princeofbrains's Reviews

The pop-punk dream of the 90s

The majority of the reviews you'll read for this bad boy are gonna be from metalheads. And that's cool! Metal rules (for the most part) and this thing would be PERFECT for it.

But if you're like me, gentle reader, and you spent your youth getting all of your ideas of "good guitar tone" from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1-3, then you're in the right place. This thing does a better job imitating a Dual Rec than any other "rectified" distortion pedal I've ever tried. It nails the spongy response, the two gain settings are equally distinct and usable, and the mid-cut knob does WAY more for the overall EQ than you might expect. (I personally tend to keep it somewhere between "off" and about 9 o'clock, since the band I'm in has a keyboard player for some MCS nonsense and it helps me sit in the mix where I should be.)

NUFAN/Lagwagon? Nailed it within seconds. Greg Hetson's parts from 90s Bad Religion? It's the generator. Coheed and Cambria's tone on "Second Stage Turbine Blade" specifically? Everything evil in your licks comes out. Heck, if you squint, you can even approximate some Mesa sounds that AREN'T Dual Recs; the Box can do a good impersonation of Noodles' live sound (he's the other guy in The Offspring), and if you ever need to play the Buddy Holly lick for memes, you won't get closer for the price.

So if you're at all like me, and your ideal guitar tone comes from the empty pool where they filmed the video for "In Too Deep", save up the money and buy this thing. It turned my Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb (favorite amp ever) into the Vans Warped Tour 2001 compilation - and if you recognized that as a compliment, you're gonna love the Throttle Box.

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