Asonix Nite-Owl

this is a very easy unit to use and get usable tones out of. the manual is easy to read and understandable. it's a very simple pedal. three knobs: output, eq, and sustain. the output is your volume, eq doesn't work like most tone knobs. straight up at 12 o'clock the tone is flat. turning it counter clockwise (12 to 7 o'clock) adds lower frequencies but not flabby bass. just a smooth lower tone. turning it clockwise (12 to 5 o'clock) adds highs and mids, mostly mids. the sustain knob adds gain and a strange compression effect. it's different. but it only takes a few minutes to get used to.

this pedal doesn't sound like anything i have ever used. it's labeled as a distortion but it's tone is closer to a fuzz. i can get "that tone" clapton's women tone easier with this pedal than i can with a very respectable treble booster. so it also has treble booster capabilities as well, but without the shrill. it's really a cross between a treble booster, fuzz, and overdrive. but very smooth. it also has much better note definition that a fuzz. my main guitar is a telecaster with a seymour duncan hotrails (bridge) and seymour duncan quarter pound (neck.) my amps are fender blues junior and fender blues deluxe. i use an attenuator with both. this pedal really rings with my set up. i mean rings and sings like a bird.

the pedal is very well built. the circuitry is some of the best i've seen. so far so good. no problems.

when i was initially researching the pedal, they were very eager and willing to answer any questions, and continue to do so. the owner is very friendly.

i play is a jam band and a psychedelic reggae band. this pedal fits my style very well. i've been playing for ten years, and have owned more pedals than i care to mention. only two pedals have lived up to their tone and uniqueness with me. dirtyboy germanium boy treble booster, and zvex fuzz factory. this pedal is a keeper. i would replace it if it were stolen or lost. i actually researched about two hundred pedals before i bought this one. most pedals these days claim to be different, but end up being just more of the same. this pedal is different and unique. i would like to add that i have never posted a review on any website, and i've been pretty disappointed with products before and wanted to. i'm really satisfied with the purchase of this pedal. to the point of spending thirty minutes writing this review. harmony central has always been a trusted and credible guide for me, and i hope this review helps. but if you don't believe me. do the research yourself on this pedal. if you're looking for a smooth santana, clapton (bluesbreaker) organic tone. you'll be glad you did.

Very nice fuzz/overdrive pedal. Very easy to get a usable tones out of it. I don't think there is a bad setting or useless setting in there.

I really like it. There are similarities to the TS-9 Ibanez Tube Screamer, but it's a nice, different overdrive. It can get all the great midrangy overdriven tones. I keep the tone control between 9 and 3. This is not very high gain piece like a Boss Heavy Metal pedal, but it does great things for both my modded Blues Junior and Mesa Nomad, though not really necessary for the latter.

Looks solid to me. The components are top quality. Even the board is reminiscent of 70's traced boards with thick tracings. Look inside a Neve channel strip and you'll know what I am talking about.

I emailed to find out about an AC solution because mine only takes batteries and the company owner offered to add an adapter jack to mine for a small charge. That's pretty good.

An excellent option for a warm overdrive pedal. Toneful. Could use a little more gain, but not really a problem for me. I've been playing for 25 years and have a lot of nice guitars. My other favorite distortion pedal is my Ibanez SD-9 from 1984. It's great, but there is a little bleed through which relegates it to recording uses. I also enjoy the Big Muff.

Ease of use - Very straight forward!

The tone and performance are remarkable. The sustain control adds what seems to be a bit of compression and thickness to the distortion. The EQ control provides a very will placed sweep of the mids. Turning it up gives character and focus. Turning it down gives a great darker nuance. Set it in the middle and the tone is pretty flat to the guitar produces. The output control works as an output level should. I think the best word for the Nite-Owl is "musical"!

Before I tried the Nite-Owl, I was set to buy the Ibanez TS9 or TS9DX Tube Screamer. A final side-by-side comparison of the two was the last step. Just in case, I asked the gent at the counter to hand me anything else recommended to try before the final credit card swipe. I'm glad he did as I purchased the Nite-Owl then and there!
If your serious about your tone, YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS ONE!!! Came with a DC power supply to boot! And yes it'll work with a battery. Oh, yea, it also has it's own effects send and recieve so you can add compression, flange, chorus, eq, whatever the the unit! This thing knocked me out.(!)

I can set in a great killer tone in no time. Any where from a scooped mid, high sustain bottom end distortion, or just a tweak for some twang.

I'll put my strat into the niteowl, some times loop a chorus pedal in the FX, then to a wah and out of a fender 90 dsp. Sounds great on or off no buzz or hassle. (thanks to true bypass)

definently dependabe. Only problem i found was that the output level would drop dramaically which would only happen without any loping in the FX loop, this was quickly remedied by Asonix by sending me two six inch patch cabels and an updated manual at no charge and without me having to ask or complain. Not only can you rely on the niteowl but you can fully place your trust in Asonix corp. and associates.

yes, they rock. They were musicians, they knew what i was looking for. I already mentioned how good they took care of me when the pedal had been acting up.

I'll play anything but have mainly stuck with blues. The niteowl has deemed itself worthy to be graceing all of my gigs since i have bought it because i know it is as versatile of a pedal as i am of a player.

Very easy to use. There's really not much to the operation of this thing, just plug in and go.

I'm using a Gibson SG Special through a Fender Delux combo and the sound is beautiful. I went to Dave Phillips in Allentown to buy a Big MUff and they were out. I saw this beautiful looking (green is my fav color) box sitting there and I asked the guy what it was. He said the guy who made it lives in the Lehigh Valley and he spent years developing it and it was really smooth. I told him I've been looking for a dist pedal that can solo through the IDM/drum and bass stuff I've been making with Reason and Cubase and he told me I might like to give it a try. Within seconds of plugging in (I brought my SG from home) I was sold. I asked him the price and he said $115 which is more than a Big Muff but I thought it was worth it considering it's locally designed and built. 6 hours of guitar playing later and I'm not disappointed. I haven't even tried the effects loop yet - what a feature!!!!

It seems to be built very sturdy and I don't really gig. If I were to start a band or a musical project I would not hesitate to have this as my one and only dist pedal.

I hear the guy who made this is very much into talking about the pedal with you and I would imagine that if there was a problem he'd be more than happy to help you out, but I don't know for a fact as I don't know him.

I play experimental/electronic music - like an American Squarepusher who plays guitar instead of bass. But I'm eclectic. I can sit down for hours playing Muddy Waters licks - mostly I'm into the dynamics of sound. I don't dig metal or Yngwie Malmstein - classically trained speed stuff and this pedal is probably not that great for things of that nature. I also like to record layered noise collages and I think this will help with that. I've been playing for about twelve years but I've never been too much of a gear head. The sustain on other distortion pedals I've tried have always been too weak - the notes seemed to fall flat. That's why I was looking for a Big Muff but this thing tops the BIg Muff - for real. Get this pedal.

There are only 3 knobs, so even an idiot like me can plug in and start having fun. The Tone knob isn't exactly what you'd expect, though, and it took me a little noodling to figure it out. Instead of just adding in treble as you turn the knob up (as with most pedals), it adds mids and provides a noticeable boost of overall output as well. Not a bad thing at all, just different. After a few minutes, it's a breeze.

Unbelievable!! In the store I used a cheap guitar through a cheap amp, and I wasn't sure about buying it. But when I got it home and plugged my PRS into a Deluxe reverb, this thing took on a whole new character!! Santana-like smooth, but not as heavy on the bass. The thing screamed Robben Ford, which is a tone that has been very elusive unless you want to spend thousands on a Dumble. This comes as close as I have EVER heard!! Notes seem to increase in volume (swell) right after being picked rather than trail off quickly, which is especially nice since I play at lower volumes and have not been able to get the dynamics of the amp that you can by turning it up. I don't like to sound like a kid with a new toy, but this makes me excited to play, and there hasn't been gear impress me like that in a long time! It doesn't add much noise, even at higher gain settings, and it doesn't make an annoying "pop" when switched in and out. Has true bypass, and even has a built-in effects loop, which I haven't spent any time exploring but is only icing on the cake. The only reason I'm giving it a "10" for sound quality is because this review form won't let me give it a "15"!! Check it out!

Too early to tell, but I looked on the Asonix web page and they seem to really be interested in customer satisfaction, so I feel pretty good about it.

Haven't needed it, but again I think the company's web page makes me thing that they would be top-rate.

I play blues and rock, and have been playing for 30 years. I'm not a professional player, but I have been through more than $100,000 worth of gear ove the years. I have owned lots of vintage equipment, and all of the boutique pedals that have burst onto the market in the past few years. Without question, the Nite-Owl is a keeper! I will be purchasing another for a back-up and selling off a lot of my current arsenal. It may not be for everyone (metalheads may not fully appreciate it) but for what I want, it is the real deal.

This is a normal three-knob distortion pedal (sustain, tone, output), with one cool twist: it has its own effects loop. So the basic distortion function is simple, but you can get deep by running a compressor, EQ, or whatever other effect you want in the loop. That feature alone makes the Nite-Owl very versatile. It also means you can spend months and months having fun tweaking your signal chain.

I have a million guitars, but one main amp: a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I love the HRD's clean sound, but HATE the drive channel. So I needed a distortion pedal that would make this amp sound like a GOOD distorted amp. I walked into Dave Phillips Music in Allentown, PA, and asked the guy, half-jokingly, whether he had a pedal that could make my HRD sound like Carlos Santana's Boogies. He said, "Here's a pedal my friend Ron made," and handed me the Nite-Owl. Holy cow -- the thing really DOES make the Fender amp sound Boogie-like, especially with humbuckers. I'm not a big risk-taker, and was nervous about a new, unknown company, but I NEEDED the sound of this pedal. How good does it sound? I came home, tried it out next to my 1991 RAT and BOSS Mega Distortion, and immediately went upstairs to post the RAT and BOSS for sale on Harmony Central.

Basically, the pedal has one tone: like a much clearer-sounding RAT in the middle of its gain range (does NOT clean up or go all the way into shred-land, unless you run a boosted "smiley" curve EQ in the effects loop). It just happens to do that one tone perfectly . . .

Well, I'm one of the first few people to own one of these (Dave Phillips Music in Allentown, PA is the only dealer as of now), so we'll see. Still, it's clearly built very solidly, and I have the owner's home phone # if there's a problem! So yeah, I'm getting a good reliability vibe . . .

See "Reliability" above. The owner is a super guy, just trying to get a new company started, so in my experience, he's been VERY friendly.

I play rock, blues, and whatever else my basement feels like hearing on a given day. I am a decent "hack" guitarist, but am very picky about gear because I've been playing drums professionally with GREAT guitar players for a decade plus. This guitar meets my highest standard: just playing one note through it makes me want to play for hours. I suppose, being super-critical, it could have more gain before distortion, and a wider range of gain. However, if you just want a pedal that will let you cover the Santana bases through a Fender amp's clean channel, look no further.