“I got to know Jackson Audio through their Prism pedal,” says guitarist Joey Landreth when we quiz him about the R&D behind the Jackson Audio Golden Boy overdrive.

“Brad (Jackson) mentioned to me that he was working on a compressor called the Bloom and asked if I had any ideas for it. We got to know each other over the course of that project and I went to Nashville to shoot some videos for the launch. They also made their Broken Arrow overdrive pedal around that same time and gave me one of those to try as well.

“The Broken Arrow is Brad’s version of a Tube Screamer-style circuit, but with switchable diode clipping options and an integrated MOSFET boost. I loved everything about the pedal, especially the EQ and the innovative control functions, the gain cycling and the simple yet innovative switching system… but tone-wise I’ve never been a huge Tube Screamer guy.

“After touring with it on my board for a few months, I approached Brad with the idea of taking that same platform but incorporating something like the old Bluesbreaker style circuit instead of the Tube Screamer. We took a look at what some of the popular BB-inspired pedals were doing differently and tried to represent them tonally while maintaining our own sound. I really think it does that!

“To be honest, even if I wasn’t associated with this pedal I’d be using it – it just has ‘that’ sound. It captures all my favourite BB-inspired tones and the MIDI integration to control the switching is a huge bonus live. It’s a must-have for the working guitar player.”

Read our full review of the Jackson Audio Golden Boy here.