NUX Ace of Tone

Chinese pedal builders have been stepping up their tone game in the last couple of years, offering an ever-increasing range of incredibly affordable yet good-sounding pedals. NUX is one of the companies at the heart of it all.

Their Ace of Tone is a new dual, configurable overdrive stacking two existing mini models, the Tube Man MkII on the left side and the well-regarded Morning Star on the right, respectively a tube-like overdrive and a Blues Breaker clone with improved highs.

Each channel has its own on/off footswitch that can be configured to be buffered or true bypass through a switch on the back panel.

A dip switch in the middle changes the routing, placing either circuit first in the chain depending on its position.

There are also some extra hidden features: holding the right footswitch will activate the “bright” function (the “shine” light on the right will turn on), while holding the left footswitch will turn on a low-mids bump (“fat” LED turns on). Interestingly (and wonderfully), these two tone-sculpting features can be configured independently for the two channels.

The Ace of Tone hasn’t been released yet, but you can hear how it sounds in the demos below.