Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
This is the Mad Professor Royal Blue overdrive pedal: a rather underrated transparent overdrive pedal that promises an amp-like response and massive tonal versatility!
Get one here: thmn.to/thoprod/322607?offid=1&affid=1250
I got to try the (more expensive, more limited, and higher build quality) Handwired version of the Royal Blue Overdrive at 42 Gear Street 7 in summer 2025. In my quick introduction to it, I was led to believe it’d give me a similar dynamic response to something like a Paul Cochrane Timmy – and it did do that, but it gave me way more as well, from a sparkly clean boost to some pretty gnarly distortion.
After that, I was excited to get my hands on a standard version of the pedal to try out in more detail, and that’s what we’re doing today. Coming in at around €179 as of early 2026, the Royal Blue isn’t the cheapest overdrive pedal on the market – and it’s not blue either! – but it’s built like an absolute tank and feels incredibly solid and durable.
The pedal has four controls: Volume, Drive, Bass, and Treble. The two EQ controls are of boost/cut shelving variety, and the Treble is said by Mad Professor to work like a Presence control on an amp. You don’t have a dedicated Mids knob here, but you can turn down the two EQ controls together to boost the mids, or turn them up to give yourself more of a mid-scooped tone. You power the Royal Blue via a 9-volt battery, or a standard power supply.
All in all, then, this is a simple enough pedal on the surface… but how good does the Royal Blue actually sound? Does it nail that transparent overdrive sound, and more? That’s what we’re about to find out!
In the video, I put the pedal through its paces in as many musical styles as possible, from country, folk, blues and pop to rock, punk, indie and even some metal, to hear how many usable sounds we can get out of it. I also run a loop through it so we really get to twist the knobs and hear how it versatile it truly is. My guitar today is the 2025 Ibanez AZ Standard with an HSS pickup configuration, so we’ll hear both humbucking and single coil tones in abundance.
Let me know what you think of the Royal Blue Overdrive in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Royal Blue Overdrive
01:31 Pedal controls, features and info
03:10 Today’s rig and plan
04:20 Clean reference tone and turning on the Royal Blue Overdrive
04:36 Pushed clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
06:35 Indie and alt rock tones
09:23 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
11:05 Hard rock tones
12:16 Alternative rock tones
13:05 Punk rock tones
13:58 Drop D: metal and heavy rock tones
15:03 Royal Blue as a boost into an overdriven amp
15:28 Classic rock loop – tone tweaking (played on Epiphone Les Paul)
20:52 My thoughts
21:16 Things I like: tones and versatility
24:25 Build quality, price
24:48 Things I don’t like
25:22 What other similar pedals are out there?
27:26 My conclusions on the Royal Blue and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Royal Blue into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 amp head. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
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At Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#MadProfessor #MadProfessorPedals #RoyalBlue #RoyalBlueOverdrive #TransparentOverdrive #RichWordsMusic
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@MadProfessorAmplification
This is the Mad Professor Royal Blue overdrive pedal: a rather underrated transparent overdrive pedal that promises an amp-like response and massive tonal versatility!
Get one here: thmn.to/thoprod/322607?offid=1&affid=1250
I got to try the (more expensive, more limited, and higher build quality) Handwired version of the Royal Blue Overdrive at 42 Gear Street 7 in summer 2025. In my quick introduction to it, I was led to believe it’d give me a similar dynamic response to something like a Paul Cochrane Timmy – and it did do that, but it gave me way more as well, from a sparkly clean boost to some pretty gnarly distortion.
After that, I was excited to get my hands on a standard version of the pedal to try out in more detail, and that’s what we’re doing today. Coming in at around €179 as of early 2026, the Royal Blue isn’t the cheapest overdrive pedal on the market – and it’s not blue either! – but it’s built like an absolute tank and feels incredibly solid and durable.
The pedal has four controls: Volume, Drive, Bass, and Treble. The two EQ controls are of boost/cut shelving variety, and the Treble is said by Mad Professor to work like a Presence control on an amp. You don’t have a dedicated Mids knob here, but you can turn down the two EQ controls together to boost the mids, or turn them up to give yourself more of a mid-scooped tone. You power the Royal Blue via a 9-volt battery, or a standard power supply.
All in all, then, this is a simple enough pedal on the surface… but how good does the Royal Blue actually sound? Does it nail that transparent overdrive sound, and more? That’s what we’re about to find out!
In the video, I put the pedal through its paces in as many musical styles as possible, from country, folk, blues and pop to rock, punk, indie and even some metal, to hear how many usable sounds we can get out of it. I also run a loop through it so we really get to twist the knobs and hear how it versatile it truly is. My guitar today is the 2025 Ibanez AZ Standard with an HSS pickup configuration, so we’ll hear both humbucking and single coil tones in abundance.
Let me know what you think of the Royal Blue Overdrive in the comments!
Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:
00:00 Introduction to the Royal Blue Overdrive
01:31 Pedal controls, features and info
03:10 Today’s rig and plan
04:20 Clean reference tone and turning on the Royal Blue Overdrive
04:36 Pushed clean tone samples (folk, country, pop, indie, blues, funk, etc.)
06:35 Indie and alt rock tones
09:23 Classic rock tones (AC/DC, Hendrix, Airbourne, etc.)
11:05 Hard rock tones
12:16 Alternative rock tones
13:05 Punk rock tones
13:58 Drop D: metal and heavy rock tones
15:03 Royal Blue as a boost into an overdriven amp
15:28 Classic rock loop – tone tweaking (played on Epiphone Les Paul)
20:52 My thoughts
21:16 Things I like: tones and versatility
24:25 Build quality, price
24:48 Things I don’t like
25:22 What other similar pedals are out there?
27:26 My conclusions on the Royal Blue and why you should buy it
My setup was as follows: I ran the Royal Blue into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 amp head. The amp went from the Red Box AE+ DI out straight into my Zoom H6 recorder. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.
---
At Thomann: thmn.to/thocf/jkhog8l06m
At Sweetwater: sweetwater.sjv.io/LXqdE0
---
Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Duck In The Alley – TrackTribe.
#MadProfessor #MadProfessorPedals #RoyalBlue #RoyalBlueOverdrive #TransparentOverdrive #RichWordsMusic
*Note: certain links in the description are affiliate links. If you click said links and purchase anything as a result, I will receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, but it does help to support the channel. So, if you do that, thank you very much!*
@MadProfessorAmplification
