november 2017

Can a 40-buck dirt box really put plexi tones on your board?

While it’s admittedly a tall order for a box that streets for about as much as a middle-of-the-road guitar strap, Outlaw Effects’ Chinese-made Deputy Marshal promises British plexi tones via a bright/normal toggle, a gain knob, and mini pots for level and tone. The Deputy starts things off right, though, with true-bypass switching that yields a clean through-signal when the effect is disengaged.

The Deputy also boasts a pretty wide-ranging level control: Depending on how much dirt you dial in, unity gain is achieved with level anywhere from 8 to 10 o’clock. The distortion itself piles on quite fast, though, going from corpulent classic-rock tones at 8 or 9 o’clock to thick, sustaining hard-rock sounds you can easily coax into feedback at max.

Read MoreShow less