Caline G-002 Green Mamba Overdrive Pedal Review

Caline G-002 Green Mamba Overdrive Pedal Review

Welcome to my guitar effects review website; my name’s Shane. This review covers my favorite overdrive from the new G-Series pedals from Caline called the Green Mamba. The Green Mamba is a vintage overdrive pedal reminiscent of the classic Maxon OD808 or Ibanez Tubescreamer. 

Caline Green Mamba Overdrive Review
Caline Green Mamba Overdrive Review

How to use the Green Mamba Overdrive Pedal

The Green Mamba pedal can be used as a standalone overdrive or in conjunction with another overdrive or distortion pedal in the signal chain. The beauty of this effect is it works great for country, blues, classic rock, or higher gain tones in various scenarios. I know a lot of higher-gain players who love a vintage overdrive into the front end of their already high-gain amplifier. 

The results will be great whether you are using it on a clean channel, into another pedal, or a dirty-channel amplifier. If you plan to stack the Green Mamba with another overdrive, I highly recommend the Caline Shark Boost. These two overdrive pedals complement each other beautifully, as showcased in my review videos below. 

Compact Design

Caline has designed the Green Mamba and the rest of the G-Series to be a space-saving pedal range without being too small.  This pedal is larger than your standard mini-pedal but not as tall as a typical Maxon, Wampler, or Boss Pedal.  I am a fan of this new mid-sized effect pedal, and it will no doubt appeal to players who don’t have much real estate left on their pedal board. 

Green Mamba Overdrive Pedal Review Video

Hear the potential of the Caline Green Mamba in this review video I shot on my intheblues channel. 

If you like the tones, check it out worldwide here:

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Green Mamba Overdrive Controls

The Green Mamba is loaded with three simple controls. The gain control on the top right controls how much drive the pedal produces. The Volume control is the output volume control, and the tone control shapes the pedal’s brightness or warmth. With the Tone, volume, or gain control to the right, you will get more of each in contrast to having them set to the left (or lower). 

Caline Green Mamba Contros
Caline Green Mamba Controls (Volume, Drive, and Tone)

Power Requirements

The Caline Green Mamba Overdrive pedal can only run on 9vDC power. Therefore, power can only be provided from a 9v DC power supply. I highly recommend this one-spot power supply if you consider buying pedals (Sweetwater Link). This power supply will be able to power multiple effects pedals from this series or others safely and effectively. This is the same power supply I use personally. 

Power is supplied thanks to the 9v input on the top portion of the pedal, as you can see from the photo of the controls above. The Green Mamba pedal only draws 50mA of power, which makes it very efficient in the signal chain.

Build Quality

Usually, when a pedal is inexpensive, it has build-quality compromises. This quality drop was the case back in the day with some brands. I’ve said for years that Caline makes great stuff, and this series of effects, including the Shark Boost, are built like tanks.  

The enclosure is metal, we get proper metal shaft potentiometers, and the pots feel great to move. The jacks on the side are excellent quality, and the footswitch is the real deal.  

My only critique about the build quality is the laminated decal on the front. While the decal looks fine, it’s not the highest resolution. I would love to see this improved in the future. However, regarding physical build quality, I have no complaints regarding this effect. 

What’s in the Box?

Each pedal from this series comes boxed with a strip of velcro included and an instruction manual/brochure. 

Is the Caline G-002 Green Mamba Overdrive worth it?

When it comes to affordable pedals, Caline is hard to beat. Not only is the Green Mamba robust and built extremely well, but it is also functional and flexible, depending on where you have it in your signal chain.

While the visual styling might not be for everyone, this pedal offers a massive bang for the buck without the larger footprint of many other brands.   This is my favorite dirt pedal from the Caline G series offering great tones in a wide range of use cases.  It also pairs excellently with the Killer Shark Boost, which I can also highly recommend as a 2 punch combination. 

Caline Green Mamba Pedal Best Prices

Find the best deals by shopping through my affiliate links below. 

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