Broughton Audio

The company's design voice comes through in its product descriptions: the Ascalon is described as "an original distortion pedal" whose "lows and mids are fully present"⁶, and the Evergreen Overdrive is framed as the maker's take on "the classic Tubescreamer design"⁷.

What Broughton Audio makes

The range clusters into a few families, with filters and EQ pedals forming the core.

The filter line is where the company is most distinctive. The Low Pass Filter is described as a tool for "taming harsh high end such as fret buzz, string noise, and artifacts" from other pedals, and at its most extreme setting it can turn a bass signal into a low-end dub tone or simulate the high-frequency roll-off of speaker cabinets¹¹. It works with active or passive instruments, and also with pedals, preamps or effects loops¹¹. The Resonant Filter Equalizer combines a high pass filter, low pass filter and middle equalizer in one pedal³, while the Parametric Equalizer offers three bands with independent control of frequency, bandwidth and level¹². The Mastering Equalizer is a tribute to the vintage Pultec PEQ-1A¹³.

On the drive side, the Chimera is described as producing thick harmonic distortion that makes it "an excellent drive pedal for bass players"¹⁴, the Dystopia is an original transistor fuzz whose dynamics respond to your volume control or a volume pedal¹⁵, and the Calamity is a fuzz with equalizer features¹⁶. The Sunray is an original-design tube overdrive¹⁷.

Bass first, but not bass only

Broughton designs with bass in mind, but several pedals are stated to work beyond it¹⁶²⁴:

• The Ascalon distortion "works great on guitar too"⁶
• The Dynamo envelope filter is "capable of funky tones for bass and guitar"²⁵
• The Sunray tube overdrive "works great for bass or guitar"¹⁷
• The Mini Fridge cab sim is designed for bass guitar but "could easily work well" with upright bass, electric or acoustic guitar, or keys²⁴
• The Fliptop Boost uses JFETs "chosen specifically with bass guitar in mind," allowing large headroom²²

Buying direct: ordering, shipping, warranty and returns

Broughton Audio sells through its own site rather than through dealers. All orders ship via Canada Post, internationally, at a flat rate no matter how many pedals you buy, with the shipping cost shown at check-out²⁶. Shipments are insured with tracking²⁷.

Warranty and returns follow the same terms across the range:

• Warranty: products are covered for one year to the original owner, with warranty repairs handled by emailing sales@broughtonaudio.com²
• Returns: email sales@broughtonaudio.com within 7 days of receiving the product; the buyer pays return shipping, and the refund is issued minus the shipping cost once the product is verified back in new condition²⁸⁹

The pedals require a DC power supply, which is not included².

Broughton Audio and PedalPCB

Broughton circuits circulate in the DIY world through PedalPCB, a maker of do-it-yourself circuit boards, and the two companies are separate. PedalPCB states that it is "in no way affiliated with Broughton Audio" and that its boards are not manufactured or distributed by Broughton Audio, with trademarks used for comparative purposes only²⁸. Two of its PCBs are explicitly based on Broughton designs: the Referee EQ, compared to the Resonant Filter Equalizer²⁸, and the Frequency Interchange Filter, compared to the Low + High Pass Filter²⁹. A player who wants the original builds them through Broughton Audio; a builder who wants to solder one together can get the circuit from PedalPCB.

Availability

Much of the range is listed as out of stock on the maker's own product pages, including the Dynamo, Calamity, Gladius, Dystopia, Resound, Mastering Equalizer, Parametric Equalizer, Sunray, Solarian, Mini Fridge, Chimera, Malfiore, Synth Voice, Bass Box, Electronic Tube DI, Messenger DI and Helion^{251691510131217302414312632201821}. The Ascalon sold out on March 20th, and the maker says another batch is possible if enough players use the "Notify When Available" button on its page⁶. For a player set on a specific model, that button is currently the maker's own suggested route.

The range (56)

Questions