Jackson Audio x Cory Wong "The Optimist" Classic Overdrive

Jackson Audio was founded by Brad Jackson from Jackson Ampworks, Nigel Hendroff from Hillsong Church in Sydney Australia, and Juan Kyle from Jackson Ampworks. These 3 men collectively bring together over 40 years of experience in passionate product design and application. They are proud to introduce their collaboration with Cory Wong and the new "The Optimist" guitar pedal.  

"The Optimist is the most versatile overdrive pedal I’ve ever used. Designed to give me a full range of drive levels for punchy rhythm to soaring lead. The Klon has been this mystical and hyped-up circuit for years, and for good reason! It’s an incredible circuit, and the way it pairs with the flat response overdrive is incredible. OD1 has the mid bump Klon circuit that we know and love. OD2 has a flat response overdrive that has an incredible range of drive. When the two of them pair together it creates an, even more, boosted drive that doesn’t squeal! The final piece of magic is the EQ. Brad Jackson has been trying to convince me about the power of an EQ pedal for a long time, and now I know why. We created an EQ section that focuses on the frequencies that you want more of in single coils, and less of in humbuckers. The EQ can help tone shape your guitars to match each other, or it can help you get the perfect clean tone out of an amp." - Cory Wong

OD1 of the OPTIMIST is based on the most expensive, hard-to-find, mythical overdrive ever created! For all of its hype, this magical pedal is still one of the most natural-sounding overdrives ever created and has cemented its reputation in the history of guitardom.

Jackson reproduced this circuit in perfect detail to provide the stock tone that people are looking for from this legendary pedal. We updated it with an active EQ (bypass-able) to take this classic circuit into uncharted territory!

Just like the original circuit, OD1 features impossible to find (unless you know how to use eBay) germanium diodes that have been carefully washed in unicorn tears to deliver the best tone possible! Why? Because you deserve the best. You deserve diodes that have been washed in unicorn tears.

OD2 of the OPTIMIST stands in stark contrast to the mid-focused tone of OD1. Designed to be perfectly flat across the full range of the guitar, OD2 is perfect for rhythm work and is a perfect harmonic enhancer for OD1 when you want to boost OD1 even further!

The EQ circuit features a studio-grade EQ that gives tremendous tonal flexibility to The Optimist. Based on the legendary Baxandall EQ that is featured in countless studio EQ’s, The Optimist EQ takes this circuit and tailors it for guitarists! Jackson spent tons of time on this EQ dialing it in so it would hit all the frequencies that guitarists need to adjust and then sweetened it by removing the ear fatiguing highs and lows that can appear at extreme settings.

To activate the EQ, press and release both the OD1 and OD2 footswitches.