Logan Transcend Drive

124
GUITARIST FEBRUARY 2020
Logan Transcend Drive
A drive pedal with ultra-adjustable midrange for ample sculpting power
MANUFACTURER
KMA MACHINES
MODEL
LOGAN TRANSCEND DRIVE
CONTACT
AUDIO DISTRIBUTION GROUP [phone] /
HTTP://KMA-MACHINES.COM
PRICE
£175
PEDALBOARD
PROS Wide range of drive tones; attention
to midrange detail; footswitchable mids;
cool artwork
CONS Internal adjusters (although to be
fair, these would clutter things up if they
were on the outside)
Words Trevor Curwen Photography Phil Barker
A
s midrange voicing greatly affects
the character of distortion, it
follows that a drive pedal with
adjustable midrange would have increased
flexibility over its peers, which appears to
be the main thrust of the Logan Transcend
Drive. Standard Level and Drive knobs
accompany smaller knobs, which very
effectively adjust Lows and Highs by
up to 15dB, but the two-knob midrange
adjustment offers more detailed shaping
using semi-parametric EQ. There’s cut or
boost of up to 12dB around a frequency
in a range from the low-end thump of
100Hz through to the chimey ‘presence’
of 2.5kHz, with a choice of where the
midrange sits in the pedal’s signal path.
Putting it before the main gain stage can
really focus the character of the drive –
a boost adding more saturation to punch
through at the selected frequency. As
the mids can be brought in and out by a
dedicated footswitch, this can effectively
give you two distinct, instantly available
sounds. Putting mids after the main gain
stage offers more general overall EQ and
can lend itself to onstage boost for solos
when footswitched. For more flexibility in
performance, an expression pedal can set
the mid EQ frequency on the fly. It could
even be used as a wah – an internal trim
pot adjusts midrange bandwidth to tailor
the response.
Another trim-pot blends in clean signal
with the overdriven tone for increased
tonal options. We’d rather it had been on
the top panel, but it’s more a set-and-forget
adjustment that will suit bass players who
want to add a little growl to their clean
sound rather than overwhelming it.
There’s a naturally dynamic feel playing
through the Logan and it can deliver in a
range from clean boost right through to
throaty cranked amp tones that work well
in a classic rock context, although that
ability to determine where the dirt lands
in the frequency spectrum should make it
a versatile tone-shaper for any music.
VERDICT
A nicely responsive drive that excels in
the role of adding dirt to clean amp. The
precise sculpting of dirt tone combined
with practical performance features
confers a flexibility that really does
transcend the standard drive format.
KMA MACHINES
Distortion rather than overdrive and with circuitry
specifically designed for extended-range guitars,
the Boneshaker offers a flexible three-band semi-
parametric EQ, so you can tweak frequency and
level in the low, mid and high ranges.
The Santa Ana is an FET-based overdrive pedal
with two voicings and an extra footswitch for added
boost, and has versatile EQ with a set of four knobs
(Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence) reminiscent of a
Fender amp front panel.
Santa Ana Overdrive £160
ORANGE DOD FENDER
A “pre-EQ pedal” and loosely based on the gain
structure of the Rockerverb amp, this pedal has
knobs for bass and treble plus a fully-parametric
Baxandall circuit for midrange with knobs for
cut/boost, Q (bandwidth) and frequency.
Bax Bangeetar £199
ALSO TRY...
Boneshaker £129
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT455.peds_kma.indd 124 17/12/2019 16:32