Burford Electronics Magneto Drive (Demo + Mystery)

[longfallboots]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PacuWmuI9YY[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PacuWmuI9YY

I picked this up on eBay a few months back but only just got around to posting the demo video. It's a weird/cool overdrive with... well it's kinda got two gain controls, the "Drive Q" which seems to give you a bit of gain and also thicken thing up (is it just a high pass filter? Dunno, it sounds like it's doing more than that, but perhaps if it's happening later in the circuit) and it's got a "Gain" control which is more conventional gain - and it can get pretty clipped. It's also got a Mid-Boost control which also sounds like it's pulling more clean into the sound, but that might just be a side effect of the perceived extra clarity? The mid boost can get cocked-wah-y with everything pushed too.

Actually, pushing everything gets almost fuzzy (or at least "overblown distortion"), but it starts out really sweet sounding and can get conventional distortion sounds and it cleans up pretty well.

All in all, it's pretty killer - could definitely be a "secret weapon" kind of pedal.

But I can find no records of the pedal ever existing. I've owned Burford stuff before, so at least I know the company exists, but this pedal... nope. Which is a shame, because it strikes me as the kind of thing that would sell pretty well these days.

I'll probably try contacting the manufacturer to find out if it was a super limited run, but I figured if there's one group of folks who like a pedal mystery - it'd be you guys!