The EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold V2 is an authentic emulation of a Model T Amp from Sunn, a solid-state amp known for its loud and bassy tones manufactured by a Portland-based company founded in 1967 that was acquired by Fender in 1985 and unceremoniously terminated in 2002.
The amp’s dark tone was adopted by the Stoner Rock movement of the early ’90s.
This one-knob pedal delivers one drive/distortion flavor but does it amazingly well, and with plenty of gain on tap.
The circuit is actually very responsive to your guitar’s volume and pickup selection, so you can use those controls to widen your tonal palette from light crunch all the way to that stoner sound the original amp is famous for.
V2 features a soft-touch relay silent switching system, new, more robust enclosures as well as top-mounted input and output jacks.
The Acapulco Gold is sol well regarded that it made our top 10 of the best distortion pedals of all times.
EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold V2, Builder’s Notes
Power Amp Distortion
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.
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PowerThis device takes 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!
