Since the creation of the brand, the OKKO Diablo has been its absolute best seller. These two diabolical little horns have established the Diablo as one of the best overdrives available on the market for almost 15 years. The Diablo is intended for guitarists looking for a low / medium gain overdrive, "amp-like", that is to say, which can replace an amp channel and equipped with an exceptional response and dynamics.
In 2018, the German brand offers us a very nice update of the Standard and Gain+ models which are disappearing from the catalog, to be replaced by this new version, the Dablo Dual and Diablo.
Regarding construction and aesthetics, no surprise, the overall design is very nice, the case is top and the workmanship flawless, as always with OKKO! And frankly, we love orange! ;) Let's quickly detail the front panel: 1 channel, which benefits from a Level and Drive and an extremely extensive equalization. Indeed, there is a usual Tone button that works as standard. But we also have, and this is what makes the strength of the Diablo, two original buttons: "Feed" allows you to act like a Contour, by impacting the bottom of the spectrum to add thickness and a more or less less "boomy" at the bottom. And "Dyn" which replaces the old switch to regulate the internal voltage. This allows you to vary it from 6 to 18V for a soft and mellow sound, or maximum headroom and punch. There are also 2 mini switches that allow you to boost the mids more or less and to act on the general compression, which is quite unique on a pedal of its kind! A bit like an amp that is pushed and compresses naturally.
Superstrat and ES-335 in hand, on a high quality clean channel, what immediately impresses is the enormous interaction with the effect and the precision of the controls which allow it to be tuned to perfection. The settings are ultra-responsive and progressive and the range of use is extremely wide, in particular the Gain range which allows the Diablo to be comfortable in a large number of styles. Another strong point of the Diablo and OKKO pedals in general is that whatever you play, strato, les paul or otherwise, it will sound. Same thing for the amp, something extremely rare, they pass on very many amps without any other requirement. So we have with the OKKO Diablo a pedal that we can potentially use with a multitude of configurations. It is unusual and extremely appreciable. The Diablo excels on a quality clean channel, and stacks superbly on a crunch to have a BIG bluesy lead. It's simple, for a "pedal" the dynamics are incredible, the sensitivity of the first order and the response full of nuances, which is really, rarely seen, especially at this price. The Diablo is respectful of your game and very versatile because of the on-board settings and especially the Dyn button which radically changes the dynamics and the rendering. Going from a soft drive that crashes on the attack, with softer highs, to an open drive, with a tight and ultra-responsive low end, a boosted upper midrange, and plenty of headroom, which explains why the pedal "clean" beautifully volume knob.
We have been selling the OKKO Diablo for 10 years and it remains one of our best references as its qualities are enormous and equaled by very few models on the market. A safe bet, approved and used by ourselves for all this time. An important detail that may make you put it in your basket: After 100 copies sold, we have only recorded one return... No need to argue more, OKKO is one of the most reliable that we have offered to date. Hats off!