If you're a fan of stoner rock, alt-rock, grunge, punk, metal or any combination the latter, chances are you've noticed the cult following behind the Sunn Model T. Sunn was a household amp and PA name throughout the 60's and 70's and in 1985 Fender purchased the brand and discontinued the name in 2002 after a short lived run of reissues. The Model T was a 100 Watt tube amp that was beloved for it's incredible volume, massive low end and most importantly, punishing power amp overdrive/distortion. There were many different versions of the Model T but the tubes were usually a toss up between EL-34 and KT88/6550. Combined with some familiar circuitry they tended to behave like Plexi's or Oranges on steroids. The Power Amp section of these amps were truly unique and mostly designed by a small company known as Dynaco -- also well known in the hi-fi world -- who produced entire chassis for Sunn in their early days.

Okay maybe that's enough history, but it's pretty intriguing stuff and when you turn on the Acapulco Gold, everything falls in line. This one-knob beast can really convince you that you're sitting in front of a 100 watter turned up to 11, but as EarthQuaker kindly warns, this pedal get can really loud. There's no doubt about it, the Acapulco Gold is pure, saturated distortion but it's real power lies in interacting with your guitar. It cleans up much like a vintage fuzz where you can drastically change the tone and attack by tweaking your volume and tone knobs. Powerchords sound like a wave of fire and single note runs produce a very fuzz-like tone that is pleasingly fat with soaring sustain. A pedal with one-knob can sometimes make you yearn for more, but when it looks and sounds this cool, rest easy and rock on. 

Direct from Earthquaker Devices ...

The Acapulco Gold is a dirt-simple distortion Device modeled after the sound of a cranked vintage Model T amplifier, bringing the openness, clarity, and crunch that only a dimed tube amp can provide, at a fraction of the size, and without expensive maintenance costs!

Since tone is in the hands, we decided to keep the controls of the Acapulco Gold as simple as possible. The footswitch turns the pedal on and off, and the giant knob controls the output volume. That’s it. The rest is at your fingertips. Want less gain? Turn down your guitar’s volume knob. Need a darker rhythm tone? Roll back your guitar’s tone control. Easy, right?

Big Knob: The big knob sets the output level, sometimes known as Volume. PLEASE BE CAREFUL, the Acapulco Gold is extremely loud!

• With your guitar’s volume all the way up, the Acapulco Gold roars like a wide-open Model T on the verge of explosion. At just-barely-backed-off, the Gold becomes a raunchy overdrive. At minimum guitar volume settings, the Acapulco Gold delivers a hazy, Nashville-sounding spank to your tone.

• How about this? If your guitar has separate volume and tone controls for each pickup and a three-way selector switch, this little one-knob banger becomes a three-channel tone monster at the flick of your wrist!

Switching

This device is true bypass and uses electronic relay-based switching. Audio will not pass without power.

Power

This device can be powered by a 9v battery or a standard 9-volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal-specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated-output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise. DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTAGES!