Bogner La Grange Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal with Independent Boost

Product Information

A Plexi-style pedal with a slightly hotter bit of grit – that’s what Bogner likes to do. The variac switch might appeal to Van Halen fans as it lets you recreate the effect of starving a Plexi of some power to make it scream at lower volumes. The channel blend allows you to mix in two different decades of Plexi amps together and can give you access to an incredibly diverse world of sounds. This NAMM starring delight is obviously to a large degree a novelty sort of pedal, but now one entirely without merits.

Pedal enclosure has some cosmetic flaws; could be a dealer issue (I added another flaw to seem impartial, although it's a minor one) I can go on and on but the best way to really appreciate what this pedal can do is by hearing it in action for yourself: Presence Switch: "h" is high, for a more open and bright tone. "L" is low for a more rounder tone with milder high frequencies Switching between Low, Medium, High gain requires you having to manually do it rather than a switch.A Japan-made JTM45 in a box with controls for Volume and Drive. It has controls for Volume and Drive, responds well to dynamics and can take a hotter input when preceded by a boost. A pedal that emulates the full distortion delivered by Marshall Plexi and Master Volume amps from the mid to late ’70s, with an extra dose of gain and a 4-knob EQ section (Low, Mids, Highs and Presence) for extra tonal flavor. Therefore, strictly speaking, JCM amps don’t belong to the Plexi family, but since their circuits are very similar we decided to include them in this article

The toggle switches on the top end of the pedal further push what's possible with the La Grange. For example, you can use the Variac switch for extra dynamic compression and enriched harmonics that give off a very EVH-style 'brown sound', or use the Presence and Structure switches to further fine tune the response of the pedal's sound. Used together, they offer a huge range of tones that should make nearly every kind of Marshall amp fan happy. Beyond the usual gain, volume and tone knobs, the La Grange touts some very cool tone shaping features. The variac switch is very powerful, taking the pedal from bright and snappy to brown and growly, compressing the front of the note hard in the process for a superbly chewy play feel. The structure will take you from wide open and loose to tight and muscular, and the presentation will help you keep the high end under control if you find yourself plugging into an amp that’s particularly bright. A Marshall-style drive with a few more EQ controls than usual, with a 3-way EQ section where the Mids knob doesn’t boost but only cuts, a Presence knob, and two toggle switches to boost the highs or cut the lows. The bass switch delivers Plexi tones in the lower position and JTM45-style ones in the top setting. An internal DIP allows for extra frequency tweaking to fine-tune the pedal to any amp. For other players as I mentioned - the newer more compact pedals may well be preferable - their size makes them more practical, and many will find them prettier and possibly more usable too - with more range on tap. The new enclosure to me is a little along the lines of the recent Carl Martin ones - albeit no chamfered edges - but a slightly smoother style with a very similar side-profile for those sloping top and bottom edges.A vintage-voiced Marshall distortion pedal that sounds organic and not too colored in a way where you can engage it and feel like you’re just using the 2nd channel of your amp. This pedal adds to the Plexi-style three typical controls (Gain, Level and Tone) a Damping knob that tightens the low end, allowing, when necessary, the achievement of a less flabby, more focused tone. In fact That Pedal Show and Brett Kingman kind of jointly introduced me to and persuaded me to get my first Bogner - the Burnley Distortion - I believe I acquired that at a very similar time to my original variety of Suhr Riot. I decided to go for the Bubinga enclosure edition as I felt it was such a fantastic visual representation of its organic harmonic and resonant tonal profile (which somehow called to mind the natural resonance of wood!) - no doubt helped in some significant part by the onboard Rupert Neve Transformer. A classic British distortion pedal paired with a colored boost. It offers plenty of tonal shaping possibilities, plus an optional extra gain stage to really ramp things up.

What we can also quite evidently see is that the new V2 variety sports a significantly changed enclosure - which appears to be approximately 15% smaller than the V1. Here we don’t know if the Smaller enclosure came first and then possibly the former Rupert Neve Transformer no longer fitted, or whether a newer Transformer type used allowed Bogner to make the pedal smaller. What is for certain sure is that these are no longer exactly the same pedals - and Bogner describes them as significantly re-voiced - with more dynamics and gain on-tap, and a more modern and more punchy/aggressive signature tonal profile. This is the second derivative of this format after the initial RevivalTrem pedal - which was the first Origin Effect to combine drive/preamp and modulation in the same unit. This time around the pedal is dedicated towards replicating the Magnatone Amp's output with that lovely Vintage Vibrato modulation. I actually really like the new enclosure designs - in particular the fact that they're more compact. That design cannot however accommodate a Bubinga Faceplate in the same way the previous model did - so surely that options has passed - but on balance - the ergonomics of the new series are a definite improvement all-round - I feel they look more modern and more sleek overall..

For me it’s a case of wait and see really, but don’t necessarily hold your breath. I already love what I have, and all those Bogners of mine are keepers as far as I am concerned - and my priority will more likely be on getting the La Grange added to the collection finally.