SHOE Looking Glass Overdrive, Looking Glass Overdrive Owner’s Manual

The Looking Glass Overdrive is collaboration between DOD and the boutique pedal
company SHOE Pedals. Christopher Venter of SHOE Pedals is known for his unique
circuits, colorful perspective on classic eects, and minimalist design aesthetic. The
collaboration between DOD and SHOE retains all of Christopher’s strengths and
adds in some mainstream tonal appeal with an aordable price point. I was rst
introduced to Christopher when he participated in an online forum collaboration
for an octave fuzz in 2012. I was very impressed with the build-quality, voicing, and
feature set of that fuzz (and several more after) and I knew that Christopher had a
good ear and strong attention to detail. This attention to detail has culminated in
the meticulously designed Looking Glass Overdrive, to create a sweet and musical
drive with a character that works well for any task – Lead, rhythm, low-gain, high­gain or even as a tone-shaping boost.

A note from the designer:
“Years ago, when I was living in Brooklyn, I went on a quest to nd the overdrive
that worked for me. Most of these were slight variations on a few classic op-amp
designs that just didn’t do it for me. I tried a ridiculous number of pedals and found
that I wasn’t fully happy with any of them. So, having originally resolved only to
make weird experimental fuzz pedals, I decided to break that rule and create a
really nice overdrive that I actually wanted to play. After starting with a theory
and rening it through extensive play-testing, I concocted the Savior Machine and
named it after one of my favorite David Bowie songs.

When DOD approached me to collaborate on a new pedal, I was given free reign
to make whatever I wanted (within reason). So, I rst went back to my roots and
designed a wild high gain fuzz. This sounded great, but I thought to myself that it
would really be only useful for some people. I wanted to make something for ALL
people. So, I decided to revisit my basic overdrive concept and re-design it with a
completely dierent approach. The result is the Looking Glass. A super-responsive
class-A FET design that, I hope will give a whole lot of players the satisfaction of
feeling like their overdrive rewards their own unique playing style. It’s great for
blues, sure, but it’s also great for hard rock, indie, experimental music, psychedelic
music, shoegaze, alternative, punk, bass, etc. etc. etc. The Looking Glass is like a
funhouse mirror that lets you twist and tweak your sound in every which way while
still sounding like the ideal you.”

-C.J.M. Venter