DryBell - The Engine

The Engine is a highly versatile and fully analog foundation preamp pedal with distinct voicing inspired by 60’s British classic amps and sounds. It covers all the classic overdriven tones on a variety of amps and can be pushed even more with our take on the classic Range(master) and a powerful EQ/Boost section.

Imagine having a quality, compact go-to pedal to cover all the classic overdriven tones on any type of amp with inspiring results. With that idea in mind, Drybell have created The Engine – a highly versatile and fully analog foundation preamp with distinct voicing inspired by 60’s British classic amps and sounds. It features two very strong & independent sections, designed to work perfectly with a variety of music gear, regardless of your playing style. This unique synergy of dynamic overdriven foundation tone combined with a sparkling Range boost will give you a huge sonic world to explore.

Since the early 60’s, guitar players have been exploring all kinds of tube guitar amps. Most of them sounded nice and clean unless cranked and often they were still not loud enough for live performances. Many players liked that cranked amp distortion, but they also wanted more power. The amps therefore became much bigger and much louder. It was a time when everyone played LOUD and if you wanted your amp to distort, you simply turned it up. Eventually guitarists added some kind of Boost pedal to hit the front end of an amp to get even more distortion. Those early amps are the sound of Rock’n’Roll and you can hear it on countless recordings. The only problem with them is that they don’t naturally distort on their own, unless you turn them up really LOUD! This is where The Engine enters the game....

With mostly British, non-master-volume amps in mind, we have created a foundation preamp which allows you to get that cranked Tube-like distortion sound on almost any amp, but without the need to play at ear-shattering levels. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing in your bedroom or a stadium arena, you’ll have that classic Rock sound ready to go at any volume!

The Engine consists of two fully analog sections.

Side A is very carefully tuned to capture the sound, feel and dynamic response of a real 60’s British NMV amp. It’s open sounding and very touch sensitive so the amount of dirt on tap is easily controlled by your pick attack. Besides familiar controls such as Level, Gain and Tone, we have added a special feature called Shape. It is a unique control which helps you adjust the overall character and level of the mid frequencies. It’s a key feature for adjusting the voice of your foundation tone and it can really help you fine tune the tonal details in your sound on any amp that you’re playing.

Side B‘s most powerful feature - Range(master) is DryBell's take on the Treble Booster from the 60’s. Range controls specific mid-frequencies whose complex overtones are great for pushing through the mix, whilst also adding some of the nicest sounding sparkle to your tone. Besides that, high headroom and distortion-free Clean Boost (thanks to the high internal power supply voltage) and versatile Low & High EQ will help you even further in tailoring your tone. For those of you who are familiar with DryBell's Unit67 pedal, think of this section as a Unit67 but without the compressor.

Both The Engine’s sections share a high headroom ultra-low noise buffer, designed to have no signal loss. Given that DryBell use only long-life highly reliable components, your Engine will be running for years and years to come. DryBell wanted to give you that Tube-amp saturation which cleans up nicely with your guitar’s volume knob. Special attention has been given to the note separation and clarity at every stage of The Engine, even at its Hi-Gain settings. You will find that the signal-to-noise ratio is excellent for such high-gain tones. Although The Engine has these two completely separate sections, it really shines when they are working together! Stacking these two sides can yield some incredibly rich sounds.

To help you answer the million dollar question: “Boost in front or after OD/Distortion?”, DryBell created what they see as an essential feature called Order. With the Order switch, you can choose the stacking order of the A&B sections. If you choose the right side B to go into left side A, the result will be much more distortion and complex overtones, depending on your settings. If you choose the left side A to go into B, the final result will be much more volume (if your amp has enough clean headroom) and much more sparkle and detail in your tone. It’s a really fun way to explore your tone with different settings and really helps in terms of pedalboard position. Besides that, The Engine is an amazing platform for stacking with different types of effects, so let your imagination run wild!

As always, DryBell are giving and doing their absolute best to move things forward and create something unique in today’s gear world. The Engine is here for you and ready to shine!

Delivery:

Any order placed before 2.30pm on a working day will generally be sent the same day. If the order is placed after 2.30pm on a weekday or anytime during the weekend or a public holiday we will send the order the next working day.

UK Orders: 

• Royal Mail First Class - this costs £1.95 per order but becomes free if your order value is £30.00 or higher. Royal Mail typically aims to deliver First Class parcels for the next working day although can sometimes take up to 5 days. No signature is required upon delivery.
• DPD Courier - this service costs £6.50 per order but becomes free if your order value is £90.00 or higher. This is usually a next-working day service and DPD will send an email or text on the day of the delivery with a timed 1 hour delivery slot. (However DPD doesn't guarantee this) (If urgent please use RM Special Delivery) This service is only available for UK mainland addresses. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel and deliveries can be made anytime up until 6.00pm on the day of the delivery. 
• Royal Mail Special Delivery - this service costs £9.95 and Royal Mail guarantee that the delivery will be made the next working day before 1.00pm. Royal Mail will email or text you with delivery updates and a signature is required upon receipt of the parcel.

 

 

International Orders:

We are pleased to announce that any EU orders placed on our website that amounts to a total of €150.00 or less will be inclusive of VAT and fees. Therefore, the price that you pay at our checkout is final pricing - no additional handling fees or import fees.  Any order that is above €150.00 will not be inclusive of VAT or import fees and these additional fees will need to be paid to your local postal service, once the goods arrive at your local customs. (Please note, the all-fee-inclusive scheme is only applicable to business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and cannot be applied to any business-to-business (B2B) transactions)

 

• European Registered Post - for any address in Europe, this service costs £9.95 per order and is sent using Royal Mail Tracked service. In most cases, the parcel is handed over to the local postal service to deliver it. A signature is generally not required but will be tracked to ensure a safe delivery. Most parcels take an average of 3 - 7 working days to deliver.
• European Registered Courier - for any address in Europe, this service costs £30.00 per order and we will select a courier to deliver the parcel. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel. Delivery times vary but typically take 2 - 5 working days.

 

• International Registered Post - for any address outside of Europe, this service costs £12.95 per order and is sent using the Royal Mail Tracked service. In most cases, the parcel is handed over to the local postal service to deliver it. A signature is generally not required but will be tracked to ensure a safe delivery. Most parcels take an average of 4 - 10 working days to deliver.
• International Registered Courier - for any address outside of Europe, this service costs £30.00 per order and we will select a courier to deliver the parcel. A signature is required upon receipt of the parcel. Delivery times vary but typically take 3 - 7 working days.

If you have not received your order after the stated times above, please email us requesting a tracking number and we will be able to tell you more information. It is best to check the status with us as after a few weeks because most local sorting offices will end up returning it back to us if they have had no contact with the customer.

Returns:

At Armstrong Music, we believe in providing our customers with the utmost satisfaction and peace of mind. That's why we proudly offer a 30-day, no quibble returns policy. We understand that sometimes a product may not meet your expectations or requirements and we want you to be completely confident in your purchase. If for any reason you're not fully satisfied with your order, simply return it to us within 30 days of purchase and we'll gladly provide a refund (minus original postage fees) or exchange. Our commitment to exceptional customer service extends to hassle-free returns, ensuring that you can shop with confidence knowing that we stand behind the quality and value of our products. We kindly request that the returned goods must be in their original state (no damage) and any goods or accessories that accompany the returned product must also come back to us. The goods should also be returned with their original box, packing and accessories.

If the return is due to missing or faulty parts then we will offer a full refund or replacement provided we are aware of this within 30 days. Any refund, which is due to a fault, other defect or a mistake on our part, will include a refund of the applicable delivery charge.

PICKGUARDS: Do not remove the protective cover or place any components on this pickguard until you have made a "dry run" on the instrument. Make sure all mounting holes and pickup cuts are positioned correctly. Pickguard replacement warranty will be void if the protective cover has been removed. Removing the protective film means that the item is not in a re-saleable condition and therefore we cannot accept it back for a refund. 

Please ensure that any returns are sent using a registered postal or courier service as we cannot be responsible for undelivered parcels being sent to us. Please post returns to the following address:

Armstrong Music
Woodreeve Farm
Capel Road
Ruckinge
Ashford
Kent
TN26 2EJ

This returns policy does not affect your legal rights.

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