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TOTAL GUITAR NOVEMBER 2017

he holy grail for many

overdrive builders has

long been the ‘British

sound in a box’ – a

classic, dirty-rock tone that can

span the gamut from muscular

rhythm parts to (with a twist of

the gain knob) singing,

saturated leads. Nowadays,

you’re spoilt for choice in terms

of which ‘amp in a box’ to get.

Most approaches choose to

replicate a classic tube amp

preamp, but there’s still the

question of whether you can

model a tube amp in discrete

solid-state circuitry, or if a

purpose-designed overdrive

circuit combined with your amp

would work better. So, with that

in mind, how close have these

builders gotten to the real deal?

Let’s get stuck in and ﬁ nd out!

70S BRITISH DRIVES

104

he ﬁ rst version of this pedal was based

on the Tube Sound Fuzz, and this revised

unit builds on those strengths. Also,

though it’s not based on a ProCo RAT, the

name hints at it for a reason – with the gain

rolled up it does a pretty good impression of

RAT crunch. The bias switches between class

B and class A ampliﬁ er operation, though

you’ll probably end up staying in class A

territory based on the sounds on oﬀ er, even if

it is a bit noisier. With the gain and treble

rolled back, there are also smooth low-gain

lead and rhythm sounds on tap, though a bit

of experimentation is required to ﬁ nd them.

he Trashy Blonde’s artwork and name

combo might not be to everyone’s

tastes. That aside, how does it sound?

Good, as it happens; the star of the show is the

boost, which proves great for adding hair to a

tube amp, and the versatile EQ-bump oﬀ ered

by the gain side adds versatility. Through the

wrong amp, it can be a little thin unless at

room-shaking volume or with the bass

dimed, but there are enough usable tones in

here to keep most classic rockers happy,

especially with the handy paracentric EQ,

which can be swept for wah/phaser-like

sounds using an expression pedal.

EMMA

REEZAFRATZITZ

WHY YOU DIRTY ER, FRAT?

STONE DEAF

TRASHY BLONDE

DEAFEN YOUR NEIGHBOURS

£145

£160

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