JAM Pedals x King Gizzard: Meet the Tiny Amp Destroyer
We’re excited to welcome one of JAM Pedals’ wildest collaborations yet to Round Hill Music Co: the Tiny Amp Destroyer, created with Stu Mackenzie of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.
The idea behind the pedal started with a decidedly unconventional piece of gear: a tiny, cheap pawn shop amp that Stu has used extensively in the studio and on the road. Driven hard by a pair of JAM Pedals Boomster boosts, the little amp produced a crunchy, boxy and blown-out character that became part of the sound behind recent King Gizzard recordings.
Instead of cleaning that sound up, JAM Pedals set out to capture exactly what made it special.
The result is the Tiny Amp Destroyer, or TAD, a drive pedal designed to recreate the unpredictable character of a small amp being pushed far beyond its limits. Its two-stage gain structure can move from lower-gain breakup to dense, saturated distortion, while additional tone shaping, a treble boost and the pedal’s “Magic” switch open up even more possibilities.
It can get raw, buzzy and completely unhinged, but it’s not limited to one novelty sound. TAD can also operate as a versatile full-range drive, reacting differently depending on the guitar, pickups and amp placed around it.
JAM Pedals brought a prototype to Stu during King Gizzard’s Athens residency, where he plugged it in and immediately gave the ultimate approval: “You nailed it.” He went on to use the pedal throughout the rest of the tour, with that real-world testing helping shape the final version.
Completing the collaboration is original artwork by Jason Galea, the artist responsible for much of King Gizzard’s unmistakable visual universe.
The JAM Pedals x King Gizzard Tiny Amp Destroyer will be available at Round Hill Music Co. If you like your guitar tones a little less polished and a lot more dangerous, this is one worth plugging into.
