Crazy Tube Circuits released the Rapture today. It's the amp-voiced drive section of the company's Triptychon multi-fuzz/multi-gain pedal, broken out into its own enclosure because, by the company's account, players kept asking for it on its own.
€189 direct from Crazy Tube Circuits, listed in stock and shipping in two to three days. Thomann has it at around $177 / £162.
What it is, per Crazy Tube Circuits:
- "A low to mild overdrive designed around the qualities of a classic tube amplifier." Their emphasis is natural compression, touch sensitivity and a gradual walk from clean into breakup, not saturation
- The original Triptychon drive voice at the core. With both toggles down you get the exact circuit from the Triptychon
- MOD toggle: a more open response, which they describe as being like adding another set of power tubes and a beefier output transformer to a tube amp
- MORE toggle: interacts with the drive control and with MOD to change how intense the gain is and what character it has
- Pushed variations of one voice, not separate channels. The switches give you four versions of the same amp, not four amps
- Launch coverage lists Gain, Tone and Master knobs. The manual is linked on the product page if you want to confirm before buying
Crazy Tube Circuits hasn't published bypass type, power draw or dimensions on the product page yet. I'll update this if they do.
I haven't played one. What follows is about what the two switches describe, because they're the reason to care about this pedal and not some other low-gain overdrive.
A Low-Gain Pedal That Talks About Power Tubes
Most "amp in a box" pedals are described in preamp terms: gain, EQ, maybe a voicing switch. The Rapture's main switch is described in power-section terms instead, and those are a different thing.
When a real amp breaks up, two separate things are happening. The preamp tubes clip, which gives you harmonics and edge. And the power section runs out of headroom, which gives you compression and sag: the note squashes on the attack and blooms back as it decays. That second part is the bit people mean by "it feels like an amp." It's also why a 15-watt Deluxe Reverb and a 100-watt Twin with the same preamp sound and feel nothing alike at the same volume. The full mechanism is in master volume vs. non-master breakup.
So when Crazy Tube Circuits says MOD is like adding more power tubes and a bigger transformer, read it as less sag, more headroom, cleaner for longer. Gearnews compared it to a Fender Reverb amp, which is the right family. MOD down is the small amp that gives up early. MOD up is the big one that stays clean until you dig in.
That's a very specific thing to put on a switch, and I like it, because it's the setting that decides whether a low-gain pedal works with your hands or just adds hair to everything.
The Same Switch, Inside Your Modeler
Here's the part you can do tonight without spending €189. Every serious modeler already has the MOD switch. It's just buried one menu down in the amp block.
On a Helix or HX Stomp, open the amp block's power-amp parameters:
- Sag: lower means stiffer and more headroom (MOD up). Higher means more squash and bloom (MOD down). Default sits in the middle. For a Deluxe-style edge-of-breakup patch, try going up from default, not down
- Master: on non-master-volume models this sets how hard the virtual power section is pushed. Lower Master plus higher Drive gives you preamp grit with a clean power section, which is MOD up. Higher Master gives you power-amp breakup, which is MOD down
- Bias / Bias X: worth leaving alone until Sag and Master are right
On a Quad Cortex, the amp blocks expose fewer power-amp internals, so the bigger lever is which amp you pick. A Twin-type capture or model stays clean far longer than a Deluxe-type one at the same Gain setting. The switch exists, it's just in the amp choice rather than a parameter.
The test is the same on either platform. Play one chord soft, then the same chord hard. If both come out at about the same level of dirt, you're stiff (MOD up territory). If the hard one breaks up and the soft one stays clean, you've found the setting the Rapture is built around. The Deluxe Reverb settings guide has a starting patch for exactly this.
Where It Goes If You Play Direct
Put it in front of the modeler, before a clean amp block, and let the pedal be your edge-of-breakup. Don't let the amp block do the same job at the same time. Two soft-clipping stages at the same low gain don't sound twice as warm. They sound like nobody is in charge of the dynamics. Preamp pedals vs. overdrive explains why a pedal like this behaves more like a front end than an effect.
Check your modeler's input impedance setting while you're there. A pedal with an output buffer in front means the modeler input no longer needs to imitate a guitar cable. A low-gain pedal is exactly where you'll hear that difference.
Crazy Tube Circuits also suggests trying it after time-based effects. Dirt after delay isn't new; it's how a lot of old records got their smeared, blooming repeats. In a modeler it's a one-block move, so try it: put the drive after a short slapback and see if the repeats start to break up along with the note.
Should You Want One
If you own a Triptychon, you already have this, and the only reasons to buy it are pedalboard space and the two new toggles.
If you have a modeler, spend twenty minutes with Sag and Master first. Most players have never touched them, and they'll get you most of the way to what MOD does.
If you play a real low-wattage tube amp and keep wishing it had one more notch of clean headroom before it gives up, a pedal with a switch that's specifically about headroom is worth a demo. Most overdrives in this price range can't say that.
Dig Deeper on Fader & Knob
- Master volume vs. non-master breakup: preamp grit vs. power-amp sag, the distinction MOD is built on
- Fender Deluxe Reverb settings: the edge-of-breakup amp this kind of pedal is chasing
- Preamp pedals vs. overdrive: why this goes in front of the amp block
- Tube Screamer vs. Klon vs. Blues Driver: the low-gain drives it's up against
- Clean boost vs. overdrive vs. volume pedal: if what you actually want is more level, not more amp
