Overture

If you are looking for a quick assessment of this pedal after the first few hours of play time with it, in short it is fantastic. Read on for more details about my experience.

I took it out of the box, did not change any settings, just plugged it in and played it with a Les Paul Traditional ('57 Classics in it) and a Fender Am Deluxe (N4 Noiseless in it with S1 switch) into three different amps - a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 and H&K Tubemeister 18. Each of the amps reacted differently to the pedal, and all were very usable sounds, which tells me that the circuits in this pedal have been very meticulously designed and tested by guitar players and sound geeks just like me.

Every single drive voicing in this pedal has several useful applications, and I have yet to find an unusable sound in this pedal yet. I consider myself a bit of a pedal junkie and this pedal has replaced several "never going to leave my board" pedals - including a D&M Drive, TS9, and a Diamond Compressor.

I am using my RJM Overture with a Boss ES8 switching system, which is MIDI capable and this opens the pedal up to even more options. I know RJM has a fantastic switcher lineup of their own that I have never tried but if it is as simple as the RJM is to use, it may be a future consideration to replace the BOSS ES8 as the ES8 is a bit of a workout to figure out how to use. Using MIDI with this pedal and a good switcher means you can preset the pedal to how you like it, save the presets, and recall them in an instant by clicking one button on the switcher. This basically means you can have somewhere in the vicinity of 100 different analog drive sounds with this one pedal - which to my knowledge, is not found anywhere else, and certainly not at this level of quality and craftsmanship.

My favorite drive so far is the Smooth drive option. It is touch sensitive and reacts very well to the guitar and pickups when volume is rolled off or back to hit the pedal harder. Into an amp set just before breakup with the guitar set to 50% volume, and you get yourself a tone monster that will take you from nice subtle, clean breakup to a thick and saturated drive that is perfect for blues bordering on hard rock. If you hit the pedal with a Klon-style pedal, you get a whole new flavor and I think this combination would be more than enough for any gig to be successful. Speaking of Klon, boosting any of the drives with a Klon gives a wonderful stacked gain sound that is so versatile and usable, it really is a "hear it to believe it" kind of sound.

All in all, I love this pedal. It does everything RJM says it does, and so much more than could be covered in one review or a youtube demo video.

Thanks RJM, this pedal is awesome.

Amazing pedal, very versatile. It can be bery transparent if you want, very easy to dial in.

I only wish I could copy one present into other or that the solo switch would boost the preset intead of changing to a different patch.

a red light changes to green when you change a knob, but if you turn it back to where it was, it won't turn red again, meaning that you cannot tell where the knob was if you dailed that sound a a week ago.

but overall, I'm very satistied with the tone and fexlibility that pedal offers.

I have a feeling that me and the Overture are going to be together for a long, long time. Though I have only had it for a couple of days, my early impression has hit all the right points for me.
With 8 presets on the face of the pedal you essentially have 8 analog drive pedals in one lightweight and robust package – and that doesn’t include the full boat of 100 presets accessible through midi control. Sporting all the standard drive controls you might find in other pedals, what really sets this pedal apart for me is that pre-boost mode, allowing you to get that stacked drive pedal sound with only one box.
Adjectives that come to mind for me in thinking about quality of the tones, are luscious, powerful, and dynamic. It just has that alive feel to it. Also, the Overture gives you the best of both worlds: the flexibility and control of a digital unit but with all analog sound. Genius. I have a feeling this one is going to be a classic.
Kudos to RJM for making a stellar drive!

Only a few days in and I’m Lovin’ this pedal. Great tones/feel and silent switching between presets. Have set up with midi with the mastermind Gt16. I’ve cloned some of my other pedals settings into the overture. A venmuram, a Klon, etc. able to get very close to these pedals with the overture. So close, the slight difference wouldn’t be noticeable with a live band. Great stuff Ron and the RJM team.