Thorpy Gunshot

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I recently bought a Gunshot overdrive pedal directly from Thorpy Fx. The pedal arrived quickly and was very well packed. Unboxing the Gunshot is an event in its self - the packaging has been nicely designed and there is a real weight to the feel of everything. The pedal its self is built like a tank, is of the highest quality, looks fantastic and has been well thought through with great touches like the controls being protected against accidental knocks from clumsy feet like mine! So far, so good. And then you turn it on……

There is a sound that not many people get to really hear or appreciate these days. It’s a sound often talked about, often written about and often the goal of many a pedal or amp designer. It’s not a sound that you hear often these days as there simply aren't that many venues or situations where a guitarist can really take it to 11! It’s that sound in your head, it’s that sound on the records, it's the sound of a high powered valve amp cranked to the maximum and then pushed a bit more. It’s THAT sound. And Thorpy have nailed it.

I have lots (and lots) of overdrive pedals. I mix and match them, stack them, put compressors in front of them and/or after them, use them to drive the front end of different valve amps harder, play with ’sag’ controls on power supply's to change their character, all the things that guitarists do in their quest to find the sound in their head. Then I plugged in the Gunshot between a Les Paul and a Lazy J J20. 

Rock happened. And it happened right.

There’s complex harmonics, depth, clarity and quality. It cleans up with the guitar volume control just like a vintage bank account busting valve amp would. It fills the room, just like a wall of 4x12’s would. It had me powering out riff after riff, noodling trick leads and singing out single note melody lines all night. What a fantastic bit of kit. The twin gain stages enable you to blend the character of the sound to just how you like it and it works, really, really well. Play around with it to find that sweet spot that you like and there it is, THAT sound. And now I have it at volumes that won’t scare the neighbours! At last. 

As you can tell, I’m impressed with the Thorpy Gunshot. It’s a quality bit of kit with a sound to match. I bought directly through the Thorpy FX website so the builder (Adrian Thorpy, British Army bomb disposal and electronics expert, so he knows his way around a circuit!) gets maximum benefit so he can carry on building such decent guitar gear. If you like the sound of valve amps working hard, with that natural, warm, smooth power they produce, get a Thorpy FX Gunshot and you’ll hit the target every time.
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Comments

  • Welcome!

    @ThorpyFX ;

    ;)
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  • ThorpyFXThorpyFX Frets: 6090
    tFB Trader
    Welcome!

    @ThorpyFX ;

    ;)
    Not me guvnor! 

    Thanks for the review@SteveY 
    Adrian Thorpe MBE | Owner of ThorpyFx Ltd | Email: thorpy@thorpyfx.com | Twitter: @ThorpyFx | Facebook: ThorpyFx Ltd | Website: www.thorpyfx.com
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  • Ha...I was just hooking you up...wasn't implying sock puppetage! ;)
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  • Went into Mansons Guitars yesterday to try a Gunshot on the strength of this review. Loved it, bought it, tried it at a gig last night. I'm in, totally blown away. Best OD sound and feel I've had through my Rambler with Tom Anderson Cobra S. 
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  • I have one on order and I confess I was a bit worried that I'd spent over the odds on a pedal - your reviews have helped calm my nerves as I wait!
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  • SteveYSteveY Frets: 3
    Glad my review was of use. I met Adrian Thorpe at the South of England guitar show last week and he's a really genuine solid bloke passionate about doing things right. The quality and sound of his pedals is testament to that. As firepaulmusic says, it's got a sound and a feel (with 'feel' being just as important as the sound in how it makes you play) that just works. Play around with the two gain controls to get lots of different dynamics out of it and everything from warm bluesy breakup to outright screaming lead. The tone control works really well too. It doesn't just muddy up the sound when you turn it down, like many pedals would, it seems to enhance the bottom end. Similarly, as you turn up the tone control it just brings in brightness and sparkle, rather than getting sharp. A pedal that is this well thought through, this well designed and this well built is worth a bit of extra cash. 
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  • ChesterChester Frets: 52
    Placing my Gunshot order today .. and thinning out the FX herd as a result
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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7733
    SteveY said:
    Glad my review was of use. I met Adrian Thorpe at the South of England guitar show last week and he's a really genuine solid bloke passionate about doing things right. 
    Interesting. Never heard of him.
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  • peteripeteri Frets: 1283
    Another vote for Thorpy - absolutely top bloke
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  • firepaulmusicfirepaulmusic Frets: 362
    edited October 2016
    I put off sticking it on my board with Velcro just in case it was a honeymoon period. Just done my second solo gig of the weekend with the Gunshot direct through my Two Notes Live and it's the best direct sound I've ever had. It's everything I wanted out of Fractal and Kemper gear but could never quite get...sat here at 1:30am having a post gig glass of ice cold white wine feeling chuffed with my latest purchase
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  • I just spent a few happy hours practicing a few rocky/bluesy numbers thinking more about the arrangements than my playing or how it sounded, so amp and pedals were behind me and lots of scribbled notes on my desk in front of me. After nailing one track I thought I must make a note of the exact pedal settings as the sound was awesome.

    Settings were clean amp channel, TS808 OFF, BD-2 OFF, actually everything OFF, except GUNSHOT, and even that had Calibre at 0. I'm playing a stratty type guitar, neck pickup, tone rolled all the way off. Oh my word - that noise is the reason I play guitar!
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  • ennspekennspek Frets: 1626
    edited November 2016
    I went to buy a tank yesterday. The guy said these are built like a Thorpy pedal.
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  • ChalkyChalky Frets: 6807
    The Gunshot is one of those rare pedals that you need to put on a table when you first get it so you can easily tweak the knobs and work through ALL the sounds you can get out of it. If you just put it straight on the floor and tweak the knobs only around the 12 noon area you will miss out on a lot of its musical capabilities.
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  • Pete24vPete24v Frets: 235
    I'm pretty picky (probably like the rest of us) about my main overdrive tone. 

    I use clean amps, either a Fender Rivera Concert or a Carol Ann Satin, so all drive is from the pedal. 

    My drive pedal must be thick, crunchy, and alter when the guitars volume is turned down. It's must also play nice with a boost before of after it. 

    The best I've found, and the longest surviving pedal on the board pre Thorpy was a Mojohand Rook. I love that thing. 

    But the Gunshot is so much more. The quality of the gain hitting the amps seems way more responsive and touch sensitive. 

    Can't see anything replacing it anytime soon. 


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  • mixolydmixolyd Frets: 826
    ennspek said:
    I went to buy a tank yesterday. The guy said these are built like a Thorpy pedal.
    Hyperbole.
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