One of the newer companies on the guitar pedal scene, Tone Freak Effects specializes in stompboxes familiar in design, with a few special tweaks for added versatility. We were intrigued by one of their older models, called Severe, a meaty medium-to-severely-high gain pedal with tones reminiscent of some of the most notorious high gain amplifiers in the world. The standard 3 knob (Gain, Tone, and Level) overdrive taken up a notch, there is a toggle switch that allows for different clipping options – symmetrical, asymmetrical, and no clipping – as well as a bright switch that affects high frequencies on the Tone control. Severe produces a more dynamic sort of overdriven tone, and unlike many other pedals with this much gain on tap it never moves into that heavily-compressed, “rectified” sound. It plays nice with amplifiers of all types and is very well made, equally at home as a rhythm or lead sound. – Brandon Stoner

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