MusicRadar Verdict
Full-fat and great for the natural grit of 8 just-overdriven tones, American-style.
Pros
- +
Great tones.
Cons
- -
Very few.
MusicRadar's got your back
An overdrive with fairly standard three-knob configuration, the Ghetto Stomp is said to recreate the sound of New Orleans and old-school blues tones.
And there’s a certain truth in that its sound is reminiscent of low-wattage valve-amp-style drive with a vintage US flavour: think small Fender tweed or Supro.
At low settings of the Gain knob, the pedal will add some hair to a clean amp with just enough grit to add bite to your notes and chords. Its voicing features a fair degree of bottom-end girth, useful for fattening up single coils and evidenced by the extra body it gives our Tele bridge pickup.
That’s balanced by a Tone knob that adds presence in a natural way, but never gets too toppy. Full Gain delivers low to medium overdrive with a real raunch to it, all volume knob and touch-sensitive, encouraging you to exploit the dynamics and dig in for the dirt.
Trevor Curwen has played guitar for several decades – he's also mimed it on the UK's Top of the Pops. Much of his working life, though, has been spent behind the mixing desk, during which time he has built up a solid collection of the guitars, amps and pedals needed to cover just about any studio session. He writes pedal reviews for Guitarist and has contributed to Total Guitar, MusicRadar and Future Music among others.
“A synthesizer that is both easy to use and fun to play whilst maintaining a decent degree of programming depth and flexibility”: PWM Mantis review
“I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
“I said, ‘Are we sure we can write a song about death?’”: The story of Mike + The Mechanics' classic No.1 The Living Years