DEATH BY AUDIO x RAINGER FX: AMP CRASH

“Combining a real speaker and microphone with built in effects in a compact pedal format” -The Manual, you should read that!

Full disclosure, it’s been about ⅔ years maybe that I’ve owned an amp and switched to digital (my back started hurting and I know i’m whining) and having many many years ago had a small pedal amp and distortion in a food named, plastic case I did have some experience with this sort of thing.

I knew straight away this wouldn’t be the case here  having been very familiar with Death By Audio through listening to ‘Oh Sees’ and always imagining playing through one of those must be skull crushing (I’m too broke) and of Rainger through stumbling across ‘The Minibar’and the following horrifying suggestions for fluids to be used in its conjunction.

It wasn’t so much the waking horrors of the comments sections as it was for the innovation behind the idea, another that comes to mind is the ‘igor’ expression pad, another example of taking an idea and innovating on it, so safe to say it was exciting to first get the scans through of the manual and seeing both names together and on something so strange and exciting which would also prove handier than expected.

My number one piece of advice before you even plug it in? ‍ ‍ TURN IT DOWN FIRST


Whatever tone you may have in your head, that may have been inspired by the belt clip, plastic pedal or any other previous attempts at this format forget it immediately because that was my initial shock, the depth and richness of sound for a speaker this size is ridiculously good, obviously it’s not gonna be enough to be selling out Wembley (although it does fill out the sound in a good sized venue, we tried) it’s definitely got enough volume to get your neighbours in on the fun (or out on the street).

Now if you didn’t follow the previous advice then you may find yourself momentarily disagreeing but once the tinnitus wears off, you’ll realise that’s a feature not a bug. You may have noticed that the gain past 7 is labelled ‘OVERLOAD” which results in self oscillation (labelled as ‘gnarly’ in the manual, love that) which can also be manipulated with the inbuilt effects, mainly the echo with the depth gunned and go crazy on the time for some gorgeous tape squeals.

Also thanks to the ingenious design of having a microphone inbuilt on the speaker and a separate volume control, you can have the pedal rigged up to your amp, modeller, cab (we’ll get there) or your chosen whatever and yell into it using it as a mic and even manipulate your voice with said lovely overloading and tape delay, i really like the tape delay, like r e a l l y like this tape delay.

So as stated previously i mentioned plugging into a cab, this is where this pedal has come in so damn handy, you can run an 8 ohm or 16 ohm cab off it and use it as a pre amp, complete with a simple yet effective bass/treble knob which has echoes of designs of early ‘citrussy’ amp, this thing f*cking rocks man. To have something with this level of functionality on its own has had me hooked and was already dragging me back into the pedal world I’d begun to disregard for the digital, but man the tactility really brings you back but then the utility -chefs kiss-.

For those not too in the know about the world of modellers, if you were wanting to run your device without an amp but still use a cab on stage, then you’re main options would either be a powered FRFR or a preamp pedal, which usually go for an eye watering amount and usually you’ll be suggested maybe 1 of maybe 2 popular options. I’d say this fills that market alone but I haven't even discussed the tones yet.

Even by themselves, the gain section and EQ provide you with a range of tones from chimney cleans, sharp tight overdrives, that thick throaty signature DBA fuzz through to ripping velcro fuzz, this thing had me sitting chugging on doomy power chords for hours just out of how ferocious it sounded, partner it up with some King Gizz esque, quick and messy delay and this things a beast, blend in the mic and forget about it.

The reverb goes from drippy and springy to cavernous without breaking a sweat and the chorus can double as a flanger when slowed down but sounds heavenly in its own right (I’ve had a jazz chorus if that's any qualifier).

Combining the stylish and unmistakable aesthetics and audio machinations of Death By Audio and Rainger FX, The Amp Crash is the swiss army knife I was looking for that just didn’t exist yet!

Thank you to Rainger Fx, Everyone at DBA, Taylor and Beck for the opportunity to demo such a cool pedal and we should have some video demos up very soon!

Words and thoughts by Josh G (He/him)