ShortScale.org

This arrived in the post today! I tried one out at NAMM a few years ago and loved it, there's something about a pedal with JUST ONE BIG KNOB that really appeals to a certain sensibility of mine (see also: me modding almost every guitar I own to have one pickup, and in the case of my pink Tele going so far as to replace the control plate with just an on/off switch). I've been hankering after an Acapulco Gold since then, but the new price made me wince a little bit for such a simple pedal. ANYWAY, I found this one on eBay for a good price last week, and now here we are...

Pretty impressed that the previous owner has not only kept hold of the original box (I almost never manage this) but also the original cloth bag and the included sticker (which has immediately gone on my bookcase).


I probably won't get chance to take this for a proper spin until next week, but I'll be able to grab my pedalboard from the practice space tomorrow at least. Gonna use this as an excuse to re-velcro all my pedals with some extra heavy duty tape.

My hope/intention with this pedal is that it'll play more nicely with the Tele, as the RAT (at least through my amp) gets pretty shrill. If it works out like I hope, then I'll probably keep the RAT on my board and dial it in for my Iceman. That way I can switch between both guitars mid-set (there's some drop D tunes starting to sneak into the Thank live set and it isn't always practical to retune) and have a distortion that plays nicely with each.

Time will tell, I suppose.

Very nice! I can totally get behind the One Knob To Rule Them All, but in reality, I'm too much of an autistic tweaker to be happy haha.

A totally different vibe to the RAT, hefty, but get the feeling you'll get a lot less feedback.. good or bad; that's up to you

as the RAT (at least through my amp) gets pretty shrill.

There's a dead simple mod (literally snipping out one resistor) you can do that smoothes things out, especially on lower-medium gain settings, called the Ruetz mod, sounds like it'd be up your alley. I much preferred my trusty RAT with that mod, even if you lose a little gain.

Doog wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 2:16 pm There's a dead simple mod (literally snipping out one resistor) you can do that smoothes things out, especially on lower-medium gain settings, called the Ruetz mod, sounds like it'd be up your alley. I much preferred my trusty RAT with that mod, even if you lose a little gain.

Please spay or neuter your rat.

I love the simplistic design as well.

Jamie the owner of the company and pedal designer used to go on tours with The Black Keys back when they were broke and toured in a van.