Jackson Audio The Optimist

Jackson Audio The Optimist is a dual overdrive with an extensive EQ section and developed in cooperation with guitar player extraordinaire Cory Wong.

Overdrive 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. They have 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 germanium diodes that have been carefully selected to deliver the best tone possible! Overdrive 2 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!

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.

The pedal features MIDI control over all functions. OD1, OD2 and EQ can be controlled via MIDI for an unlimited selection of tones. The effects pedal is available in 2 versions. The Classic is the standard production model and the Warp (designed by Cory) is limited  to 1000 pieces only.

Jackson Audio The Optimist demo video