Truetone

The company's product line today spans power supplies, overdrives, distortions, delays, tremolo, a buffer and an archived volume pedal, with the Pure Tone buffer circuit built into every Truetone pedal it has ever made³.

From Visual Sound to Truetone

Alongside the rebrand, the pedal lineup carried over into the new name. The Truetone V3 Jekyll & Hyde was described by reviewers as sonically reengineered into a flexible dual mode pedal with transparent overdrive and searing distortion textures that superbly covers any style of music². It also loses its former Visual Sound badge-like shape for a more compact rectangular, pedalboard-friendly size².

The Truetone name had already appeared on a product before the company rebrand: the Truetone Clean Boost was one of Visual Sound's newest V2 Series pedals shown at Summer NAMM '09, alongside the Vans Warped Distortion and Open Road Overdrive⁷⁸.

Known for the 1 SPOT power supply

The 1 SPOT is a guitar pedal power supply that Truetone says powers 10 or more pedals via a daisy chain, and that more than 25 years later remains the world's most-used guitar pedal power supply⁵. A Combo Pack version packages everything needed to power a full pedalboard right out of the box⁵.

The 1 SPOT's reach extends beyond Truetone's own marketing. Subdecay's Brian Marshall, writing about power supply hum in 2017, noted that "the 1spot delivers more current than most pedalboards could ever use," while also explaining the tradeoff of a daisy-chained supply: "Your pedals will share a ground connection through the power supply"⁹. Anasounds' buying guide calls the 1 Spot with a daisy chain "more than enough" for powering up to 8 analog pedals¹⁰.

For players who want isolated outputs rather than a shared ground, Truetone's 1 SPOT Pro line covers it¹⁹:

Truetone says it pioneered switching power supply technology for musicians in 2000, a year before the 1 SPOT itself launched¹.

The people: Bob Weil

Bob Weil is the founder and president of Truetone, and his name appears across the company's product pages¹¹¹¹². He also co-designed the GarageTone Drivetrain Overdrive with Joe Naylor for Reverend Guitars in 2000¹³.

The pedal range: buffers, tremolo, volume and distortion

Truetone's pedal catalog centers on overdrive and distortion, with the Jekyll & Hyde as its flagship. When the original launched in 1997, Truetone says it was the first effects pedal to combine overdrive and distortion in a single housing with truly independent channels⁶. RockBoard's PedalPedia describes the V1 as a dual-channel pedal that pioneered two independent circuits in a single housing¹⁴, and the V2 adds the V2 Series integrated noise reduction system⁶. The distortion channel also lives on as a standalone: the Son of Hyde V2 is, in RockBoard's words, "the exact same distortion channel found in the highly acclaimed Jekyll & Hyde"¹⁵.

Other pedals in the range:

• Truetone V2 Route 808: the signature overdrive voice from Truetone's most celebrated dual-effect pedal, distilled into its own dedicated unit¹⁶
• Truetone Pure Tone: the Pure Tone Buffer, originally built in 1997 for guitarist Neil Zaza; the same buffer circuit has been built into every Truetone pedal ever made, and this is that circuit alone in its own housing³
• GarageTone Tremolo: a tremolo pedal with Speed, Depth and Wave controls¹⁷
• GarageTone Axle Grease Delay: a delay in a single compact pedal¹⁸
• Truetone VS-XO: front-mounted jacks for clean pedalboard routing¹⁹
• Truetone V2 Van's Warped Distortion: a limited edition distortion pedal²⁰

Several of these sit in the archive section of Truetone's site, including the V2 Truetone Clean Boost, a clean boost pedal with the integrated Pure Tone buffer that Truetone describes as "Transparent By Design," maintaining signal integrity regardless of cable run or effects chain length²¹.

Artists and #1spotboards

Rather than a published artist roster, Truetone runs a hashtag campaign, #1spotboards, inviting artists who use Truetone products on stage or in the studio to tag their images²². One documented player connection is dobro and lap steel player Rob Ickes, who keeps two separate pedalboards, one for each instrument, both powered with separate Truetone 1 Spots²³. Third-party coverage also reflects the 1 SPOT's reach, with a bundled 1 Spot and daisy chain described as an inexpensive solution to power up to 8 pedals¹⁰.

The range (20)

Questions