Electro Harmonix East River Drive

I was quite excited when this pedal came out and when I saw the competitive price offered by Thomann I took it into serious consideration.

I did not own a TS808 clone as such - I had a couple typical ODs and transparent ODs and was quite happy with them. There weren't too may online demos of the East River Drive (ERD) and not any descenting voices, so I took advantage of my Thomann review voucher and grabbed the ERD.

I was quite excited about getting this for some reason - maybe because it had great graphics! All my other pedals are rather plain by comparison!

As usual it arrived within 3/4 days and in good shape. I set about trying out some settings and combinations of equipment and it stood up well to anything it was played with and put through - even some stacking - particularly with a Joyo Deluxe Crunch - massive room/stage filling presence!

The most exciting find for me was that with a Gibson les Paul and a Cornford EL34 equipped Roadhouse amp, it is classic early 1970s Marshall tone. Think Spiders from Mars' Mick Ronson, Hawkwind, Humble Pie etc. Massive square-toned Marshall drive - lovely!

As per usual, I am of the habit of taking pics of the settings that sound best for me against the specific gear and then print these out and place them in a folder for an 'at a glance' guide. What often becomes apparent is that the same dial shapes appear over and over again. Is true here too but no matter where this pedal is dialled you get great usable tone.

I bought this to warm up my cleans and drive pedals and amp harder when needed.
As the TS inspiration suggests, it does this job very very well.
A bargain when you look at just about any other TS clone, and this one is designed by someone who is a guru when it comes to modding them so its a great example of this classic pedal.

if you need a TS or similar, give this a shot...total bargain very nice looks too.
This is one of the best pedals i have used infront of amp drive or other drive pedals, very very god, really blends great

i really like the newer EHX range i have this, OD glove and a Hot Tubes, all great at what they do, and all a fraction of the price of what they are based on, and just as good (although Hot Tubes is a reissue)

I bought this pedal because I read so many great reviews about it and boy were they right! First, I've owned a TS and the Harley Benton Vintage overdrive as an affordable comparison. The HB pedal was very nice as well but I am a huge fan of Electro Harmonix so I wanted to try the East River Drive for myself.

The overdrive is very transparent and sounds amazing with my VHT Classic 6. The drive boosts the tubes nicely and can give you that classic rock / blues sound you are looking for. The pedal also cleans up nicely with a roll back of your volume pot.

All in all, this is an amazing TS clone for a nicer price. Sounds great and it's built like a tank, what more can you ask for?

So this is the first Pedal built by Electro Harmonix like the famous green overdrives by a well known japanese company. I was looking for a Ts-808 Style Overdrive for quiet a while but did not find a really good sounding OD that sounds the way the old ones sound and respond.

The EHX East River Drive does also not sound like an vintage tubescreamer and first I was really disappointed and thoughr about sending it back. But then i tried the east river driver in front of my very good sounding Rockbox Boilingpoint. And in that combination the east river drive gives my sound the boost I was looking for. The great thing about this pedal is, that it adds this mids to the sound that cuts through the whole bandmix.

In my opinion the east river drive is absolutely great when you are looking for a boostpedal that colourises your overdriven sound and gives you this SRV Sound. It is also great for clean sounds when you look for that midboost for a little bit of flavour.

I do not recommend it if you are looking for a standalone overdrive for crunshsounds because it does not sound open and fresh.