Jackson Audio El Guapo Mateus Asato Overdrive Pedal

Jackson Audio El Guapo Mateus Asato Overdrive Pedal Overview

The Jackson Audio EL GUAPO is an overdrive-distortion pedal developed with Mateus Asato, one of the predominant guitar voices of today, the EL GUAPO Overdrive/ Distortion had a two-year development process. Every detail was painstakingly refined to ensure that both the Distortion and Overdrive channels would work together, to perfectly recreate the soulful overdrive and the liquid high-gain tones that legendary guitarist Mateus Asato is known for!

Designed as a complete 'Marshall-in-a-box' pedal, the EL GUAPO features a high-gain Distortion circuit that perfectly recreates the detail and harmonic complexity of the legendary JCM800 amplifier, while the Overdrive channel delivers the smooth overdrive and touch sensitivity of a vintage Plexi. Incorporating the Jackson Audio signature modern-day control features such as Clipping Styles, a 3-band Active EQ for maxing out the pedal’s tonal flexibility, their innovative GAIN CYCLE circuit and full MIDI control over all the EL GUAPO’s plethora of parameters all helps to make the EL GUAPO undoubtedly one of the most versatile platforms for drive tones ever created.

Main features:

• Analog Overdrive and Distortion pedal
• Distortion circuit based on the JCM800 high-gain sound
• Overdrive circuit based on the smooth Plexi tone
• Active 3-band Parametric-EQ - for optimal tone shaping
• MIDI control
• 4 Clipping-Diode Styles for both Distortion and Overdrive circuits, with drastically different sound characteristics
• Output level matching circuitry - counteracts output level differences of various Clipping-Diode options
• GAIN CYCLE circuit - for instant gain adjustment in 4 steps
• Small footprint and top-mounted jacks - for ease of pedalboard mounting
• Powered by 9 V DC PSU (centre -, 2.1mm, ~ 160 mA current draw)

The Distortion channel of the EL GUAPO is a high-gain, hard-clipping circuit that is based on the Marshall JCM800. Because of this, the resulting tone is very open, crisp and addictingly fun to play and covers everything from 80's hard rock to more modern high gain tones. To top it off, the Distortion circuit has a 3-Band Active EQ that is based on the legendary Baxandall EQ and gives tremendous tonal flexibility that is tailored specifically for guitarists. In addition, via internal trim pots, you can change the frequency and Q of each band making the EQ Fully-Parametric.

EL GUAPO’s Overdrive channel features a soft clipping circuit that was designed to capture the smooth overdrive and touch responsiveness of a vintage Marshall Plexi. This circuit, which is in its own true bypass loop, can be used independently of the Distortion and is very useful for boosting the front end of that circuit for even higher gain.


But that isn’t all. With 4 different Styles of clipping modes, each can drastically alter the tone and feel of the way the Distortion or Overdrive clips. With ‘Vintage Marshall’, ‘Classic Screamer’, ‘Asymmetric’ or ‘Symmetrical’ clipping, EL GUAPO can really be the foundation of any distortion tone you wish to achieve to suit your tone goals.


Amongst the most exciting features of the EL GUAPO is the Gain Cycle, which takes the Gain knob setting, and divides it into 4 equal parts, making them instantly accessible as steps to cycle through by simply pressing both footswitches simultaneously. As with all of Jackson’s multi-option drive pedals, a unique circuit matches the output level of the pedal in its various clipping diode styles. So, no matter which of the four clipping options you choose, on either Distortion or Overdrive sides, your volume level will remain constant. This helps to you to alter how the pedal interacts with your amp or any other pedal(s) you may have in your rig and all on the fly.

Add in MIDI control over Clipping Styles, Gain-Cycle options, Drive EQ options as well as ON/OFF of the Overdrive and Drive circuits and the EL GUAPO is definitely the most powerful and comprehensive analog drive pedal ever made.