Two wide-ranging op-amps with a delightfully rowdy edge.
A Patrick James Eggle Macon Single Cut (a Les Paul style guitar with PAF-style humbuckers) into a Friedman Small Box set for semi-clean, and a 2x12 cab.
0:00 – Pedal off, amp sound only.
0:06 – Gain at minimum, Tone at maximum, Volume at 55%, Clip switch down
0:28 – Gain at 75%, Tone at 6-%, Volume at 55%, Clip switch up
RatingsPros:Can move from aggressive to surprisingly great low-gain tones. Quality handbuilt circuit. Nice price. Cons: Not always the smoothest or creamiest distortion. Street: $125 MidValleyFx Double-Amp Distorter midvalleyfx.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
Oregon-based MidValleyFx is very much a home-brew concern, with Andrew McNicholas crafting pedals shaped as much by his own guitar-noise preferences as by classic templates, while his wife, Tori, designs the pedals’ graphics and manages other aspects of the business. The pair often dabble in the obscure and esoteric, but the twin-LM741 op-amp-driven Double-Amp Distorter proves they also make pedals of great utility. This stompbox boasts medium- to high-gain distortion capabilities with voicings ranging from clear and cutting to thick, meaty aggression.
Double Trouble
The Double-Amp Distorter’s control complement is, in general, a classically simple interface, with knobs for gain, volume, and tone. But there’s also a 2-way switch to alter how the silicon 1n4001 clipping diodes do their work. (MidValley also uses 1n4007 diodes in the Double Distorter). The up position generates swift attack and extra clarity. The down position generates a spongier, more compressed feel. The pair of LM741 op-amps, meanwhile, will generate as much gain as most guitarists are likely to need.
The pedal is powered via a traditional 9V center-negative barrel jack, with no provision for an internal battery. The circuit itself is comprised of a perforated board that’s entirely handwired with discrete components. It’s very old-school and reassuringly well built.
A Distorter by Name…
And a distorter, most definitely, by nature. I tested the Distorter with a Les Paul, a Telecaster, and Marshall- and tweed Deluxe-style amps, and very much enjoyed the pedal’s truly broad range of distortion tones—which offer much more versatility than the simple control panel suggests. Everything from dynamic, touchy-feely classic-rock and blues lead tones to savage and jagged heavy and stoner rock sounds can be summoned from this circuit.
Though the Double-Amp Distorter can be subtle, it still generates a fair bit of dirt at its minimum gain settings. And while it’s often reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s drive pedals like the MXR Distortion+ and Pro Co RAT, it’s still very much its own thing, with the ability to color relatively run-of-the-mill distortion tones with an appealingly ragged edge when you want it.
In audible terms, the differences afforded by the clip switch are often subtler than you might expect. That said, the switches can result in perceptible changes in feel, with the increased compression in the lower position and sharper attack in the upper position guiding your playing approach in constructive ways. The tone knob is subtle, too, in lower- to mid-gain applications, but there aren’t any offensive extremes in either direction. It’s very user friendly and the taper and range are mostly just right.
With gain wound up around 1 o’clock, the Double-Amp Distorter produces raw, heavy-rock voicings with a ’70s-inflected edge. Beyond those gain settings, however, the pedal verges on fuzz—with spitty, snarly, sizzling sounds and rowdily fun and loose picking dynamics that can be fine-tuned with the clipping control. In these high-gain ranges, the tone control is arguably more useful, shaping everything from thick, bovine, grungy voices to eviscerating grind. It’s thrilling, fun stuff that opens up a lot of performance possibilities.
The Verdict
While the Double-Amp Distorter might not be a first choice for guitarists seeking the hyper saturation of modern high-gain lead tones, it’s more than capable of fat, edgy, versatile drive that can move across broad expanses on either side of the RAT and Distortion+ realms. And though it’s a touch retro in its leanings, it also enables very artful and original dirt tones that won’t get you pigeonholed as a backward-looking purist.
An oscillating sub-octave fuzz that features a voltage control.
Albany, OR (August 12, 2019) -- Adding to the company’s line of fuzz effects pedals, Mid Valley Fx has unleashed their Lo-Fi Giant, an all-original, oscillating sub octave fuzz designed to produce everything from crazy oscillating feedback to gating the oscillating feedback or getting low voltage ripping effects for the most saturated fuzz pedals you’ve ever played!
Turn everything up and get a sub octave massive fuzz that almost gets swallowed in a lo-fi oscillating feedback depending on how hard you strum, or turn down the fuzz while keeping the voltage high to gain more clarity and cancel out the feedback. As soon as you start turning down the voltage with the fuzz in the higher settings, be prepared for some sub octave craziness that when turning the guitars volume down produces a really well tracked bass synth tone. Voltage and fuzz work in conjunction with each other to give you a nice variety of sounds. From an over biased fuzz tone to just right or anywhere in between, there’s a lot of tonal variety to help you punch through the mix or sit back in the mix. Tone adds to the clarity depending on where you have the fuzz and voltage knobs set. Tone all the way down adds to the sub octave while turning it up increases the midrange for more punch. With tons of volume on tap, tons of saturated fuzz and the added feature of oscillating fuzz or no feedback at all, Lo- Fi Giant gives you the ultimate heavy fuzz tone.
Features:
- 4 knobs to control Volume, Fuzz, Voltage, and Tone
- True bypass on/off switch
- 9-volt operation and standard DC input
The Lo- Fi Giant carries a street price of $130 and can be purchased directly from the Mid Valley Fx online store.
Watch the company's video demo:
For more information:
MidValleyFX
This raunchy, oscillating-octave fuzz wants you to do naughty, naughty things.
Clip 1: Tele neck pickup, first with Mad Robot bypassed, then engaged with knob 1 at max, knob 2 at 9 o’clock, knob 3 at max, knob 5 at noon, and the toggle in the down position.
Clip 2: Tele neck pickup through Catalinbread Topanga, first with Mad Robot bypassed, then engaged with knob 1 at 3 o’clock, knob 2 at minimum, knob 3 at 8 o’clock, knob 5 at noon, and the toggle in the up position.
Clip 3: Eastwood neck pickup, first with Mad Robot bypassed, then engaged with knobs 1, 2, and 3 at noon, knob 5 at minimum, and the toggle in the up position.
RatingsPros:Gloriously gnarly, chaotic, and splatty tones perfect for everything from doom metal to MC5 mayhem, post-punk, and dysfunctional funk. Cons: Somewhat unpredictable operation. Unanchored interior perfboard could be cause for concern. Not adept at subtlety. Street: $130 MidValleyFx Mad Robot midvalleyfx.com | Tones: Ease of Use: Build/Design: Value: |
MidValleyFx’s Mad Robot fuzz is driven by silicon transistors and a 1n914 germanium diode. The manual calls knobs 1, 2, 3, and 5 output level, input gain, attack, and tone, respectively, while 4 is a toggle for engaging an octave-up oscillation circuit.
While fuzzy distinctions between knob functions certainly aren’t uncommon with deviant fuzzes, here their simplified descriptions often belie their practical effect: All four knobs tend to behave like gain controls of nebulous distinction—particularly with the octave circuit bypassed. Oh well—plug in and mess around, eh? With a humbucker-equipped Eastwood, multiple Mad Robot settings—all of them simultaneously corpulent, mid-heavy, and kind of unhinged sounding—immediately inspired angular, chaotic, atonal riffing … it felt wrong to play “normal.” In my book, that’s something to celebrate.
With a Tele, the MR’s sludgy tendencies breathed more and felt friendlier to chord work—though the pedal’s skwonky essence was still inescapable. Due to the difficulty of dialing out sometimes-harsh highs, I favored the neck pickup on both guitars, although adding a wah to the equation opened a world of soaring, fantastically searing/seething possibilities in all three positions. At times I wished octave mode’s oscillations were more prominent—they often pop out more when you’re not playing than when you are—but that unpredictability can also be part of the pedal’s anarchic charm.
Test gear: Eastwood Sidejack Baritone DLX with Curtis Novak Jazzmaster Widerange pickups, Squier Vintage Modified Tele with Curtis Novak Tel-V and JM-V pickups, MXR Reverb, Dunlop Cry Baby Mini 535Q wah, Jaguar HC50 and Fender Rumble 200 amps.