Michael Klein Audio Design Spire Overdrive

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Spire is my response to a large portion of high-gain amplifiers which can sound harsh with too many mids in the wrong places and not enough in the right places. While these amplifiers are extremely popular and TONS of great guitarists get phenomenal tones with them, I never felt comfortable playing through most of them myself.

I sought to design a boost that could address what I don’t like about these amps without losing what so many players love. The result is a pretty unique pedal and control set that really allows one to sculpt the tone of ANY amplifier, but particularly high gain amps with “cold clipping” stages in them.

Top Row Controls

Note – these are all FOCUS controls. In other words, each of these controls serves to focus the applicable frequency range. Approaching these controls with that mindset might help your knob turning experience.

LOW FOCUS – This control sets the low-frequency content going into the amplifier, and therefore influences how thick and slow chuggin’ or how tight and percussive the response is. Essentially, this control is a high-pass filter and the control sets the frequency which cuts lows.

Fully counter clockwise, the lowest frequencies are only mildly attenuated and the pedal has the maximum amount of bass frequencies. As the control is turned clockwise, the frequency knee increases, which causes the bottom end to focus and become trimmed and precise.

Simply, turn down low focus for the thickest low end, and turn it up for the tightest low end.

MID FOCUS – Spire has an inherent midrange boost, and the MID control sweeps through the frequency that is boosted. At minimum, low midrange frequencies are boosted. Halfway, approximately 430Hz is boosted (OUGH), and at max approximately 1kHz is boosted.

If you’ve played a Maxon ST9 Pro+, an Ibanez Super Tube Screamer, or a Pearl OD-05...this works somewhat similarly. Compared to those pedals, this is voiced differently and placed in a section of the circuit that makes it sound a bit more natural to the amplifier in my opinion.

I like to use this to balance the midrange voice of amplifiers. For example, I might use this to increase the low mids that are kind of missing in a 5150, or the high mids that are missing in a Rectifier. Or, you can push this control from 2:00 onward to get extremely aggressive and add even more articulation to your sound.

HIGH FOCUS – Again, my approach to this control was to add definition and bite without necessarily accentuating unpleasant high frequencies. Different than most pedals, this high control is usable throughout the range.

As this control is turned up, you’ll hear the treble frequencies pop up in a musical manner.

Bottom Row Controls

LEVEL – This sets the output volume of the pedal. There is ample output on Spire, so don’t be surprised if you like this control less than maximum. I frequently find myself setting this around 1:00-3:00.

HARMONICS – In the process of designing Spire, I struggled most with this control. I sought to have the ability to reduce the odd-order harmonics generated by cold clipping stages that can sound grating or harsh to some of us. After about 4 months on this control exclusively, I came up with something that does just that.

Maxed out, the Harmonics control is neutral and all of your amplifier’s inherent harmonic content...or possibly sizzle/hash....is left untouched. As you turn this control down, those harmonics gradually soften and clear up without neutering the high frequency content.

GAIN – I wanted to add a musical, tube-like clipping to the circuit that can be used to modify the clipping character of an amplifier. After many revisions and an embarrassing amount of rolling, I settled on an obscure vintage Telefunken diode that does just what I want it do. Feel free to start with this control at a minimum and go from there.