Browne Amplification Green Protein Drive V3

The Protein 2 in 1 Overdrive is a collaboration between David Brown and guitarist/producer Adam Sniegowski. After years on the road and in the studio using backline amps that could be very inconsistent, Adam came to Dave wanting to create a dual overdrive that would sound great with any backline he encountered. They started with two drives they loved, stacked well together, but had a few inherent issues. Dave set out to fix those issues without losing the soul of the originals.

The Blue Side is based on the classic OD used by the likes of John Mayer on the “Continuum” album. Dave addressed issues like the lack of output, tweaked the tone control, and experimented to find what we think is our favorite version of this type of circuit while still being true to its roots.

The Green side was inspired by the classic “Nashville” overdrive. This pedal has been used on the pedals boards of session greats from Tim Pierce to Jerry McPherson. We lowered the amount of gain (distortion) to make it usable through the entire sweep of the pedal, added some of the mids back to make it not quite so scooped, and eliminated some of the woofiness in the low end. This allows it to add some low mid “beef” back into your tone without becoming muddy.

The secret “third” channel of this pedal might be our favorite. When running the green side into the blue of this pedal, you get added gain and fullness without sacrificing note clarity or getting that “mushiness” that can happen while stacking some overdrives.

A RECENT SOFTWARE UPDATE NOW ALLOWS THE V3 TO BE ADJUSTED FOR THE INITIAL START-UP STATE - EACH SWITCH CAN BE ADJUSTED TO BE “ON” AT START-UP OR “OFF” AT START-UP BY HOLDING DOWN THE SWITCH FOR 10 SECONDS WHILE PLUGGING THE PEDAL INTO POWER. SOFTWARE HAS BEEN ADJUSTED TO ALSO ALLOW BOTH SIDES TO BE TURNED ON AND OFF AT THE SAME TIME. 

Q and A

Q. Which side goes into which on the Protein?

A. The right side (green side) is first and cascades into the left side (blue side). The blue side has tons of headroom and also compresses really nice so it stacks really well with other drives before it. This is why I always recommend putting the protein last in your chain of drives.

Q. Is there a way to have both channels turn on simultaneously via a single switch?

A. You could put the protein pedal in a loop leave both sides on and then simultaneously turn both on/off that way.

Q. Is the blue side of the Protein a Bluesbreaker or BD-2 circuit?

A. It’s a Bluesbreaker circuit with modifications and an added output section.

Q. I have a question about the capability of the independent sides of the Protein going into separate loops. It's mentioned on the website that the RJM Mastermind works with the Protein like this. I'm curious to know if this function will work with my BOSS ES-5

A. It absolutely will!

Q. Does the green side of the pedal pair well with a Tube Screamer or does it make my beloved TS kind of redundant and replaces it?

A. Since the green side isn’t really a Tube Screamer (it’s more like a nobles ODR-1) it’s a different flavor than your TS. But I love a Tube Screamer paired with the blue side of the protein! I don’t think you’d find redundancy in having both pedals on your board.

Q. I’m finding the green side very quiet. It’s not really punching my amp until around 3pm on the volume dial. Just wondering if this is normal?

A. The green side is very dependent on the gain knob for its level - if I set it up 2/3rds up on the gain I have the level below half for unity gain - but if I run the gain low 1/3 or so I have to bring the level up to 2/3 or 3/4 for unity gain.

Q. What is the power draw of the Protein and can I use 18V?

A. About 30 mA. 9VDC only please! We built it to have tons of headroom at 9V so 18V is not better.

Q. What is the difference between the V2 and the V3?

A. Besides the obvious top mounted jacks vs side mounted jacks, the V3 utilizes soft switching instead of mechanical switching, and there is a single internal switch for split mode. While we worked hard to ensure that the V2 and V3 sound the same, tolerances in parts can at times create minor variations in the “sound” of the pedal.