Horizon Devices Precision Drive

No one paid me for this. Honest opinions.

Overview

Misha Mansoor’s Horizon Devices released their first product a while back called the Precision Drive but people keep asking me for my opinion since I own one. This pedal is an overdrive pedal designed for modern metal, not your dad’s metal. The pedal was built by MXR, so it is definitely durable. It has passed my strenuous and thorough toddler testing system.

The Pedal

The pedal has 5 knobs. A 6-position Attack knob to control how tight your tone is. The farther right that you go, there is less low end. The Volume knob and the Drive knob do exactly what you would expect them to on any overdrive pedal and the Bright knob controls your mids so you can cut through the mix.

Lastly, it also has a built-in noise gate and control for that. Yes, a noise gate to silence that gain and cut the sound when you need it to. How effective is the noise gate? It works like any other noise gate and just as effective as a noise gate pedal.

This pedal works great with digital rigs, solid state amps, hybrid amps, distortion pedals, and tube amps. It achieves the same results on all of the things. Misha uses all of the above so I wouldn’t expect any less from him to create a pedal that worked with all of his gear.

Gripes

I don’t have any gripes about this pedals beyond the standard complaint about MXR pedals (power-plug position).

Final Thoughts

It sounds like I am being paid for writing this which I am not. So here is a little brutal truth. If you are new to overdrives and metal, this is not a good pedal to start with. I would still recommend doing the whole set up of a noise gate, a tube screamer and an amp to teach things. This pedal can sound absolutely painful in the wrong hands.

If you want an overdrive to play AC/DC, Metallica or basically your dad’s metal; then this is not for the pedal for you but if you play modern metal or djent like I do, then this a great pedal.

I have replaced my tube screamer with this and haven’t looked back. Instead of two noise gates (one in front of my overdrive and one in the effects loop). I now only have the one in the effects loop for amp noise. A solid start out the door for these guys and I am only excited to see what else they bring to my rig.

5 out of 5 rating.