The Last Drive Pedal You’ll Ever Need? TTK Checks Out the GREENCHILD TRIBUS DRIVE

The Last Drive Pedal You’ll Ever Need?

Greenchild’s Tribus Drive Gives Players Three Hassle-Free Ways to Rock

 

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TheToneKing.com readers know that we dig the concept of cascading two gain pedals into each other and bathing in the bliss that comes out of the speaker.  If you do get the right pedals together, of course.  And if you don’t mind doing a little bit of a cha-cha if you want to go from scream to clean, because you may be turning off two peals at once. And if you have the space on your board for what amounts to a duplicate effect….

 

Obviously, part of our eternal tone journey is not only finding out what sounds good to us, but what is practical for our needs.  And let’s face it, a pedal board that requires it’s owner to be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers isn’t terribly desirable in a lot of situations.  Fortunately for us, a new company has broken through with a practical drive pedal that can conceivably cover every level of crunch a player might ever need.  That company is Melvin Greenchild’s Greenchild, and that pedal is the Tribus Drive. (demo video below)

 

Green, a U.S. Navy vet who holds a BS in electrical engineering and a Masters in engineering, founded Greenchild (named in honor of his daughter) as a way to combine his passion for DIY audio and guitar.  Green’s idea behind the Tribus Drive was to put a versatile, simple, and efficiently operated bank of classic boost, crunch, and distortion tones right at the player’s feet, with intuitive switching to move between them.  Instead of multiple stomps to move between varying levels of drive, just hit the channel you want for any of the three independently tweakable channels of drive the Tribus provides.

 

The design emphasis on efficiency extends to the layout of the pedal as well.  Instead of an indistinct cluster of knobs, each channel’s controls are neatly and logically laid out vertically above their respective switches.  The controls themselves also indicate a high degree of thoughtfulness.  The Overdrive gets the traditional Level/Tone/Overdrive arrangement most players know and love, while the Distortion channel receives a Voice control that help it run the tonal gamut from fat and hot to stringy and articulate.  Meanwhile, the Boost channel features Sweep and Scoop controls that give it some interesting preamp and EQing capabilities not found in typical standalone boost pedals.  Not only may it be the last drive pedal you ever need, with two superb sounding gain sections, but the Boost channel can easily be used to add a bit of color or sparkle to your straight amp tone, in addition to pushing the preamp into natural meltdown.

 

Simply writing about the Tribus Drive and what it’s capable of is already setting my mind whirring about the possibilities it has for my own rig.  I wage a constant battle with myself over whether a distortion, boost, or overdrive is right for what I’m attempting to accomplish, and with Tribus Drive one can easily tweak and audition each effect in real time, instead of unplugging and replugging and ordering and re-ordering and blahblahblahblah.  But TheToneKing.com readers certainly don’t want to hear me do that (or prattle on any longer) so definitely check out TTK’s run-through of the Tribus Drive here and let us know what you think!

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About the Author: Hello. Welcome to TheToneKing.com! My name is Louis, but in name of good fun & entertainment - I call myself The Tone King. This website was born back in 2008, to compliment the videos I started uploading to YouTube on guitar & related gear (guitar, amps, pedals, etc.). It has since grown, thanks to the thousands that tune in, making it what it is. If you subscribe to TheToneKing.com, you can expect lots of Guitar, Amp, Pedal Reviews & Shoot-Out videos. I also have monthly Live Webcasts, perform Artist Interviews, and try to get all the juicy coverage Backstage and at trade-shows like NAMM. The cherry on top is that there are no shortage of How-To Videos & TTK Killer Deal Alerts getting you the most knowledge & gear into your hands & mind! Thanks for stopping by to check out my website! Rock ON!

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