MusicRadar Verdict

A winning two-in-one combo: quirky, rare vintage trem coupled with a great-sounding booster.

Pros

+
Beautiful vintage trem.

Cons

-
Very few.

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To date, ThorpyFX’s pedals have all been about various aspects of dirt, but the Chain Home - the first in founder Adrian Thorpe’s ‘Reimagined Series’ - offers a modulation effect, namely tremolo, and a specific type of tremolo at that.

The pedal is based on the old Vox Repeat Percussion effect, but here we have a much expanded speed range via its Rate knob.

A sawtooth waveform gives the pedal a very distinctive choppy percussive attack, which, with the Depth knob cranked, can give you an on/off sequencer effect, but can also add an otherworldly shimmer to your sound when set more subtly, all with a Tone knob that can beef things up or make it lean.

A Boost knob ensures the effect level doesn’t drop when engaged, but with unity gain at eight o’clock, it offers plenty of scope for upping the volume and really driving your amp.

If you turn the trem Depth to minimum, you can use the pedal as a pure booster, with or without tonal shift, something it does superbly.

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.