Guitar Gear

…or maybe the more apt title should be:

I finally figured out how to use this pedal.

As I mentioned in my previous Gig Report on the Katana 50, I used the Abunai 2 as my overdrive machine, going for max clean-headroom on the amp. I did this mainly because the way our stage was set up. Our amps were at the back and below the stage, so access wasn’t easy.

In other gigs where I have the amp near me, it’s easy to tweak the amp. This was like playing through a back line, so any control I’d have over my sound had to take place on my board. So prior to the retreat, I did a process of elimination and chose the Abunai 2 as my overdrive platform. I won’t go into the nitty-gritty details, but it was a fairly long process as I had several punch list items. The Abunai 2 checked off all the boxes.

So why am I revisiting this pedal? Simply because I really hadn’t explored the pedal completely in all the years I’ve owned the pedal. For me, setting it to the “traditional” toggle setting was fine when I was using my tube amps. But when I did the retreat a couple of weekends ago, I knew I couldn’t just slam the front-end of my amp. Though it sounded great, the volume jump was pretty massive and I couldn’t use an attenuator with the Katana to tame the output volume. So I used it in a way that I hadn’t before, and I just had to write about it!

The Abunai 2 – Three Overdrives in One

After reading through my original review of the Abunai 2 almost ten years ago, I realized that I had the toggle settings switched: Left is actually Right, Right is Left. Can’t believe I missed that! Even the manufacturer missed that in their preview and proofread! 🙂 With that, let’s get into the pedal’s particulars.

The thing about most overdrives is that they usually do one – or maybe a combination of two – of three things:

1. Provide a massive amount of gain boost to slam the front end of an amp (think booster pedal).
2. Provide a combination of gain boost and clipping like a traditional overdrive (TubeScreamer, Soul Food, and others).
3. Simulate overdrive an amp, letting the pedal produce its own breakup and compression (Caintlinbread DLS, Geek British Ball Breaker, etc.)

The Abunai 2 does all three. Set the toggle to the middle and it acts like a booster. Set it to the right and you get the traditional overdrive response. Then set it to the left and get the amp simulation. So depending on what you’re after given the situation, you can set the pedal where you need it and it will perform. Man! Will it perform!

Toggle Settings in Detail

I call the toggle switch on the Abunai 2 the “magic toggle.” It really is the key to this pedal and what sets it apart from other overdrives. The following table details what each setting does.

Toggle Setting	Description
Left (Symmetrical Clipping)	This setting provides the most internal gain and compression of the pedal, and as a result, also provides the lowest amount of output volume. It is also the setting used for getting an amp-like response, responding extremely well to changes in guitar volume and attack. This setting is best used for going into a clean amp.
Middle	This setting is called the “diode lift” setting. Where the left and right toggles use diodes for providing breakup, this setting does not use diodes and just throws massive amounts of gain at the amp (think clean booster). This is also the loudest setting.
Right (Asymmetrical Clipping)	The right toggle is the traditional overdrive that is used in hundreds of pedals. The internal diode provides some clipping and the pedal provides lots of gain. This is best used in front of an amp set just at the edge of breakup. Because this setting has a lot of internal gain to produce clipping, this setting is very much like using a distortion pedal.

For years, I’ve used just the middle position, and sometimes the Asymmetrical Clipping for classic overdrive. In that time, I stayed away from the Symmetrical clipping setting because I liked to rely on the breakup tone of my tube amps. But with my BOSS Katana 50, I purchased it mainly as a clean platform. And while its overdriven tone is pretty killer, for the situation I was in recently, I didn’t have ready access to the amp to twiddle knobs. I’d have to physically step off the stage to make adjustments. Not very easy in the middle of a set.

Fit and Finish

Amazingly enough, the powder coating on the pedal has withstood a couple of hundred gigs over the time I’ve had it, though admittedly, I tend to take great care of my pedals. I like shiny objects. But this is over a ten year period of time so I can attest to the build quality of the pedal. I haven’t had to tighten any knobs or replace any switches.

How It Sounds

Sorry folks, I don’t have any clips. But you can go to the product page where there are several clips available.

The notable thing for me was the with the Symmetrical clipping tone where I felt as if I was playing through a full stack. The sound is huge, with a nice, round, tight bottom-end (yes, I like big butts…). The other two settings are – as the manufacturer puts it – more “open” and transparent. But the Symmetrical clipping produces a big sound. It’s amazing.

Overall Impression

Even after all these years, the Abunai 2 has proven itself to be an invaluable pedal in my collection. And now that the BOSS Katana 50 is my gigging amp, the Abunai 2 will always be on my board.