Early 80’s MIJ Tubescreamer variant, with a cool twist

Rare, but still relatively under the radar, these were part of a short-lived early to mid-80’s line of guitar effects pedals made in Japan by Korg, under license to Pearl, who marketed them. Whether that’s Pearl as in the Japanese drum brand, I’m not sure, as information on these long-discontinued 40+ year old products is nearly non-existent. If it WAS the drum company, they - perhaps unwisely - used a different logo. Anyhoo, this is a soft-clipping overdrive pedal in the Ibanez Tubescreamer/ Boss SD-1 mould. However, in lieu of a standard tone knob, there are separate controls for EQ - with 7 different frequencies from low to high and all points in between - and for EQ Gain, to cut or boost gain in the selected frequency. This makes it a very versatile tone-shaping tool, that can be adapted to any set-up. This pedal houses not one, but two JRC4558 chips (as used in the Tubescreamer, the Boss SD-1 and most iterations of the OD-1). The Pearl OD-05 packs a lot of gain, with a nice, gnarly character. It wants to feedback a lot, but could do with more volume (Level on full, with gain anywhere below 9 O’clock is only marginally louder than bypass unity). I use mine for lead boosts, so I keep the EQ setting firmly in TS territory: lower-mid to upper-mid boost depending on the amp. Symmetrical clipping gives it a smoother, more compressed feel than a Boss OD-1, but it has a similarly aggressive, snarly quality, at least in the settings I use. However, if you want mid-scooped grungy tones, or bass-heavy Sabbath sludge, it can do that too. The buffered bypass is good quality. This is not a tone sucker. Bigger footprint than a Boss or Ibanez pedal. Bear this in mind if board-space is limited. It can run off a standard modern 9V power supply. No dicking around with 12v necessary. It sounds even sweeter running off a cheap, carbon battery, though. As a big fan of Rick Rubin’s early production work in the late ‘80s, I remember being intrigued reading in a metal hammer interview with the guitar player from Wolfsbane circa ‘89, recounting how Rubin made him use this pedal for tracking guitars on their debut album. It’s possible that Korg were also the OEM manufacturers for Tokai branded pedals around this same time, as the even rarer Tokai TMD-1 Metal Driver from the same era, had a pretty much identical circuit and control layout. Though Pearl are long out of the effects pedal market, the OD-05 circuit is available as a DIY clone project through Aion FX or BYOC. The Octaver and Flanger pedals from this series are also highly regarded by those who know. The less coveted DS-06 Distortion pedal tries to pull the same variable EQ trick as the OD-05, but with a hard-clipping circuit. There was also a Chorus, an Analog Delay, a Compressor and a frequency enhancer called a Thriller