Ground Control Audio Bread Oath Overdrive
The hits keep coming in 2023. Ground Control Audio's Bread Oath is a thoughtfully evolved overdrive that earns its place on the board immediately. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Ground Control Audio Bread Oath Overdrive takes center stage — featuring the Frank Brothers Signature with Lollar '50s Wind P90 and Lollar Low Wind Imperial Humbucker, into the Benson Amps Monarch.
Built around the foundation of Ground Control's very first pedal — 2016's Blood Oath — the Bread Oath retains the character that made the original unique while offering revised filters, tighter tonal response, and over six years of user feedback incorporated into the design. Ground Control is a Montreal boutique builder — the Bread Oath is the evolution of company owner Sébastien Vézina's original signature circuit.
An opamp-based, low-to-mid gain overdrive designed to push an amp into breakup and add flexible flavors of diode clipping. Four controls: Volume (output), Gain (main clipping stage), Tone (rolls off highs entering the clipping stage), and Pre (controls the secondary preamp stage gain).
The key feature is the dual clipping architecture. A top-mounted toggle selects between silicon diodes (tighter, more modern, more compressed character) and germanium diodes (more open, rawer, vintage character). These aren't radical differences — they're the subtle textural shift that makes a real difference in context, particularly with the Frank Brothers Signature's ability to blend a P90 and a humbucker simultaneously.
A separate pre-gain stage can be engaged via the left footswitch. This stage sits before the clipping diodes, driving them harder for additional bite and saturation. A low-pass filter between the two gain stages shaves high-end harmonics from the pre-gain stage to avoid harsh distortion. The Pre level is set independently with its own knob — dial it in for just a touch of extra cut during leads, or max it for significantly more gain and presence.
Built in Canada. True bypass. 9V DC center negative, no battery.
🎛️ Ground Control Audio Bread Oath: https://www.groundcontrolaudio.com
🎸 Frank Brothers Signature: https://www.frankbrothersguitars.com
🎸 Lollar Pickups: https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-pickups
🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 Frank Brothers Signature | Lollar '50s Wind P90 + Lollar Low Wind Imperial
🎛️ Ground Control Audio Bread Oath | Opamp OD | Si/Ge Clipping | Pre Boost Footswitch
🔊 Benson Amps Monarch
