GROUP TEST DISTORTION PEDALS 156 TGR214.
GROUP TEST GEAR Words Henry Yates DISTORTION PEDALS Jog on if you’re one of those ‘straight-through-the-amp’ types – this month’s Group Test is for stompbox junkies who want to pimp their pedalboards LET’S hear it for hands: they pull the strings, fret the notes and throw the horns. But if all you do with your feet is tap out time, mount monitors and shoe the odd stage invader, then you’re halving your body’s potential to rock.
GROUP TEST DISTORTION PEDALS VISUAL SOUND GARAGETONE CHAINSAW £59.99 JET CITY SHOCKWAVE DISTORTION £50.99 CALM WITH down, folks: despite evoking skin-masked lunatics chasing nubile teenagers in slasher movies, the Visual Sound blurb quietly reminds that the Chainsaw is “a unique and very musical distortion, in AT A GLANCE contrast to its name”. TYPE: Distortion pedal Oh well.
GROUP TEST GEAR BOSS POWER STACK ST-2 £100 AKAI DELUXE DISTORTION £69.99 IF THE we were giving points for nostalgia, the Power Stack ST-2 would romp home: it’s the same iconic Boss brickette from our garage days, and even now it feels like the most roadworthy of the contenders. Still, £100 for a standalone, sole-purpose pedal is hardly an olde-world price, and the ST-2 needs to blitz its claims of “power akin to coveted tube amps and professional stacks”.
