaker comp-cut circuit and Parabola preamp circuit. For its "new," we get a streamlined drive experience in a shrunk-down, even more pedalboard-friendly form. Caroline's ever-present love for tube amps and guitars moves throughout the Aaron Graves Overdrive as it serves utility for rig matchmaking along with natural signal saturating. A pedal to be dropped in just about anywhere and used for just about anything, the Aaron Graves Overdrive is something to trust in and cycle through any rig you've got.
