Dolce Vita

The Dolce Vita can be thought of in two ways: what I like to call a character boost and also a low-gain overdrive. Instead of conventional Volume and Gain controls, the Dolce Vita utilized two Gain controls–Gain 1 and Gain 2–for flexibility. For conventional operation, Gain 1 is used to control the overall output volume and Gain 2 progressively adds overdrive to the signal. Conversely, Gain 2 can be used to control the overall output volume and Gain 1 adds a more refined, subtle drive to the signal.

When used this way, the Dolce Vita can be used at around unity to sweeten the overall tone and feel of the signal. One way it has been described is playing .9s but sounding like they are .11s. It also can takes out unpleasant high frequency overtones of an amp without losing the tone, feel or dynamics. By matching the overall output level and degree of drive by tweaking Gain 1 and Gain 2 a wide range of tonal sweetening and push can be a achieved.

With Gain 1 acting as overall output volume, Gain 2 functions as a traditional low-gain overdrive but with the Dolce Vita’s characteristic natural and dynamic envelope.