Tone City Reviews!

Tone City managed to strike the perfect balance between affordability, ease of use and excellent tone with their diverse mini pedal range. This winning formula took us completely by surprise! But what does the guitar world really think of them? Read on to find out!

Introduction

You may already be familiar with the colourful Tone City range of mini pedals. It features a multitude of overdrives, distortions, modulation effects and ambience aplenty, each hovering around the £40 mark. It’s their affordability that’s put them on the map – they deliver an incredible range of sounds at significantly cheaper prices than many of their competitors. But you probably already know about all of that – that’s not why you’re here. You’re here because you want to know what people really think of Tone City.

Don’t take it from us, or even Tone City themselves; we thought we’d share a little bit of what other people have to say! We’ve collated customer reviews, player testimonials, video reviews and press snippets to give you the best impression of the general consensus on the Tone City range. Read on and let us know what you think!

If you already know about Tone City and want an easy-to-read comparison of the different drive pedals then click here for our comprehensive guide.

Tone City Videos!

When Lee first heard of Tone City, he certainly had his doubts. Once he played them, however, he couldn’t resist, and placed an order immediately. Upon their arrival, he sat down with Chappers and Rabea to get their thoughts – they weren’t disappointed!

We’ve really put the Tone City range through its paces on Andertons TV. Thorough demos, reviews and shootouts to make sure that they really do get a fair trial. Below is a playlist of all of our Tone City-related video content for your viewing pleasure!

Tone City Testimonials

The musings of people at the forefront of the guitar gear industry. We think these quotes rather nicely sum up the general opinion of Tone City pedals!

"Holy f*ck-wagon – that is a great sounding pedal! What is going on? That’s ridiculous…wow!"

– Rob Chapman’s genuine first impression of the Golden Plexi Overdrive

"These pedals sound really top notch – you just don’t think that it’d cost so little for that quality."

– Rabea Massaad

"£39 for a metal, true bypass, decent-sounding pedal! The guys at Tone City have said any faults in the first 2 years after purchase and we’ll just replace it for you… this is a bit good really, isn’t it?"

– Lee 'The Captain' Anderton

"I thought ‘how could a fairly new company come up with this many new good-sounding designs?’ I was so wrong. There are so many different flavours of overdrives and distortions, the delay is wonderful…they’re all so, so great. I was shocked at how good they actually do sound!"

– Ryan Bruce, Riffs & Beards

Tone City Customer Reviews

The Tone City range has a rating of 4.8/5 – based on 681 reviews of the full 21-pedal range!

You’ve heard it from us, you’ve heard it from the people at the top of their game – now it’s time to hear the opinions of the general public. Check out these Tone City reviews collated from the Andertons website in association with Feefo!

  • Way better than I had expected given the price!
  • Very well made, and much cheaper than the alternatives. What's not to like?
  • I saw the Tone City video reviews and was sceptical that they could be such good value for money. As a fairly average guitar player I don't feel justified spending a fortune on my gear but these pedals sound as good as the ones my friends are using for twice the price and they feel bulletproof for the build quality.
  • The Angel Wing chorus pedal is solidly built and amazing quality for the cost. It delivers all of the rich creamy tone you'd expect from a pedal several times the price. The metal case means it'll take some abuse and unlike even some more expensive options, proper true bypass.
  • Disregarding the price, it is a well built and great sounding pedal. When you take the price in to account it's even better!
  • I didn't know what to expect and usually wouldn't have looked at this twice, but as it turns out this pedal has immediately found a permanent home on my pedal board, replacing a far more expensive, similar pedal. I can't believe the sound is so good from such a small and cheap unit.
  • This pedal sounds so much like a Marshall I no longer need to buy a Marshall. Great pedal if that's what you're looking for.
  • Excellent pedal. Superb sound, controls offer great range of tones and the build quality is way above the price point. Overall a superb product.
  • Astounding sound, again can't believe the quality for the price of the unit! Great tone great price.
  • Even better than the online reviews would lead you to believe.
  • Don't know how they do it.
  • Great pedal at a bargain price. Every guitarist should have one.
  • It's just an instant 'make it sound better' pedal. I just leave it on almost all the time. Insane value for money.
  • The build quality is very good, true bypass, low noise and perhaps more importantly...the tone. It's sweet, dynamic and responsive and with a nice tube amp produces some brilliant tones.
  • It's simple and it does exactly what it should do. I am very, very satisfied.

Tone City in the Press & Online

Total Guitar

“While the Sweet Cream will be lapped up by the blues cats, the hairy-sounding Golden Plexi is for the hard-rockers – the name is an obvious reference to the classic Marshall heads of the 60s and beyond…there’s an impressive level of grunt on offer here that’s perfect for Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Van Halen stuff. The Golden Plexi is so addictive we have to keep reminding ourselves that this little treasure is only 40 quid. Bargain.”

”While the Golden Plexi has a tone control, the Sweet Cream features a little knob marked 'touch'. Twisting it up all the way adds gain, volume and compression to the sound. You won't want to turn it down again. We also love how this pedal responds to player dynamics: hit hard and it snarls; soften and it cleans right up. Just like a great valve amp.”

Music Radar

”Chorus hasn't exactly been a gigbag essential for guitarists post-1991. But considering you can bag one of this quality at this price, it would be a shame to miss out.”

”Similar to the spotless sheen of a Boss CE-2, the Angel Wing brings the Purple Rain with everything at 12 o'clock, but crank the depth and you've got a half-decent EHX Small Clone impression for distorted grunge-isms, while maxing out the depth gives you a proper pitch-bending vibrato, too.”

”It doesn't have quite the speed range for Leslie-style vibes, but the Angel Wing is chorus done very, very right.”

Geargods.net

”The Sweet Cream might be based on a Klon…it’s very transparent. It sounded really good - great boost, thickened sound, even with gain knob up high. It also didn’t get noisy, no feedback or anything. For blues, rock and country, this is pretty good!”