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    When I first heard of the Hydra by Liquid Gain, I was very intrigued. I’ve always been a big fan of dual cascading gain pedals because of the multitude of options that they offer. In the case of the Hydra, there are two gain stages High Drive and Lo Drive. They cascade into one another very much like a Boogie Mark I-IV type of amp to produce complex, rich and organic overdrives. The result is a timbre that echoes vintage Mesa Boogie, Matchless DC series and the legendary Dumble Overdrive Special. The distortion is as thick and velvety as chocolate and is very dynamic to picking nuances and volume knob manipulation. The pedal is rounded out with a volume control and a tone knob, which is really like a brightness control. On the side of the chassis is a Fat switch, which adds a significant bass boost to thicken up the soupy, chunky tones. 

    The pedal sports a true bypass design and is loaded with nothing but quality components. What’s truly amazing is the fact that with just this pedal, I was able to run the palette of tones from this pedal tied in with my fave BOSS DD-20 delay pedal. From classic rock sound of ZZ Top and Led Zep to the bluesy fusion of Eric Johnson and Shawn Lane (R.I.P.), I was able to coax a plethora of cool tones from this little sweetheart of a pedal.