Tonefreak SEVERE
I was busy packing for NAMM when the phone rang, it was a close mate who felt he had to tell me about this new pedal he'd just be playing with. 'It's called the SEVERE from Tone Freak and its outrageous!' said a very excited voice down the phone. Interesting for two reasons, one, this guy doesn't like pedals and two, he rarely gets excited. 'OK, I'll check it out' I said and resumed packing. Ready to head to the airport I made myself a brew when the phone rang again. A thick German accent greets me excitedly as another mate exclaims, "Daniel, you have to try the SEVERE, it's unbelievable". "Frank", I said, "you had me at hello".
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| Pied Piper Pedal
I managed to get hold of Dereck Tabata, the owner/designer of Tone Freak Effects who agreed to meet me at NAMM and to bring a SEVERE for me to try out. I must admit I still get excited at the prospect of finding something new in a stomper I've not heard before, but when we sparked the SEVERE up, well, I was not the only one excited. Heads turned, and the people flocked. If there was ever a quiet moment I simply had to pound a few riffs through the SEVERE, and we'd be busy for the next 20 minutes explaining 'what on earth was that!'. So what is it? The SEVERE is a high gain pedal that simply excels at great heavy rock tones. It's a distortion pedal that works with an open sounding amplifier to create tones that sounds like the amp is just about to die and take out everyone in the room with it.
There is a 3 position brite switch which lets you tailor the top end for the particular amp you're using, and a three position diode selector which chooses between symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping, with the option to disengage the diodes completely from the circuit. The pedal is designed to work within the headroom of an amp, it's not a boost, it's a heavy distortion where the tone is actually created primarily within the pedal, not by having the pedal push the amp into overdrive. Just think of it as the dirty channel to your clean amp. Most distortion pedals would sound fizzy and harsh in this sort of environment, but the SEVERE is in a class all of its own and will answer the prayers of alot of players looking to add a fantastic rock tone to their clean amp. Amps with big bottles like 6L6 or EL34 power stage valves will especially be able to take advantage of all the harmonic richness of the pedal.
How much should I pay?
It's a new offering so there is not much of a second hand market for these. New you're going to pay about £150 by the time it gets to you. If rocking is your business and business is good, this simply must be at the top your 'to check out list'. Got to go, the phone is ringing.
click here to go the Tonefreak website... |
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