Why Billy Too and what makes it essential? This pedal is a soft-clipped, transparent op-amp drive that’s a direct descendent of the Billy overdrive – but with added features. Billy Too is capable of mid boost and voltage adjustment for players who need more versatility – but at heart, it’s a Billy too!

BOOST adjusts the gain from a near amp break up to a rock’n’roll distortion. Pre-gain LOW knobs provide the player with an excellent bass control entering the gain stage. And if the frequency range is to low or too high, users are encouraged to shift the bass response with an internal trimmer adjustment. HIGH control adds the necessary treble post-gain. The newly added MID control takes this drive to mix-cutting dimensions, SAG control adjusts the operating voltage of the drive section from 4.5 to 15V. While the higher voltage provides the circuit with more headroom, starving it emulates a dying battery and at an extreme setting produces fuzz-like tones.

The three clipping modes have changed a bit: ’I’ remains silicon, ‘II’ – is vintage germanium, and ‘III’ stands for modern Germanium. Silicon mode provides a classic rock drive, while the modern germanium adds more compression. The vintage germanium mode offers the mildest distortion with a very open, amp-like sound. Although the vintage Germanium transistor mode has been omitted, a low voltage SAG settings will produce  a nice fuzz effect. An optocoupler in the foot switch helps to keep pesky clicks to a minimum.

“The original Billy is one of my favorite overdrives, but I wanted to add more flexibility to the settings. It’s not a replacement for the original Billy, which is still the best option for a tone purist” says Hejda. “My favorite setting is the vintage Germanium clipping  in combination with a low voltage SAG adjustment that will transform nearly any clean amp to an old school, cranked Marshall or Dumble.”