Blue Velvet

Excellent overdrive as smooth as Isabella Rossellini's nightclub voice

 

   

 

The Blue Velvet overdrive rack effect module compares to the Pete Cornish SS-3™.  It provides a smooth overdrive tone that works for blues, country, jazz, and classic rock.

 

Description

The GT Blue Velvet compares to the Pete Cornish SS-3™, which is an updated version of the Pete Cornish SS-2™, which is an update version of the MXR Distortion +.  In GT terms, that means the Blue Velvet is an updated version of the SS+, which was based on the original RR+

The  SS-3™ has been used by numerous artists, including David Gilmour, Keith Urban, the late Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Lou Reed, Noel Gallagher, and probably many others.  It provides a smooth overdrive tone that works for blues, country, jazz, and classic rock.  Unless you are stacking or making other creative uses of the Blue Velvet, you won't find yourself crossing into distortion, even though it is a direct descendant of the famed MXR Distortion +.  The Cornish tweaks take off some of the hair and provide a velvet smooth overdrive for your solos.

There are several small tweaks from the SS-2™ to the SS-3™ that provide some nice changes to the tone and gain.  The most notable difference is the addition of a Lo Cut control to help tame the low end boom you might encounter with the SS-2™ version of the circuit.

This is a very nice, refined overdrive, going from clean to crispy, crunchy medium-high overdrive.  It almost sounds like a fuzz stacked into a low overdrive, providing that velvety smooth drive tone that doesn't quite get into distortion territory on its own.  It has plenty of volume to push something downstream past overdrive, though, no doubt.  The OD has a nice touch to it and retains good string clarity.  You'll feel and hear every note.  It cleans up with the guitar volume but doesn't thin out as much as other drives do when you back off the volume.  At high Drive settings and with a bit of Volume, you'll get long sustain that will eventually go into some polite feedback.  The Hi Cut provides a nice range of control.  The Lo Cut is more subtle.  It won't let you dial in a bass-heavy tone.  A full, thick tone, but not bassy.  The nice side effect of that is it keeps good note clarity and doesn't get muddy.  If you didn't know the pedigree of this circuit, you would probably never guess it evolved from the MXR Distortion +, our RR+.  The Blue Velvet is as refined as the RR+ is raw.

The famed Cornish buffer is included, switched on and off with the overdrive.  Of course, the GT Blue Velvet delivers the same tone from a rack module at a fraction of the cost of the SS-3™.

There is only a single configuration of the GT Blue Velvet module.  The earlier SS-2™ version is available as the GT SS+.  You'll find the SS+ listed in our Distortion modules instead of Overdrive, for reasons we find difficult to explain…  If you want more tweaking flexibility, check out the GT RR+, our version of the MXR Distortion +, with lots of mods and options available.

 

Configurations

  • Blue Velvet - compares to Pete Cornish SS-3™

 

Options

  • Clipping Diodes Switch - The standard Blue Velvet comes with symmetric Germanium clipping diodes.  We don't really recommend experimenting with such a specific version of this circuit, but we do have a couple of simple clipping config options if you are interested.  We could put in Germaniums that clip at a different voltage, sub in some silicon diodes, or go asymmetric.  Adding this switch will make the module 2" wide.
  • Custom Components - There are a few options that may be useful.  You could change the clipping diodes (no switch) or perhaps try carbon comp resistors for a slightly more good noise, vintage sound.
  • Power - could run at 12V or 15V if you want more clean headroom and less crunch

 

Front Panel

  • On/Off indicator LED
  • Volume
  • Gain
  • Hi Cut
  • Lo Cut
  • (optional) Clipping Switch

 

Rear Panel

  • Audio In
  • Audio Out
  • On/Off Footswitch
  • On/Off Override
  • DC Power
  • DC Power LED

 

Module Width

  • 1.5" standard
  • 2" with Clipping Switch option

 

Power Consumption (aprox)

15 mA

 

Base Configurations

Part # Description List Price
MOD-BLUEVELVET GT Blue Velvet module $225

 

Options

Part # Description List Price
MOPT-BLUEVELVET-SWCLIP Clipping Diodes Switch $19 - TBD
MOPT-BLUEVELVET-POWER 12V or 15V Power instead of 9V $0
MOPT-BLUEVELVET-CC Component Changes TBD