Update (October 25, 2023): I see this post shared a bunch and I am really appreciative of that. I hope it’s helping everyone make the right decision about which pedal is the best fit for a particular application. We originally posted this before releasing the Citadel and 0xEAE Fuzz, so I added some sections to highlight them. As always, if you have questions don’t hesitate to reach out!
As our pedal lineup expands and our various offerings become more regularly available, we’ve received a steady stream of questions from folks who need help deciding which of our drive pedals is the right fit.
After all, why do we make so many drive pedals? Ultimately, I just love the sound and feeling of a distorted guitar. The interaction between an instrument and the electronic medium struggling to reproduce it is one of my favorite musical experiences. The way that circuits overload, sag, ring out, and crumble around the edges is essential to the electric guitar and, indeed, all electronic music. There are dozens of methods for producing interesting overdriven or distorted tones, and even more ways to tweak, combine, and abuse those methods.
(Quick sidebar regarding terminology: I often use “drive pedal” as shorthand for anything that distorts a guitar signal. Boost, overdrive, distortion, and fuzz are all points on a continuum from subtle grit to utter destruction. The lines are extremely blurry—ultimately, it’s up to the individual player.)
While the current market has more variety than ever, navigating the sheer volume of options can be a daunting prospect. What I can say is that every pedal we make is distinctive enough that you would be hard-pressed to find similar sounds elsewhere. Everything we make is either i) designed from the ground up for a specific purpose or ii) intended to recreate forgotten relics of the past.
Below is a quick synopsis of what makes each pedal special. I’ll go in a loose chronological order. I think the order in which these were developed tells a story in its own way—each pedal is a snapshot in time. If something in these descriptions appeals to you, I also include a ton of detail in our manuals.
Longsword
The Longsword is our first product, dating back to 2015. It wears its influences on its sleeve as a member of a big family of op amp drives, including the Distortion+, Rat, OCD, even the Klon KTR. While the building blocks of these pedals are familiar, they can be modified and rearranged endlessly. The Longsword is dialed in for an open, clear distortion character with lots of thickness, and it is incredibly versatile thanks to its hybrid active/passive EQ.
I designed this pedal while I was playing in a 90s/00s style screamo band, using single coil-equipped guitars with single-channel tube amps. As a result, the thicker low midrange content of the Longsword fills out bright guitars, and its EQ allows for matching to a specific amp. The Mid EQ in particular can get pretty extreme as well.
Starting with Version 3 and culminating with the current Version 4, I made changes to make the Longsword friendlier to hot humbuckers while retaining its signature low mid push. The biggest change with these versions was the Boost channel. It adds extra gain up front and tightens the midrange, giving you two distinct levels of distortion without changing the overall character.
Despite its specific genre origins, the Longsword is at home in any setup. I know of both indie rock and death metal guitarists (and bassists) who use their Longswords to great effect.
Buy if you like: medium to high gain tones, versatility, twiddling EQ knobs, cutting through a mix with a blade of midrange.
Model feT
Once upon a time I was a broke student, losing over half my paycheck to rent. I could pine all I wanted for a vintage Sunn Model T, but there was no way I would be coming up with $3000+ for one any time soon. What I did have was a schematic, a circuit simulator, some engineering books, and a buddy with a lead on an original amplifier. On top of that, I knew others, like my friend Nick at Dunwich Amps, who had good luck emulating tube amps using JFETs. So, I decided to try my hand at it. My original pass closely followed some classic DIY approaches, but it was a letdown, so I added some extra circuitry and optimized where I could. The result was 90% of a Model T for less than 10% of the used price. (Also, as far as I can tell, we were the first company to do a JFET Model T!) Future versions have gotten even closer to the sound of the original amp.
The Model T was Sunn’s attempt to compete with Marshall in the late 60s/early 70s. So they borrowed much of the Super Bass design, added a bunch of preamp gain, and jacked up the output power to a formidable 150W. The preamp breaks up easily, especially with humbuckers, and the overall character is quite fuzzy for a tube amp due to the total lack of low frequency filtering between gain stages. It was largely a flop when it came out, but it’s no surprise the Model T gained traction among sludge and doom metal guitarists.
Without the original T as a reference, you can think of the Model feT as a smooth, slightly mid-scooped overdrive that is never quite clean and loves being stacked with other pedals up front. It’s a perfect base layer to make all your fuzz pedals sound even heavier. Or you can use it to impart a more natural feel with a clean power amp or a cab simulation. There’s no wrong way to use it!
Buy if you like: amps that are always breaking up a bit, stacking pedals, using doom metal tones for genres besides doom metal, using doom metal tones for doom metal.
Citadel
Citadel is an offshoot from the Model feT. The design of the original Model T takes strong cues from the Marshall Super Bass, which is a modified Super Lead, which itself can be traced all the way back to the Fender 5F6 Bassman—arguably the amp that started it all. So, with a few voicing changes, the Model feT platform could be modified to traverse the various eras of the Bassman lineage.
Where we settled was something fairly similar to the Super Lead, but with a few twists of our own. Without being tied to a specific amp, we had freedom to explore. One little-known 5F6 variant is the Traynor YBA-1, a stalwart companion at our shop. Our YBA-1 has been modified all sorts of ways, which inspired the mods that became the Citadel. Brad workshopped the idea on some old scrapped Model feT boards, and we fell in love with the sound.
So how does it compare to the Model feT? I think the harshest criticism we can levy at the Model feT is that it is a little too scooped and fuzzy. With a hotter guitar, it can be hard to use outside of heavy music. And it also doesn’t always sound good in front of an amp. The Citadel, by contrast, trades some gain and low frequency heft for a more versatile sound with less gain and a strong midrange. It works equally well as a preamp or as a more traditional overdrive. So, if the doomy nature of the Model feT isn’t for you, definitely check out the Citadel.
Buy if you like: the realization that plexis aren’t just for dad rock… or maybe the real truth, which is that Fugazi is dad rock now.
Dagger
A smaller companion to the Longsword always seemed like an obvious idea. We did a few limited runs of them, mixing up parts here and there to keep things exciting. Then I played a very early Longsword after a long time not having one around, and I realized that there was still some magic in the older design.
With this in mind, I approached Dagger V2 as if it were a Longsword from a parallel universe. The Dagger is more chimey at low gain but gives way to a fuzzy sound as the Drive control is increased—and there is a shocking amount of gain on tap! I took the quirks of the Longsword V1/V2 and refined them into a more modern package. One such quirk was the interactivity between the tone controls and the final gain stage. By boosting the Low and High EQ controls, the output stage becomes overloaded for an even more aggressive sound.
Thanks to its germanium clipping diodes, the Dagger has a more compressed sound than its larger sibling. The EQ is voiced for less of the low mid punch of the Longsword (though it still has plenty of low end for bass) and more of a sizzly treble response. What truly sets it apart from the Longsword is the Shift toggle, which can dramatically cut or boost low end pre-clipping.
The Dagger might be unassuming, but it is a supremely effective and versatile drive pedal in a compact format.
Buy if you like: no-nonsense drive pedals with a deceptive amount of versatility.
Dude Incredible/Surveyor
I saw Shellac perform in Portland, Maine in 2016, and immediately joined the legion of nerds who googled “Steve Albini guitar rig” after. While the Harmonic Percolator is a popular classic fuzz, I knew nothing about the relatively mysterious Intersound IVP rack preamp. Upon further research I was surprised to find that nobody had attempted to bottle it up in a pedal before. So I crammed both circuits into one box.
Much digital ink has been spilled about the percolator, but the IVP is harder to pin down. The “Tube Voice” channel achieves saturation using a special transformer-loaded gain stage. At low gain it is a great always-on sweetener. At high gain it is unapologetically “solid state”, with a harshness and grind that are hard to replicate. Instead of changing the overall tone, the EQ controls change the character in a unique fashion by emphasizing which frequencies are overdriven.
Like the Model feT, the Dude Incredible/Surveyor are compelling even if you aren’t familiar with their origins. The unique gain circuit and EQ of the Tube Voice circuit allow it to conjure up sounds found nowhere else, from jangly rhythm guitar to over-saturated walls of feedback.
Buy if you like: guitars that go clang, blown out fuzz, the feeling of plugging directly into a mixing board.
Halberd
The Halberd began as part of our Sending V1 analog delay, released in 2018. For the delay, I designed a gain stage that evoked a vintage transistor mic preamp. It was a great way to add saturation to the delay line and imparted a unique character to the overall pedal. I intended to immediately release the preamp as a standalone product. But, upon isolating the preamp, I realized it had enormous potential as a more fleshed out overdrive circuit. After half a dozen revisions over the course of 18 months, the Halberd took on an identity of its own.
The Halberd ranges from light coloration to a raw, open tone all while maintaining clarity even with complex chords. The Halberd runs at 24V internally and has an extremely soft transition into clipping, giving it far greater dynamic range than most overdrive pedals.
Using the tone controls, you can add subtle saturation without changing the voice of your amp and guitar, or you can dramatically shift your EQ voicing into new territory. It can achieve harsh and deep sounds alike. In particular, the Depth control, which adjusts the low frequency contour at the input of the circuit, greatly influences the characteristics of the overdriven sound. It also has a dramatic effect when the Halberd is used in front of other drive pedals or an amp that is breaking up.
In my opinion, what genuinely sets the Halberd apart in our lineup is the way it feels to play. Its response is highly reactive without being unforgivingly stiff. At stage volume, it behaves like a powerful extension of your picking hand. Every small detail is brought to the forefront, enhancing the attack of chords and adding dimension to single notes.
Buy if you like: right hand dynamics, absurd volume, needing only one overdrive for the gig.
Limelight
Nick and Clayton from Touche Amore used a variety of mid-gain op amp drives and American-voiced clean amps to achieve their signature aggressive, chimey tones. However they often had to stack pedals and use a boost up front to get the right sound. When developing Limelight I wanted to synthesize their approaches into a coherent whole.
Limelight is billed as a Bluesbreaker variant, but the truth is more complex. It borrows elements from a unique gain circuit found in Marshall’s classic Bluesbreaker and Shredmaster pedals, where one pot changes the gain of two stages in tandem. (Hilariously, this configuration is also found in the infamous Ampeg VH140c which is a staple in hardcore and death metal.) Our version carves out low frequencies in a more controlled manner and smooths out the note decay. All told, that distinctive BB chime is there, but with way more gain on tap! And, like many of our pedals, it also boasts a more open compression character than its peers.
The Boost circuit is also worth a mention. It’s about as simple as op amp boosts get, but with a nice low frequency shelf cut that keeps it sounding clear and present. It’s not just good in front of the Limelight either—give it a shot in front of a Halberd or Dagger sometime. The results are impressive.
Buy if you like: Touché Amoré, chimey guitar tones, the classic 2-in-1 drive format.
0xEAE Boost
A monolith of harsh gain. This does not need much description. From a frequency standpoint, this is the most aggressive pedal we make. It is uncompromising in its goal to deliver extreme, cutting treble tones. It can do friendlier tones too, but let’s not kid ourselves. If you want one of these pedals, you want to get weird.
Buy if you like: guitar that goes “SSSSKKKRKKRRSSSSSHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZ”, lighting speakers on fire, tinnitus, getting evicted from your practice space, etc.
0xEAE Fuzz
So, we thought the 0xEAE Boost was intense. Its octave fuzz companion takes gain to irresponsible levels. With the octave fuzz off (Texture slider at minimum) and the Weight slider low, it’s a surprisingly tight, crisp fuzz-stortion with over 80dB of gain on tap. The Weight slider adds bass in front of the fuzz circuit which creates massive sustain and turns your sharp transients into sludge.
The hallmark of this pedal is the octave generator. Analog octave up circuits which fold your guitar signal in half to create an upper octave are not a new idea, but the specific way we do it has significantly more bandwidth than a typical analog octave. This means that in addition to the octave up, the Texture slider introduces a huge series of overtones, sidebands, sub-octaves, and more. Power chords sound complex but still clear, while more complex chords turn into a gloriously atonal mess.
Buy if you like: fuzz so intense that it creates new notes for you
Closing Remarks
A huge thanks if you made it this far. I hope you find this post helpful. There really is so much to say about these pedals, and plenty of other angles of comparison. I love talking about this stuff so if you have any questions, my inbox is always open!
Thanks for all the support.
-John