We love Tone City here at Andertons! They make fun, accessible mini guitar pedals for players on a budget, and they’re a great way to discover new effects you’ve never tried before. The Collaboration line takes one step beyond the standard range.
The Far East manufacturer have worked with a handful of great players (of which you’ll recognise from videos on the Andertons Youtube channel), to develop stompboxes capturing their unique tones and playing styles. Tone City have made three so far: the “Danish” Pete Honore Durple, Rabea Massaad Wild Fro and the Greg Koch Lil Heat.
Each pedal in the Collaboration line-up produces an overdrive/distortion effect based on one of the previous mainstay Tone City pedals. All three, however, come with a twist. Collaboration pedals are all about adding a new dimension to the original sound: that could mean turning up the high-gain heat or tweaking the voice to give it a fresh character. Let’s take a look at the pedals…
Purple + Danish Pete = Durple! Our very own Andertons TV superstar and passionate purple maestro Peter Honore worked with Tone City to create the Durple: a low-to-mid gain overdrive based on the original Mandragora.
The main change with the Durple is the Mid control put in place of the Pre dial, letting you cut or boost the amount of mid-range in the tone. That expands your palette to smoother, scooped sounds while still retaining the ability to push out more aggression with the Mid turned up.
Another major change is a more user-friendly Tone control. The Mandagora has a very bright character thanks to its wide sweep of treble, but Pete felt this could be reigned in for his balanced blues playing. The Durple still sounds incredibly musical without being harsh when cranked.
The Wild Fro breaks the mould for Tone City. They love a good drive sound, but this takes it to new heights. Rabea plays his own instantly-recognisable brand of metal, combining both progressive and old school elements. That’s why Tone City picked out their chunkiest sounding pedal in the form of the Wild Fire and souped it up to full hot-rod status.
Packed into the Wild Fro is a sizzling distortion with the ability to deliver both crushing saturation and a vintage Plexi grit when rolled off. The clear difference between the Wild Fire and the Wild Fro is the addition of a ‘More Gain’ switch – which speaks for itself! Turn up the Tone control for a cutting attack to match those technical riffs. Put into practice, the Wild Fro
Zany blues guitarist Greg Koch, otherwise known as the “Gristle King”, is an ultra talented, expressive player. The giant American has a unique playing style utilising quick chick’n picked hybrid licks and walking basslines. He does all this with a little heat to his tone – and that’s where Tone City come in.
The Lil Heat is based on the Sweet Cream, but adds more of everything! The onus here, in particular, is on adding a touch higher gain and fatter low-end. This fiery stompbox produces outstanding edge-of-breakup tones like a true vintage amp. The end result lends itself to both defined technical intricacies in Greg’s playing and big rock chords.
Stick the Lil Heat in front of any clean amp and you’re ready to go. It even works well as a Klon-like transparent drive if you’ve got more pedals to stack in your arsenal.
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