The Rift Amplification EL34, an overdrive that made our list of the Best New Pedals of 2021, is a 3-knob Plexi-style overdrive with an extra boost built by a British amp company based in Northamptonshire. It’s their first pedal, and it’s named after the EL34 tube (or valve, as they say in the UK) found in many Marshall amps.
As a matter of fact, the company is very explicit about the goal of this pedal:
This pedal helps emulate the tone and harmonics of an EL34 output stage, without the need to swap valves in your amp.
And if your amp already has that tube in it, you can still use it for extra voicing, tone sculpting and its separate Boost circuit, which has its own footswitch.
Have a listen to this Marshall-inspired overdrive in the video below, we added it to our article about the best Plexi-style pedals.
Rift Amplification EL34, Builder’s Notes
EQ and Boost Pedal
The EL34 is going to be the new secret weapon in your rig.
This pedal helps emulate the tone and harmonics of an EL34 output stage, without the need to swap valves in your amp. Simply plug and play to hear what your amplifier would sound like if it actually had EL34s.
Already got an EL34 amp? No problem, use this pedal as an extra voicing and BOOST to really push your amp into harmonically-rich overdrive.
Each EL34 pedal offers the following features:
Three knobs to control VOLUME, TONE, GAIN.
Two foot-switches, one for ON/OFF and the other for BOOST
Laser-cut black-anodised aluminium faceplate with screen-printed graphics
Built to last with ease-of-servicing in mind, no fiddly PCBs or hard-to-source parts
9-volt operation with the industry standard centre-negative 2.1mm DC input socket – no battery
The pedal is true point-to-point construction using the same components as our amplifiers.
Hardware includes SWITCHCRAFT/NEUTRIK sockets and GORVA foot-switches.
Full no-quibble LIFETIME warranty to the original owner
