The Amzel Electronics Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator is a distortion pedal from Amzel Electronics. Rather than asking players to dial in a sound from scratch, the pedal includes presets: six guidepost settings intended as starting points. As Premier Guitar's reviewer put it, "they provide six guidepost settings to use as baselines of experimentation, which are quite helpful"12.
Delicious Audio's Ryan Dembinsky put the idea plainly: "the Cheshire Cat gives you the ability to make that flat clipped segment into a frenzied mess all its own"1.
How the circuit works
The pedal's premise is that the flat, clipped top of a distorted waveform is a tone in its own right, worth sculpting separately from the guitar's fundamental sound. Because the filter and dynamics sections only act on the signal above the distortion threshold, the player's basic tone stays intact underneath, and the knobs shape the "evaporated" clipped segment on top of it2.
The controls: Inject, Distortion and Volume, plus the top row
The Cheshire Cat has six knobs in two rows, and Guitar.com's reviewer called them "six extremely interactive controls that really enable you to sculpt your sound"2. The bottom row governs the overall effect; the top row focuses specifically on the clipped part of the tone1.
| Knob | Row | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Inject | Bottom | Changes how the three circuits interact: at zero it disables the filters and dynamics; higher values increase the distortion and activate the Resonance, Frequency and Accent controls3 |
| Distortion | Bottom | Sets the distortion for the whole tone, not just the actual distortion1 |
| Volume | Bottom | Output level1 |
| Resonance | Top | Affects the filter response; with resonance at full, sweeping the frequency knob works like the Q control on an envelope filter, yielding choked tones and vowel-like characters2 |
| Frequency | Top | Functions like a basic tone control2 |
| Accent | Top | Manipulates playing dynamics; increasing it yields a more compressed, softer and valve-like character2 |
Inject is the key to the pedal. Turn it up and you bring the resonance, frequency and accent knobs into play, giving full access to the Tone Evaporator circuit2. Guitar.com also found a studio use for it: "once you find your killer tone you can make it more or less pronounced by using the inject knob like a mix control"2.
Settings and starting points
Because the six knobs interact, Amzel provides six guidepost settings to use as baselines for experimentation, which Delicious Audio's reviewer found quite helpful1. The guidepost tones include1:
- a conventional distortion tone
- a few different enhanced distortion tones for added texture
- a noisy distortion
- the "fried" tone, with inject, accent and resonance all maxed out and the frequency dialed back
Versions: blue and green
The original 2014 pedal is a blue box3. In August 2015 Amzel released a new green version, which Guitar.com reviewed; the green version has higher-quality potentiometers and a smaller footprint than the original blue version2. Guitar.com's reviewer had warm words for the first version too: "The original blue Cheshire Cat is one of those 'secret weapon' pedals you find yourself wondering about when you sneak a..."2.
The original blue version's casing is on the large side, so it may not be ideal for space-saving boards, though the reviewer noted it has a great look1. Players tight for room may prefer the smaller-footprint green version2.
What reviewers said
Delicious Audio's verdict was enthusiastic: "Now here's a clever pedal that was a blast to demo"1. The same reviewer described it as "a flexible distortion pedal that covers a variety of needs" and called it a great idea in terms of a new way to think about distortion overall1. Guitar.com's headline verdict was "The purr-fect friend for distortion tweakers"2.
For players comparing distortion designs, the Cheshire Cat sits apart from a conventional distortion pedal because of that post-clipping filter and dynamics stage; it is closer in spirit to what a filter pedal does, but applied only to the clipped part of the signal32.
Questions
What does the Inject knob do on the Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator?
Inject changes the way the pedal's three circuits, the distortion, the filter and the dynamics section, interact with each other. At zero it disables the filters and dynamics, leaving a conventional distortion. At higher values it increases the distortion and brings the Resonance, Frequency and Accent controls into play, giving full access to the Tone Evaporator circuit. Guitar.com also notes it can be used like a mix control to make a found tone more or less pronounced.
Does the Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator run on a battery?
Yes. Delicious Audio's review notes the pedal has handy 9V battery access, something the reviewer said he had grown to appreciate more and more. The pedal is otherwise a 100% analog design.
Is the Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator large for a pedalboard?
The original blue version's casing is on the large side, so Delicious Audio's reviewer cautioned it may not be ideal for space-saving boards, though he liked its look. The later green version released in 2015 has a smaller footprint than the original blue version, according to Guitar.com.
What do the resonance, frequency and accent knobs do?
The top row of three knobs focuses on the clipped part of the tone. Resonance affects the unit's filter response: with resonance at full, sweeping the frequency knob produces an effect like the Q control on an envelope filter, yielding choked tones and vowel-like characters. Frequency functions like a basic tone control. Accent manipulates playing dynamics, and increasing it yields a more compressed, softer and valve-like character.
What color is the Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator?
The original version, unveiled in 2014, is a blue box. In 2015 Amzel released a new green version, which Guitar.com reviewed and which also has higher-quality potentiometers and a smaller footprint than the original.
Sources (3)
- Pedal Reviews: Amzel Electronics’ Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator, Delicious Audio, 2014-12-11
- Amzel Cheshire Cat review, Guitar.com, 2015-08-07
- New Pedals: Amzel Electronics' Cheshire Cat Tone Evaporator, Delicious Audio, 2014-07-14
