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The Tone City Bad Horse is a boost/overdrive pedal that clearly takes its sonic cues from one of the most legendary boutique overdrives in music history. Despite its compact footprint, this pedal still serves up an impressively wide palette of sounds, from subtly boosting the original signal through to harmonic crunch and singing leads, all with plenty of overtones. A particularly noteworthy feature is Tone City's use of germanium diodes, which make the Bad Horse's gain structure extremely transparent and musical, and the pedal retains its natural response and clarity even at high gain settings. All of this clearly sets the Tone City Bad Horse apart from other, more aggressively voiced overdrives and allows it to shine thanks to its highly musical character, broad dynamic range, and intuitive operation.
Players can place the Tone City Bad Horse anywhere in the signal chain and use it to provide a clean boost, tonal colouration, or gritty overdrive, depending on how they set the controls. The Gain knob turns the pedal into a clean boost when dialled all the way to the left, gradually adding more overdrive as it's turned clockwise; the Tone control in turn acts as an effective high-cut filter that lets musicians adjust the tone to suit their setup, and the Volume control sets the output level, making the Bad Horse ideal for squeezing more saturation out of an already-driven tube amp. As mentioned above, the pedal's germanium diodes give it an organic and overtone-rich sound, and its true-bypass switching means the dry signal remains unaffected when it's switched off. The best place for the Bad Horse is in front of the amp or other overdrives, where it responds with excellent dynamics and delivers a highly musical sound.
The Tone City Bad Horse is particularly suited to players who are on the hunt for a warm-sounding overdrive with a very dynamic response. It's an ideal stage and studio companion for those who prioritise a natural playing feel and a sensitive gain structure with plenty of overtones – especially if they already love the way their tube amp sounds and want to give it that little something extra. The pedal's intuitive control layout and compact footprint will find favour among minimalist pedalboard users as well as tone-chasers who are looking for a "transparent" boost that will enhance rather than colour the sound of their guitar and amplifier, all of which makes it an interesting choice for fans of vintage tones!
Tone City is a guitar effects manufacturer that is based in China and specialises in manufacturing pedals that are compact and affordable but do not make any compromises in terms of sound or build quality. The company quickly gained a good reputation, particularly among guitarists looking for the sound of boutique gear in a space-saving format. Tone City creates modern interpretations of classic circuits, which are served up in intuitive, user-friendly pedals with a sturdy metal construction. The company’s pedals are renowned for their organic tonal characteristics and impressive dynamics, and they are ideal for pedalboard-based setups thanks to their sophisticated circuit board layouts and true-bypass switching. With an ever-expanding product range that includes everything from overdrives and modulation effects through to delays, Tone City offers musicians a viable alternative to expensive boutique pedals.
The range of applications that the Tone City Bad Horse will handle is extensive: It can be used as a clean boost to raise the volume for solo passages or push an amp on the edge of breakup into full-on overdrive, and with the gain dial set higher, the pedal delivers the perfect overdrive tones for Classic Rock, Blues, and Indie. Thanks to its compact footprint, the Bad Horse will fit onto virtually any pedalboard, and it works well with both single coil and humbucking pickups. While most ideally used in front of a tube amp to bring out every nuance of the latter's tonal character, this pedal will also cut a fine figure when combined with modelling amps or when used as part of a recording setup, e.g. as a sound enhancement when tracking via DI.