The Plague - Crusty, Dark, Low End Tuned Distortion

The Plague is man-made filth.

let me start off with saying that this box is inspired by the guitar tones of the legendary band, Dystopia. I do not want to claim that it is an instant "Mauz" in a box transformation device, but when I used to learn and play along to all their songs, this did it.

A machine born from rot, from the twisted marrow of a world that eats itself alive. a reflection of the disease that can be humanity.

from the soil we are born and to the soil we shall return. This is the weapon you want to guide you through the armageddon humanity has created.

What does is sound/feel like?

This circuit is inherently just very dark and hollow feeling. The distortion almost feels dead, just like the souls of many of us living in this depressing late stage capitalism hell hole.

The distortion gain structure feels like it is in the background of your sound- the presence is very dark and blanketed. It is not bright and cutting like many modern distortions. This general feeling compliments the dark nature of crust punk and sludge accordingly.

It feels much more natural compared to circuits like the metal zone or DS1, buzzword incoming, it truly does feel more like an amplifier voiced distortion than a pedal. It does not feel artificial in the way a metal zone does.

The tone control is very mild- it is a treb/bass control that you would find on a orange/matamp, with a mid scoop section. Meaning, it is passive. It feels like it can boost bass but it does not feel like it boosts treble or mids, mainly just cuts.

It does a wonderful job tightening up low tuned guitars though. I feel it actually excels at that, I have many guitars set up to very low tunings with scale lengths that do not quite support it, yet this circuit remedies it.

I was exploring the other day with it as well, and with the hard and soft clip diodes completely removed (middle position) It was sounding like an amazing clean boost/overdrive. I was actually stunned, just based on how high gain this pedal can get.

What kind of player would like this?

If you are into extreme forms of metal that have darker themes, such as grind (and all its subgenres) crust, hardcore punk, sludge, powerviolence, I think you would enjoy this.

It is not quite limited to those genres though. As mentioned above, with the clip toggles both set to middle, vol max, tone to taste, and gain around 9 o clock, I have used this as a clean boost for jazz.

Features

with 3 different soft clipping and hard clipping settings, you can set the characteristics of the gain structure yourself. I will have to spend more time with the pedal to recall how each mode feels.

Built to order (may offer soon)

Please note that the raw aluminum finish option is built fresh to order, and will take 3-7 days typically to get shipped, in rare cases, at maximum 2-3 weeks.

The circuit will be built in a raw aluminum case with no paint, but will get lightly sand polished.

I will use my choice of knobs in stock.