No King Of Tone? No Problem – The Fuzz Imp Amity Is All You Need

A dual drive pedal for under $200 with two different flavored amp-like overdrives? Sign me up.

No Need To Wait Forever For A Dual Drive

Obviously the demand for dual overdrive pedals has skyrocketed in the past decade or so. The vaunted King of Tone from Analogman is considered the cream of the crop, but I would argue the Browne Amplification Protein is another must-have. Well, Fuzz Imp has decided to join the party, and you may remember them from my previous Echo Moon demo and review.

Meet the Amity, a dual overdrive pedal that features two distinct gain flavors. On the left side we have the “glass”, which is more of a Hiwatt or cranked Fender Twin-style overdrive and gain. On the right is more of a Marshall-flavored gain stage, perfect for more saturated tones. Each side contains a volume and gain control, plus depth and sculpt knobs. Where there are subtle differences between the depth and sculpt, they both are generally similar in that they allow you to tailor the mid range and bass frequencies to your liking for each side of the pedal.

Demo Time

My Thoughts

Ultimately I think Fuzz Imp crushed it with the Amity. There’s a few key reasons for that, starting with my preference for the two drive sides not being identical, as they are on the King of Tone. I much prefer this or the Protein, where you get two different flavors of gain in one pedal, to stack or use independently as you need. That adds a ton of flexibility to anyone’s board. The second big thing here is the price. Fuzz Imp charges $169.99 for the Amity, which feels quite affordable for a small batch, handmade dual drive from the USA. Mind you that my favorite dual drive, the Protein, is significantly more expensive.

The crunch side of the Amity was probably my favorite, as it had a very saturated, punk-friendly tone. Seeing as I mostly play punk and garage rock, I didn’t tweak the knobs too much, but had no trouble dialing in a few nice sounds here and there. I’m sure a more motivated user could get incredible sounds by perfectly dialing in the depth and sculpt knobs.

Glass produced a lot of nice gain as well, but not as saturated, more of an amp-pushed to the boundaries. It also cleaned up quite nicely for boost or always-on drive tones. It’s a very flexible pedal overall, and I will definitely give this some time on my gigging board soon to see how it handles live scenarios. This isn’t the cleanest, most precise pedal, but it makes a hell of a lot of fun noise. Again, for my purposes, this is a fantastic option for dirt tones. Well done to Fuzz Imp on crafting a useful and accessible tool for guitarists.