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The Looking Glass Overdrive is collaboration between DOD and the boutique pedal 

company SHOE Pedals.  Christopher Venter of SHOE Pedals is known for his unique 

circuits, colorful perspective on classic effects, and minimalist design aesthetic.  The 

collaboration between DOD and SHOE retains all of Christopher’s strengths and 

adds in some mainstream tonal appeal with an affordable price point.  I was first 

introduced to Christopher when he participated in an online forum collaboration 

for an octave fuzz in 2012.  I was very impressed with the build-quality, voicing, and 

feature set of that fuzz (and several more after) and I knew that Christopher had a 

good ear and strong attention to detail.  This attention to detail has culminated in 

the meticulously designed Looking Glass Overdrive, to create a sweet and musical 

drive with a character that works well for any task – Lead, rhythm, low-gain, high-

gain or even as a tone-shaping boost. 

A note from the designer:

“Years ago, when I was living in Brooklyn, I went on a quest to find the overdrive 

that worked for me. Most of these were slight variations on a few classic op-amp 

designs that just didn’t do it for me. I tried a ridiculous number of pedals and found 

that I wasn’t fully happy with any of them. So, having originally resolved only to 

make weird experimental fuzz pedals, I decided to break that rule and create a 

really nice overdrive that I actually wanted to play. After starting with a theory 

and refining it through extensive play-testing, I concocted the Savior Machine and 

named it after one of my favorite David Bowie songs.

When DOD approached me to collaborate on a new pedal, I was given free reign 

to make whatever I wanted (within reason). So, I first went back to my roots and 

designed a wild high gain fuzz. This sounded great, but I thought to myself that it 

would really be only useful for some people. I wanted to make something for ALL 

people. So, I decided to revisit my basic overdrive concept and re-design it with a 

completely different approach. The result is the Looking Glass. A super-responsive 

class-A FET design that, I hope will give a whole lot of players the satisfaction of 

feeling like their overdrive rewards their own unique playing style. It’s great for 

blues, sure, but it’s also great for hard rock, indie, experimental music, psychedelic 

music, shoegaze, alternative, punk, bass, etc. etc. etc. The Looking Glass is like a 

funhouse mirror that lets you twist and tweak your sound in every which way while 

still sounding like the ideal you.”

-C.J.M. Venter

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