Tone. At Home.
“Tweed tone” is the sound of 50s Fender amps (Champ, Deluxe, Twin, Bassman), modern amps based on these circuits, and the pedals that chase the tone of these iconic amps.
I recently bought a KAT Load*Star speaker attenuator, to use with my 5e3 Tweed Deluxe amp.
I’ve only had this for 24 hours, and it’s already in the running to be my best purchase of 2026. Why? Read on for my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Using The KAT Load*Star Speaker Attenuator With My 5e3 Tweed Deluxe Amp”Regular readers may have noticed that most of the tweed amp in a box pedals seem to be chasing either the legendary 5e3 Tweed Deluxe or the sublime 5F6-A Tweed Bassman sound.
But every now and then, I get a pedal that chases the sound of a 5F1 Tweed Champ. And I think it would help if I had a reference tone to compare those pedals against.
So let’s see what I can put together in the Axe-FX 3.
Continue reading “#TweedTone: Dialling In A 5F1 Tweed Champ Reference Tone For 2025/26”I recently bought a brand new NUX 59 Bassguy overdrive pedal.
What do I think of it so far? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “#TweedTone First Impressions: NUX 59 Bassguy Overdrive Pedal”I recently bought another Sweet Honey Overdrive pedal.
What do I think of it? Read on for my First Impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive (Hand-wired 2025 Edition)”Last week, I published an updated Tweed Amp Rig price comparison, looking at how much it would cost (here in the UK) to build a Tweed Deluxe rig for home use in 2025.
There was one answer that was too long to fit in that blog post: is it worth you spending that amount of money on a Tweed Deluxe rig for home use?
Today, I’m going to try and answer that question.
Continue reading “#TweedTone: Is A 5e3 Tweed Deluxe Valve Amp Right For You In 2025?”Back in September 2023, in a blog post called “You’ve Got To Be A Huge Fan Of Tweed Tone To Get A Real Fender Tweed Deluxe Amp In 2023“, I looked at the costs of buying a real 5e3 Tweed Deluxe amp here in the UK.
Two years later, I’m wondering: what has changed? How has the price changed … and how have my feelings on the price changed?
Continue reading “#TweedTone: The Cost Of A Tweed Deluxe Amp In September 2025”Back in June, I bought a Deluxe55 amp-in-a-box pedal by Origin Effects.
What do I think of it? Here are my first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Origin Effects Deluxe55 Tweed Recreation”There’s … a definite theme to the new arrivals this month, shall we say? 😁
I managed to find two of my bucket-list pedals, both of which I thought I’d never get the chance to try. While doing the background reading for their blog posts, I ended up stumbling upon another rare pedal that I didn’t even know about. And then I grabbed one of their cheaper cousins too, because the opportunity was there.
Dear readers, June has been One Control month.
Continue reading “New Arrivals: June 2025”Synergy have just released the Tone King Imperial MKII preamp module.
I found one in stock here in the UK the day after launch, and ordered it straight away.
Now that it’s here in a very dusty Hermit’s Cave, what do I think of it? Here are my (very positive) first impressions.
Continue reading “First Impressions: Tone King Imperial MKII Synergy Preamp Module #TweedTone”