Way Huge Overrated special

[tentomushi]

Does anyone have any ideas about the overrated special mods? I have been looking for threads in forums but haven't found much. Its of course just a ts modded green rhino requested by bonamassa. supposedly it has a slightly clearer tone when compared to the rhino and more tweakable midrange boost 500khz on tap minus the 100khz pot. Would most appreciate peoples thoughts and ideas cheers.

[tentomushi]

the schematic to for the green rhino

[tentomushi]

The clearest gut shot i could find, might be a few clues as to was going on different to the rhino. You can clearly see an IC is removed.

[tentomushi]

This is what some one had to say who compared the rhino with the overrated. I got my Overrated Special yesterday and had some time to play with it and also compare it to the Green Rhino MKIV. I played my LP Traditional with 57/57+ pups into a clean Blues Deluxe with the stock speaker. I know the OS was designed for an amp that's already overdriven but I wanted to see what it could do on a clean amp. Besides the Blues Deluxe is not known for it's overdrive channel!

I think the best way to describe the OS is "punchy"

All controls have a useful sweep to them. The 500hz can be reduced to get a nice scooped sound while turning it up gives you the cocked wah sound and plenty of usable points in between. I kept it anywhere from 9-12 o'clock.

I found that with the 500hz knob at noon, tone at noon, volume at 10 o'clock and gain maxed you get a nice crunchy and punchy overdrive. With the gain all the way down, the pedal doesn't get entirely clean but will give you some nice light grit. I haven't used the pedal in a band setting but I get the feeling it's going to cut through a band mix quite nicely.

How does it compare to the Green Rhino MKIV?

The pedals are quite similar but I couldn't make the GR sound as punchy as the OS. The GR is a little smoother than the OS, has more bass and seems to have just a little more gain available. When trying to match settings here's what I came up with:

OS
Volume 10 o'clock
Gain maxed
500hz noon
Tone noon

GR
Volume 10 o'clock
Gain 3 o'clock
500hz noon
Tone 12:30
100hz 10 o'clock

With these settings, to my ears, the GR was still missing the mids of the OS. This is neither good nor bad just different.

The GR has the 100hz knob to cut or boost the low end. I found the OS had the right amount of low end and if you rolled back the 500hz knob it could help bring in a little more low end and then bump up the tone a little bit for some cut.

With the GR in classic mode (100hz and 500hz knobs are disabled) I could hear the hint of the OS but of course still not as punchy.

So in the end I think both are very good pedals but slightly different. If you want punchy and looking to drive an already overdriven amp, then I think the OS is a good pedal for you. If you use a clean amp and want a drive pedal with tweakability, then the GRMKIV is probably the pedal for you.