Andromeda DeluxeNatural Overdrive

From the vendor

An updated version of the definitive Nashville overdrive, handmade by the original circuit designer, adding three new controls and a number of other small refinements.

The Andromeda Deluxe is an adaptation of the Nordland ODR-C, a boutique overdrive first traced by Aion FX in 2021, based on the Nobels ODR-1.

The ODR-1 was originally released in 1992, designed by Kai Tachibana as an original circuit for Nobels. Intended as a budget alternative to the Tube Screamer, the build quality was less than stellar, but to those who played it, it was undeniable that the circuit itself was something special. It steadily increased in popularity over the following decades until the present. Today it’s often seen in lists of the top 10 overdrives of all time.

In 2019, Kai decided to revisit the ODR-1 and update it with a few new features under his own Nordland brand name. The result is the ODR-C Custom Overdrive, a brilliantly-designed handmade pedal that occupies the opposite end of the spectrum from the ODR-1 in both build quality and price.

It features three new controls: a low cut that fixes the bass-forward tone of the original, a midrange control that can boost or cut, and an “overdrive de-compress” (ODC) control that gradually adds higher-threshold clipping diodes in the soft-clipping stage. Each of the three knobs can be set to a position that emulates the original ODR-1, so the core circuit is the same despite all the added features.

The Andromeda Deluxe is based on the audio path of the ODR-C, only cutting out the complex polarity protection and LED dimmer circuit. Side by side, they sound the same. But we’ll reiterate that the original ODR-C is fantastic piece of engineering and it’s worth it if you can find one. Check out the tracing journal if you want to see what we’re talking about.

Note: The PCB-only version of this project uses a type of capacitor that has been temporarily discontinued by WIMA. Please see our news article about the issue and the substitution spreadsheet for project-specific recommendations. We are stocking an equivalent from Kemet in the mean time. The build document has not yet been updated to reflect this. It does not impact the kits.