Aphek Peanut Butter Distortion

Super easy to use!!! 3 dials - Output (Volume Level), Filter (A very cool 6-way tone selector) and Crunch (Overdrive Saturation). 2 footswitches - Drive (turns it on) and Mean (boost). Probably the fastest I have ever been able to dial in a desired sound and tone on an overdrive pedal - sweet.

The most transparent, natural valve overdrive pedal I have ever used. If what you want is a pedal to just push your valves into a natural overdriven crunch whilst retaining the sound and tone of your guitar, stop looking and get a Peanut Butter Model T - it's what you're after. I run a 62 reissue Strat (Texas Specials pups) and Custom Zebrawood Telecaster (USA Vintage pups) and it's the first overdrive pedal that I've found that retains the clarity and nuances of the original guitar tone. The added `mean' switch to boost the volume and an ever so slight but just right increase in gain and sustain for solos just nails it.

Extremely sturdy construction and top quality footswitches. All parts are really superbly put together - I'd have no concerns about its reliability.

Greg is very contactable via his e-mail address. I'm actually bummed that I picked this up second hand as I had contacted Greg to purchase a new one and he was super helpful. My unit came up on eBay the same week at a bargain price so I grabbed it, but I'll tell you what - the price of these is worth every cent if you're after a transparent driver for a vintage drive/valve amp combo - pretty peerless compared to what else is out there claiming to do the same. I'll definitely be purchasing a Sunday Driver from him just for something slightly different and to make up for not getting the Model T direct.

Been playing for 17 years and musically focus on blues and classic rock - Stones, the Crowes, Kings of Leon etc. This is such a great overdrive to get that studio quality sound of a valve amp breaking up and getting down and dirty (without the ear bleed). Just love it. If anything happened to the pedal I'd replace it that day.

this pedal is somewhat easy to use , but both controls interact together , so it can be a bit tricky

my setup is many many strat guitars ..and mostly combo amps suck as bogner ,DR.z victoria and carr . compressor thru overdirve,distortion chorus delay delay as far as pedals go and i change it depending on the gig i have , this pedal is not any noisier than any boost / overdrive pedal out there . while this pedal can work well for a boost it does colour your tone further more there is not enough juice for my taste that this pedal can give, you must have another onerdrive pedal so this pedal will push it .otherwise it is a bit useless to me by itself .and the dynamics is not all that great , my OCD does 3 things in 1 it can be used as a boost ,overdirve, and all in your face nice distortion ( nope i am not related to fulltone ,infact i hate dealing with mike fuller but this is about the only pedal i like from his line of pedals )so can i get the sound of my favorate artist ..hmmm there is no such thing .you have to have a deffrent setup each time if you want to get the sound of your favorate ARTISTS . i am my own favorite artist . so i wont be keeping this pedal ,infact i wont be using it at all simply becasue it does not serve the purpose i am looking for and its not what the maker claim for it to be .. good with a nother overdrive .stand alone NOOO works well with other effects . there is colouration and some noise .

it is will built but wont know simply because i wont be using it anymore and i hardly used it enough to judge .

nevr delt with him and most likely will never do , i tried the peanut butter ,i dont like it therefor i wont be buying anything else from this guy .

i play mostly blues and 80's rock .i have been playing for 21 years ,i have almost checked out every pedal that exist out there . this pedal does not do it for me .it is like almost every boost pedal out there ( and God do we have enough boost pedals out there !! )i would never replace this if it was stolen .there is nothing distinctive about it anyway i compared it to a lot of other boost /overdrive pedals .sorry i will stick with my ibanez TS-9 and OCD . let me tell you about a killer boost pedal that was made by DOD in the 80's it is called the FX-10 check it out ckeck the reviews ,you will thank me that is another killer pedal that i use .yah i wish it had more personality LOL and did not sound like almost everything out there . all i can say keep your ears and eys open .you will nevr know when you will find that amaazing pedal .. so far in the boost overdrive department i found 2 DOD FX-10 and CORON overdrive II . 9 killer killer overdrive from yesteryears japan made company . this coron is the only overdrive that would replace my OCD . keep playing keep making love and do them both HARD ...

Very simple to use. Nice instruction sheet with it too.

I own an original Peanut Butter, which has been my only live pedal for the last few years. I was a bit nervous about this, as so many companies ruin a good product while trying to improve it. This is definitely not the case here. It sounds the same as my original one, just with more tonal options. I especially like the boost. Very smmoth and liquid sounding, without increasing the volume much.

Well, my other PB has been fine, so I have no reason to think this won't be the same.

I asked Greg, the manufacturer some questions before I bought this and the other one and he was always very helpfull.

I play rock and this is perfect. I've been playing for around 15 years. I'd definitely replace it if it was stollen. The PBs have become the core of my sound. Nothing else sounds as natural or transparent.

There are two knobs: "Less/More" which controls volume and "Smooth/Crunchy" which to My ears appears to control the tone of the overdrive. You wont have to muck around with it for too long at all to figure it out.

My only critisism (hence the 9/10) is that as good as they look, the knobs are easy to knock out of position if You get a bit excited when You step on it (which I usually do!). But it would be pretty easy to change the knobs if You had the same problem. Apart from this, no complaints!

I use: Custom Classic Strat, Boss OD-2, Boss GT5 (in bypassable effects loop) and the Peanut Butter into a Rite Amp (rare South Australian built Tube Amp from the 60's/70's, sounds a bit like a Fender Twin but without reverb, master volume etc)

Brilliant!!! I have the OD-2 set for that just breaking up sound running into the Peanut Butter where I have the volume (Less/More) set for just a slight boost to the signal and the Smooth/Crunchy control cranked all the way up. I find that with this control, the smooth sound is a little bit muddy for Me, but I LOVE it crunchy (just like on My toast!!!). On it's own it sounds very bluesy and warm, and when I turn the OD-2 on aswell, it starts to sparkle, just starting to head into distortion territory. But the whole time, I CAN STILL HEAR EVERY NOTE!!! This thing is perfect for cascading with other pedals. Oh, and let's not forget True Bypass!

It's a solid metal box. I haven't had any issues with it yet except My own stupidity! (see below)

Silly Me used a power supply that I really shouldn't have used (it was old and dodgy!) and managed to blow it up in the first few minutes!!! Sent it back to the manufacterer and about a week later got it back working perfectly. If that doesn't deserve a 10 for Customer Support, I don't what does!

I have been playing for about nine years and I play in an alternative rock/pop band ( I know that sounds like a contradiction!) Think: Garbage, The Cardigans, Little Birdy etc.
This pedal is perfect for Me as it can be quite heay without taking the tone of My guitar away.
All the other pedals I looked at that I liked as much were double the price! i tried out My friends Hotcake and found that the Hotcake was better at lower settings, but was a bit too muddy when I turned it up. The Ultimate would be to have a Hotcake and the Peanut butter, but funds won't allow that yet so I'll have to settle for the OD-2 for a little while longer.
I haven't written a review on any product before as most of the gear I own I don't believe needs it (ie. i don't see the point of writing a review telling everyone how good My Custom Classic Strat is!), but I wrote this one so anybody interested in this pedal discovers that it trully is a boutique quality pedal for the same price as a cheaper quality mass produced pedal.

Simple to use; a level knob, and a "crunch" knob. Turning up the crunch will make it a little bit louder, but that's to be expected in a circuit which doesn't appear (at least to my eyes) to have a lot of sophisticated buffering, or automatic gain control on the output. Of course, more junk in the signal path is almost certain to suck out some tone (bad idea).

I got my Peanut Butter to use as an onboard preamp for a custom guitar I'm building. So far, I've only used it about 3-4 hours before disassembling guitar for finishing. But, it seems that it's pretty easy to get an almost-clean overdrive to a pretty good mild fuzz going, and the whole spectrum sounded pretty good to me.

The circuit board, pots, and a battery clip are being put into a custom made mahogany body w/ Dimarzio Tone Zone bridge P/U, and a no-name single coil at the neck (for the present time), bolt on Jackson maple neck w/ rosewood fretboard, and a Floyd Rose trem.

I have used this with a small solid state practice amp, my daughter's 60W Behringer bass amp (12" speaker), and a tube preamp (uses 12AX7's and/or 12AU7's for 'bluesier' sound) w/ adjustable cathode bias & gain on ea. stage. Putting 12AX7's into both sockets on the preamp, and then turning up the gain is pretty "crunchy" to begin with - adding some Peanut Butter puts it over the top! Although I haven't had anywhere enough time to fully explore all the nuances of this effect, I've found that it can function as a pretty good "clean" overdrive by simply turning the "crunch" all the way down, and turning the pickups down a little bit, and then setting the output level of the PB up high. I also used it feeding into a tube screamer pedal, then the tube preamp - but that was so much gain it was ridiculous. But kind of cool.

I had some noise (60 HZ RF) problems, but remember, I'd taken this circuit W/O A METAL CASE, and stuck it into a guitar cavity which had not had any RF shielding done at that point, and played it through absolutely sick amounts of gain. I found just moving near AC power cords made significant difference. Since I'm shielding the cavity while finishing the body, I expect it will be pretty quiet.

Looks rock solid to me; all the solder connections appear good. My onboard preamp will probably be the least of my problems. Component quality looks okay. But, I haven't had enough experience to really comment on reliability yet.

Greg was a super nice guy to deal with, and totally helpful in getting me instructions for installation. I haven't had a problem, or wanted an upgrade. However, based on the amount of time and effort (which was beyond my expectation) spent on instructions & etc. for me, I have the feeling that Greg's the kind of guy who will take care of a customer.

I've only been playing for about a year, and have started working on guitars about a month after I started playing.

I mostly play blues, and "power chord" rock. The tones I'm looking for range from B.B. King on the clean side, to Billy Gibbons, Angus Young, and Smashing Pumpkins at the other end. The Peanut Butter seems to have a setting that'll help any of those tones.

If it was stolen, I'd get another one. I'm already that stoked on it.

Dead esay two knobs...one labeled more/less this controls the output volume...the other one labeled smooth/crunchy controls the gain, but somehow treble increase when turned clockwise...this is also true for most overdrive pedal...I like to call this opening up the sound.

I use Laney LC-50 fender/vox hybrid IMHO...marshall JCM 900 100 watts half stack...using the pedal with any of the amps really improved the tone, even when using od channel on my jcm 900 where previously I found it to be useless and fizzy...with the peanut butter it's now organic and responsive, rounded tone...the best and most transparent low gain overdrive pedal I've tried....eventhough gain is not massive this thing sustain like Soeharto (Indonesian ex-president--stayed in the presidency chair for 32 years!!!)...I used it in a jam the other day playing through my Laney with mexican 60's reissue strat...I hit this one note and it just stayed there like crazy....it's like that one sustained note in Jimi Hendrix's 'Machine gun'....I got goosebump from that...never managed to do that again though...one magic moment...it really is transparent...no frequency loss like in ther overdrives...

seem to be pretty strong...dont think I can rely on the paintwork though....but who cares?nobody is going to peep into ur pedal board and even if someone do nobody'll care for the appearance of ur pedal...I'd like my pedal to be beat up and working thanks

returned all my email...good bloke...very nice to deal with...thanks Greg

Does two excellent job...low gain overdrive and boost...if I say it can be used as a tone-shaper would it make sense?It just turned any lame amp to excellent and good amp to perfect...this one is a keeper...One concern though...it has got more ground noise than any pedal I own/owned...one more thing...run it with battery...it just sound a lot better and "dirtier"...

Hi. Greg from Aphek here, the manufacturer of the Peanut Butter Pedals. I just wanted to clear up the things claimed by Anonymous at 03/28/2005 16:21, in the previous post.

Assuming that it wasn't posted by another manufacturer, trying to discredit me, I know who wrote that. How do I know? Because he is the only guy I ever refused a refund to. If this was not the case, I would have some negative feedback on Ebay, as about one in ten pedals gets returned under the 10 day trial offered. You can check my rating. My Ebay user name is pedalguybass.

Why didn't he give me negative feedback? Because you only have 90 days to post feedback and it was well after the 90 days, that he wanted some money!

I wasn't rude to him and I have all the correspondence to prove it.

I won't bother addressing his claims about the pedal, as you just have to read the other reviews here to see that no one else has the same opinion.

Thanks for reading and a special thanks to all who have posted reviews.

Greg Dixon
Aphek

while this pedal has only 2 knobs it is very tricky tto use , both knobs interact with each other , so once you set one knob right the other wont work once you try to set the other knob then the first one gets missed up very bad design

my set up is 2 carr rambler amps and one roland acoustic amp ,my guitars are mostly fender strats japan or mexico as i find them superior to the ones in the u.s ,all kind and every pedal you can think of . i have been playing for about 21 years now , this pedal like i said very hard to set it up and yes very noisy at almost any setting , as for the effects i dont know what this guy is smoking who makes this pedal its called P.B . distortion but to me it is more like a boost and a horrible one very fuzzy , has nothing to do with distortion ,sorry ..like i said amps are carr rambler and roland for acoustic , you cannot get any good sound from this garbage simply becasue the design is bad it colors every peedal in the chain and makes almost any pedal after it in the chain sound horrible . there is many pedals out there in the market that would sound far better than this junk . trust me save your money and buy a boss or ibanez , keeley java boost and his modded Rats sound great .

i am not sure about how reliable this thing is , becasue i sold it right away ............

he promisses on his auction on e bay a money back garantee , but after i bought it he wont take the pedal back he wont refund the money and he is very rude on his e mailes , trust me you are better of dealing with keeley and analogman .

i play mostly blues and rock i love 80's music that is what i grew up with , been playing for 21 years . if it were stolen i would thank the guy who stole it that is how much i hated this pedal , all i can say is save your money and get a real distortion pedal or a keeley java boost or beno boost from analogman . this pedal almost made me hate my guitar LOL .

I love the simplicity of the design - two knobs.
"More/Less" knob controls output. Set it for unity or boost and control the volume from the guitar.
"Smooth/Crunchy" knob controls tone and small changes in overdrive. This is subtle, but usuable is a musical way THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE sweep!
The reviewer below mentions Barber pedals as sounding "tubey" and preferring them over the Peanut Butter. I feel exactly the opposite. I have owned the Barber pedals mentioned in that review and prefer less "squash and compression".
The manual is simple and complete, written as a musician and not someone from the tech dept.

This is a unique pedal. It works well cascaded with other ODs, but provides very mild overdrive on it's own. I really think it succeeds with it's claim that it helps a tube amp sound overdriven. I play through two tube amps and notice that it performs differently for each.
I don't believe there is a transparent overdrive, but this pedal provides minimal coloration. It imparts very little of it's own sound, preserving the guitar tone to a great degree.
I do agree with the previous reviewer that there is a "solid state quality" to the note attack. This sound is very dependant on the supplied voltage. I have found that by sagging the voltage on my Voodoo Lab Pedal Power, the attack softens and the overdrive increases slightly. I don't use batteries, but was told that using a basic carbon battery will produce the same result.

Build quality is top notch. Based on my contact with the builder, I wouldn't hesitate to gig without a backup.

I bought this pedal used. It had been taken apart and reassembled improperly, causing a grounding problem. Greg is the designer and builder and didn't hesitate to have me send it to him to take a look. He brought it back to spec in the most professional and efficient way possible. It's obvious he is completely committed to providing a quality product and keeping the customer happy.

I love overdrives. They provide infinite variations on a familiar theme. Where most cover similar ground, the Peanut Butter takes a different approach by being something of a "minimalist". It leaves my tone relatively untouched while adding an edge. It's overdrive sounds stand on their own or can be cascaded with other boxes for high gain.

Very easy to use pedal.

Not a bad pedal, but for the money, I like the Barber Pedals (LTD and Direct Drive SS)much better. This pedal has a very solid state quality that I pick up. The Barber pedals have a natural and slight squash and compression that feels "tubey". I will agree that the Peanut Butter does have a more transparent sound, but to me the "feel" is equally or a just a hair more important to me, hence my rating.

Built well, cool graphics.

Nice people. Jeff was very helpful and refunded my money even after the "review" period was over.

This is a nice pedal and definately better than your typical catalog or music store mass produced junk. For the money though, I really like my Barber pedals. They fit me just perfect. The LTD ($100)for super smooth sounds and the DDSS ($120) for the screaming stuff. Check out Barberelectronics.com.

One stomp switch; 2 knobs...gain and distortion (smooth counter clockwise; cruchy clockwise)

Fender deluxe Reverb 65 reissue; Blues Pro Jr. Extremely quiet; most OD pedals distort your sound to the point that it kills the tone of your amp which is fine if you have a bad sounding amp; this pedal colors the tone without changing the basic tone of the amp/guitar. I use it with American Standard Strat and Tele; Gibson ES 355; old Stienberger; Washburn Hawk; I play contemporary Christian music now and the pedal is excellent for what I do. I can't crank up an amp like I used to when I played juke joints and smoke pits....

I had problems with a power supply and blew the pedal (my fault)

Both Jeff at Tonefrenzy.com and Greg at Aphek were great. Jeff even called Greg on his own dime when Greg was in the wilds of Australia.

Contempory Christian and gospel; started at 14, will be 55 in a couple of months; Amps: Roland JC120; Peavy 4/10 Classic; Gibson BR-9; Digitech 2112; POD 2.0; Roland ?GP 8; power amps..Carvin,Carver, boards Allen Heath, Soundcraft; EG's, crossovers, numerous JBL speaks, hartke speakers, Dano 12; Ovations E/A; Martin D28...guitar picks...........

Theres 2 knobs - one for matching the volume level with your amp sound, and one for adding crunch.
Real Easy to use.

Les Paul 2003 Standard into the clean channel of a Class A 2x12 combo.
This pedal is fantastic - it is a beutiful crunch pedal when used on its own, and adds superb harmonics/dynamics to a distorted amp sound or when cascaded with another drive pedal.
Definately no tonal change - it just reflects your guitar, amp and speaker configuration (and it does sound like your amp cranked!!).
this pedal provides a sweet sounding crunch to your sound, and is very rosponsive to guitar volume knob changes and picking attack.
I use it mainly to get sounds along the line of Paul Weller, Led Zepplin, Stereophonics, The Verve etc...
All in all a great sounding pedal.
I use it maxed out to get the above type of sounds, if i need more gain or a boost for solo work, i place a RAT distortion box after the peanut butter - this sounds fantastic.
No background noise at all.

Seems to be built very well.
you never know with this kind of stuff - but Greg @ Aphek is a real easy to deal with so if you have any issues it would be easy to sort out!!
I would have no issues using this pedal without a backup.

As mentioned above - I have dealt with greg and he is very helpful (even playing the pedal over the phone so i could get an idea of the sound!!!)
Top notch.

This is a great pedal for Cranked amp crunch, its not a super Hi-Gain sound but i prefer to here my guitar tone so this is ideal. great for blues, rock and even jazz lead playing.
superb tone - superb value.

Two knobs (Less/More and Smooth/Crunchy) and a footswitch, couldn't be easier.

Holy crap. This thing is THE SHIT as far as I'm concerned. I've owned TS808/TS9/TS10, BOSS overdrives, boutique pedals from Fulltone, HBE and others... and none of them sound as natural and real is this little green goober. It doesn't have miles of gain - that's not the point - but at gig levels I had no problem getting nice sustain from the clean channel of a 4x10 Mesa.

To test the pedal's transparency, I ran the Smooth/Crunchy knob at 3 o'clock and the Less/More at around 12 o'clock. With the pedal bypassed and the amp set clean, I played an open A string with my normal picking velocity. Then I engaged the pedal and picked the same string but fairly lightly... the tone was virtually the same, and as clean as the clean channel of the amp! Amazing sensitivity and dynamics. Then I laid into it and was provided with beautiful natural overdrive that simply sounded like the amp was a few notches louder. No compression or mid boost or any of the usual Tube Screamer traits. Again, I say HOLY CRAP!

Upon opening the guts, it reveals fairly normal (dare I say bland) components by today's overbuilt "boutique" standards. The resistors look like something you'd find at Radio Shack. Obviously none of this matters because it sounds terrific!

Only dealt with the builder (Greg) during the eBay sale, but he was courteous and to the point in his emails.

This would have to be one of the best, if not the best straight-forward natural-sounding overdrives out there. It's also one of the least expensive. If Fulltone built this it would be twice the price. If Landgraff built this it would be four times the price! I think my search has finally ended!

Simple. Less/More control is volume and Smooth/Crunchy is amount of drive.

I use this with vintage single channel tube amps. I have been playing for 25 years and have owned almost all overdrive and distortion pedals out there. I have to honestly say this is the best. It really sounds like your amp turned up. It is amazing, I was really floored after playing around with it. Some of the other distortion pedals are good, but this is the sound of your amp cranked - a bit less compression. Isn't that the point to overdrive pedals to begin with - I have realized after years of playing that this is it. This pedal also reacts really well with changes on the guitar volume. Basically, if you have a crap amp, this pedal won't do you any good. But if you have a good tube amp, go do yourself a favor and pick one up. I am no longer neurotic about my tone!! This is by the way, the only review I have ever left on HC.

Looks like it is built like the best of them.

I have not dealt with Aphek directly. I bought this at www.tonefrenzy.com (great site). Jeff is great, very responsive and friendly and know a ton about guitars, amps and pedals.

For $129 shipped, nothing beats this. I have been looking for a pedal like this for years. Believe the hype, you won't need another distortion/overdrive if you buy this unless for very specialized applications. I would replace it in a minute. I was almost at the point of using a two amp set up and now I don't feel I have to!

Very easy to get a great sound. Just make sure you keep the gain between 75 and 100%. Bellow that it gets a bit muddy. I thought it was a good manual, but after reading other peoples comments about it having a blend control (which it doesn't), mabey it isn't. The controls are fairly standard. Gain (smooth-crunchy) and output volume (less-more).

I play a strat and a 335 into a '63 bassman. The pedal is very quiet, even for an overdrive. I run it on full, 90% of the time. Perfect! It sounds almost exactly the same as when I crank my amp.

There was a problem with the Fulltone 3PDT switch. It cut out intermittently. Greg (the designer) was helpful in trouble shooting the problem. I ended up having to send it back to Australia, but it was back in 2 weeks and has been perfect ever since.

See above

This pedal is the best for 'natural' overdrive. I've been playing for over 10 years. I've owned heaps of gear, including a HUGE collection of od and distortions. I've now sold all of my other dirt boxes, as I just don't need them any more. If it were stolen, I'd replace it in an instant. I think I might buy a spare anyway. THIS THING JUST DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A PEDAL!!! I can't believe that someone has finally made a box that sounds this good and that not many people seem to own one. I think there is one major problem with it....... it doesn't cost enough! I think if they doubled the price they'd sell a lot more. People would take it more seriously.

Two knobs....Ko Ko the Gorilla could work this thing.

I'm running an '81 strat through a Trademark 60 amp. It's very quiet. I also have a Maxon 808 and Ibanez TS-9 modded by Robert Keeley using a "baked mod" (3X the overdrive). Since the TS-9 is modded it's much easier to compare this to the Maxon 808 which is also in the same price range.
I was pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the Peanut Butter pedal. Definetly a smoother sound over the Maxon though they're both very good pedals. I think you can get a slight bit more overdrive out of the Maxon when it's cranked but it's negligable at best. When you crank the PB pedal all the way it should provide plenty of warm overdrive and sustain for just about any blues, country or rock player UNLESS you want that 80's rock sound...then you you should be using a Marshall amp and "distortion" box anyway.
After playing for 33 years I found out recently through articles on HC that the key is two have TWO units like a TS-9 and Peanut Butter (or Maxon 808) and use one set for a lighter crunch and send that into another with a heavier setting. This, my friends, is the door to nirvana. You'll get a nice even overdrive with tons of sustain and most importantly you get incredible harmonics out of this set up. The Peanut Butter running into my TS-9 gives does an awesome job at this. Get yourself into this setup and never look back.

It's built very solidly. My only concern is that is has the older style on/off button. You know....the kind that make a loud pop like they old MXR boxes had. Don't know how long it'll last but I've gotten used to the quieter buttons so maybe it's just a mental thing on my part. The hand-painting of each pedal is a cool idea since no two are identical. Plus I like having some from Australia. No worries mate!

Bought mine for Jeff D at Tonefrenzy.com Jeff's a good dude and got my pedal to me quickly even though he had a slight accident and broke his arm the week I ordered mine. No problems with Jeff. I've never dealt with Aphek or Tonefrenzy before this.

I play contemporary country, classic rock and blues. Been playing 33 years. If this was stolen I'd get another one toot suite. The only two thing I "might" change on this pedal are the on/off switch and maybe the bulb. I really like the bright blue bulbs that Keeley puts in his mods. You know how guys are....more light! big fire! arr arr!

Dead easy to use, two knobs vol. & smooth/crunch, which basically controls the amount of distortion, the one sheet that comes with it explains the idea behind the design of the pedal.

I use a Fender strat with Fralin pups into a Marshall 50 watt plexi re-issue & Marshall greenback loaded 4x12" as this setup is really loud, I seldom get the chance to crank the amp without soundmen freakin'! My main reason for the purchase of this pedal, was that it can get the sound of a cranked amp..whatever the amp, and do so very convincingly, even feedback on any notes! if thats your thing, but no fizzy distortion.

When the pedal arrived the input nut on the jacksocket fell off! on further investigation i found that the pc board mounted jacjsocket was not lined up with the hole in the case. I had to dis asemble everything and file the hole so the nut would fit the socket. I have had no more problems, and would gig without a backup.

I play in a Hendrix type band and for me this pedal is a must, I have a Vox Wah into A Foxrox CC2 then into the peanutbutter then a Dan echo.If it was stolen I would replace straight away no prob.It is invaluable to my setup, and although it seems really light and flimsy once its on a pedal board I can't see any problems with it.I have used Boss:Fulltone:Roger Mayer:Ibanez: effects Yamaha and Line 6 digital modeling amps, and still not found the meaty poweramp distortion that this little green box provides! Oh! yeah! I hate the colour Green!

Very easy. Two knobs one for output [more/less] and one to shape the tone of the overdrive [smooth/crunchy]. This knob gives you smoother darker breakup or brighter crunchier breakup.

The tone of this pedal is equal to the tone of your amp. It seriously sounds like your amp cranked. I even did comparisions by turning up my amp then back down and switching the Peanut Butter on. The sound is exact IMO. You just have to find the unity tone on the smooth/crunchy knob. It can also sound brighter or slightly darker if you want but still sounds just like your amp cranked. There is no "gain" control on this pedal it's basically one level but it is SUPER dynamic. You pick lightly you get clean tones you dig in hard and it breaks up hard. Just like your amp cranked. It's true bypass with led and AC jack. This is my favorite pedal. If gives me what i have always wanted in a pedal. I can never turn my amp up enough to get that tone but now i dont have to. I would highly recomend this to anti-overdrive pedal snobs as well. It is very unpedal like. Also works very well with other od/boost pedals in front of it. Consider this pedal as part of your amp. There is no added compresson or eqing. If your amp naturaly compresses more when you turn it up so will it with this box. It has full freq. All your bass mids treble stay the same. I like this pedal so much i have two already and wouldnt be suprised to order more. I suspect that it will catch on some time and ofcourse price and availbilty with go up and up.

This is unknown as this is a newer product in the US. I have only had it a short while as well. Seems pretty solid. The case it a bit lighter than some pedals i have had. The switch is a 3pdt of unknown origin. Its not your standard blue switch but these are hand made in Australia so parts will very some. Pots are full size Alpha. Paint job is very hand painted in look. Does seem to chip easily but what i care about is whats inside and the tone. So this is relavent really.

Have had no contact with the builder but Jeff at Tonefrenzy is top notch. I had excellent serive!!! I appreciate good customer service. Jeff reply to emails in a timely manner and is very helpful. His drescription of the pedal on his site is dead on. www.tonefrenzy.com

IMO this is the best value around for tone. Great price awesome pedal!!! I could not be happier with this box. It is very refreshing to play an OD pedal that is dynamic and sounds like me amp [DR. Z KT-45] Which i paid good money for. Also i can hear my guitars and pups like never before. You can now have that clean sound you want and the cranked tone. Musicians Rejoice!!! I dont know how they did this all in a pedal?? This guy is truely a genious. I will state that for lead tones this may not suit you but all you need is a boost/fuzz/overdrive in front to push it over the top. Hope this has helped future buyers of the pedal. Take Care!!!

pretty simple.two knobs.the less/more knob is a blend knob.the smooth/crunchy is the amount of grit.i don't remember if it had a manual or not.i just pluged it in.it's an overdrive,if you need a manual,you have other problems then overdrive.one cool part jeff told me about was the fact that this pedal is based on powertube distortion.the difference between battery use and addaptor use is simulier to tube vs. solid state rectifiers respectivly.cool concept& noticable.

lots of guitars,lets stick to the basic les paul/strat.amps used marshall/matchless/ampeg15w. several pedals ods/phasers/fuzz/octave/ect.
no more noise then normal for a drive type pedal.much less then a fuzz.this is my favorite drive pedal so far.have had (fulldrive2&dist.pro,keeley&analogman ts9 & ds1's,mxr distortion II,option 5,maxon,Rx,bixonics,matchless hotbox,bla bla )very cool.no eq change to my ear.i know this sounds cliche,but it realy does just sound like my amp crancked.it seems to me that the signal to boost rate is much more at lwr vol.but at band level the amount of boost is perfect.i set my marshall for dirty clean(stones type)& use the vol. on the guitar for realy clean the PB is used for crancked amp sound,allout OD.then i use a boost or fuzz for over the top stuff & leads.works very well.inside of 2 chords the first day i had it very one in my band(including the drummer who could care less ) said "thats the best one you've had yet"& they were right.with their being only a blend & grit knob i was worried about no vol. control.but i havn't found myself looking for it once.it sounds equaly as good w/ every guitar/amp/effect i tried.even if i have my fuzz on then turn on the PB.it doesn't change the tone of my fuzz.just adds.never had that before. after all the money i sent on drive pedals.i figuired @ 130 buck & 2 day to check it out,what do i got to loose.and i couldn't be happier.i sold all my other overdrivers.VERY COOL PEDAL.

no problems yet.
i don't go anywhere without a back up.that has nothing to do with the pedal though.

havn't had to use support yet.but jeff at tonefrenzy was very cool in the purchasing prosses & assured me if i had any problems or was unssatisfied in any way that he would refund my money in full.very fair,very nice guy.(cool web site too)

i play blues,rock,ect. in many different forms.i think this pedal would be liked buy even jazz guys looking for a little bit or a metal guy for a medeium tone.this will not do the sub zero metal thing.does GREAT sabbath though.been playing for 18 yrs.i would deffiently get another if it were lost/stolen.why not at$129.
GREAT PEDAL.

Very simple, two knobs and a footswitch. Even my grandmother could operate this. Comes with a very informative info sheet, explaining the background of the designer and why some things sound better than others.

I'm using a Gold Top Les Paul, with two Seymour Duncan vintage P90s into a Fender Vibro-King combo. Very quiet pedal. It always sounds great. It eats the pre-amp overdrive of the amp for breakfast. I've cranked the output a couple of times, but it's too loud for most of the clubs I play. This pedal duplicates that sound really well. The rest of my band now love me, as I'm now happy with my tone at (almost) any volume.

I haven't had it for that long, but I can't see why there would be any problems. It's very well made.

I play rock. This pedal is perfect. I've been playing for about 6 years. I'd definitely replace it if it was stolen or lost. I love everything about it. It has a particularly cool, green LED and is hand painted. No more of that mass produced crap for me. I've used heaps of overdrives over the years. Fulltone, Hotcake, Tubescreamers etc. This kills them all. I just wish I had this 5 years ago. I could have saved a lot of money. Then again, if I'd had this first, I might not have appreciated how good it really is.

Extremely easy to use. You can't get a bad sound out of this.

I play a few diiferent guitars. Mainly a strat through a late '70s 50 watt Super Lead Marshall. This is the quietest overdrive I have ever used. This sounds just like the Marshall on 7-8 (maybe better!!!!). It allows me to sounds just like me. The pedal is realy tranparent (if that makes any sense for an overdrive). The Peanut Butter sound, is how I've always wanted a Tube Screamer to sound.

I've only had this for a while, but I can't see why it won't last forever. It's very well made. It uses the Fulltone 3PDT switch for true bypass. That other guy who said that he thought his sound was more compressed, must be hearing the difference in tone from using 2 cables, instead of one.

I've never had a problem, but the guy who makes them Greg), answered my questions before I bought it and will refund your money if not happy. He runs a studio and only makes them when he has time. If Ibanez or Boss made these, I think that this would be the most popular pedal on the market. I don't think he sells a lot, but I think he should quit recording and just sell these, as there really is no comparison.

I usually play rock and blues. This thing is close to perfect. I've been playing for 25 years and am a real tone hound. I have owned at different times most of the major brands, including Fender, Gibson, PRS, Ibanez, Mesa Boogie, Vox, Boss and Pro CO. Since getting this, I found that my prized TS808 stays in the cupboard. Take the risk, you won't be dissapointed (and if you are return it for your money back). I'm thinking of getting another one as an investment, as I think these early ones will be very collectable one day, once the word gets out and he has to start mass producing them! No I haven't been paid for this endorsement, I'm just excited to finaly get the sound I've been after.

Almost too simple to use! Level "chicken head" knob, gain knob. If only all of life was this easy.

My setup:
Crate classic 50 1/2 stack (ALL TUBE) --> peanut butter --> Mr Mustard distortion --> a few modulation effects.

This is an excellent sounding pedal! Exactly the tone I wanted. First things first, this is NOT a distortion pedal. This is an overdrive pedal, not some tone destroying super high gain box (which have their place!). With the gain knob at the lowest setting, it sounds like my amp when it just starts to break up, in other words, really smooth, creamy and just a hint of crunch. With the gain knob up full, sounds like a fully overdriven amp.
Two things got me about this pedal:
(1). The distortion sounds beautiful. It is not too harsh, lets all notes ring out, and can clearly be heard through the mix live.
(2). Almost totally transparent. I wanted a pedal that didn't change my tone at all when I turned it on (or even when I plugged it in!). This has true bypass and barely does anything to my sound, perhaps a little compression? Not really noticeable at all though, and CERTAINLY not noticeable live.

I was looking for ages for a good OD pedal, as my amp's OD sound is not what I wanted. I tried heaps of pedals, such as bluesbreakers, boss BD-2 and SD-1, and a TS-9. While the TS-9 was the best sounding out of those, when I heard the peanut butter pedal I knew instantly that this is what I wanted. So much better than the TS-9, with no annoying mid-range hump and better tone at lower gain settings.

They are made of metal. If you put them in a furnace they will break. That is about it. Oh yeah. The paint does chip off more readily than some boss and DOD pedals I own.
I would, and regularly do, gig without a backup.

Never done this before, but when I got it I emailed Aphek to say how much I liked it and got a personal thankyou letter within 24 hours! I am sure that if I had any problems they would fix it no worries.

I have been playing guitar for about 10 years, and have been playing gigs at least once a month for 5 years. I play about 2 out of 3 weeks now. This pedal covers all distortion requirements for the Christian praise and worship and rock music I require. For heavier stuff I use the Mr Mustard distortion (higher gain) or crank the amp.
If you are thinking about the BD-2 or the TS-9, STOP. Get this instead. So much cheaper!

Simple and really effective distortion pedal.

I use Marshall valve stack with fender and gibson guitars. I've used a variety of distortion pedals- most of which are ok but all end up altering the tone of my set up. The Peanut Butter leaves my tone alone and just gives me the overdrive that i want.

So there's no "tone" control on the pedal-- but that's because it doesn't need one. The pedal produces the drive of a valve amp without mucking around with the tone of your guiter and amp. (i mean- why does anyone need tone controls on effect pedals--- there's at least one on your guitar and several on your amp).

Overdrive is smooth and not over the top. I use it for solo work and it also works well for rhythm stuff where i just want some crunch.

no probs

no probs. you can speak directly with the guy that designed and built it which is pretty helpful if you'd ever need it.

i play anthing except for funk, metal, country and western, jazz fusion, rap, girl-band pop, boy-band pop, techno, dance, love songs, ballads (except for waltzing matilda). i stick mostly to hard rock and blues. apart from disco.

pedal works really well for that--- distortion is what i'd call "natural" rather than the processed fuzz and crackle of most effects i've used.

This thing is extremely easy to use. Just two knobs. Less/more, to adjust output volume and smooth/crunchy to adjust overdrive amount.

The Peanut Butter Distortion sounds like you have turned up the output (not preamp) of your amp! If you run it through a Fender, it sounds like you've cranked up a Fender, if you run it through a Marshall, it sounds like Marshall output tube distortion. It doesn't really have a sound of it's own, it just sounds like whatever amp you're using it with. I own a few amps, but mainly use a Vox AC30, using either a Strat or a Tele. I love the sound of the Vox when cranked, but very rarely get to play anywhere at that volume. I've been searching for that tone at a usable level, for many years. I'd tried reactive load boxes and just about every distortion box ever made. The Peanut Butter is the only thing I've used that captures that tone. Every other distortion/overdrive unit I've tried, changes your basic tone. This doesn't, which makes it perfect for rhythm playing.
It is very quiet and has heaps of output. It isn't hi-gain. It has the same sort of gain as you'd get cranking a vintage amp.

I've had no problems with it. They're all hand made (and painted-each one looks slightly different) and seem to be very reliable. I've had mine for a couple of years.

I play rock, with more traditional tones (not modern hi-gain). The guitar tones I get are along the lines of Keith Richards, The Edge and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This pedal is perfect for that. I've been playing since 1979. I own 2 strats, 2 Teles, a Les Paul, an Ibanez artist semi-acoustic, Fender electric 12 and an Ibanez Talman with P90s. Apart from the Vox I own a Marshall 50 watt head and quad, a Rivera ThirtyTwelve, a Fender Pro Junior and a 1964 Fender Bassman. I own a heap of pedals, including TS808, TS9 and a Rat. If something happened to this I would get another one. I couldn't live without this. See above for what I love about it. It really is the meat and potatos of my sound. I still use other pedals for specific tones (especialy in the studio), but for live use It's the right sound for day to day playing, where as previously, I was always changing pedals.