Anasounds High Voltage

The Anasounds High Voltage is a plexi distortion pedal handmade in France by Anasounds¹. Its sound was not guessed at: the Anasounds team, advised by AC/DC fans, developed the pedal from a frequency analysis of "It's a Long Way to the Top (If U Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" from the album High Voltage, after an original design goal of capturing a Marshall plexi pushed to 11¹². Pedal of the Day's 2020 review described it as a pedal designed to emulate Malcolm Young and his tone, "based around the Marshall Plexi"³.

A plexi distortion voiced on an AC/DC track

The story behind the voicing is unusual. Anasounds says the sound was first supposed to be close to a Marshall plexi pushed to 11, but the team instead ran a frequency analysis of "It's a Long Way to the Top (If U Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" and built the pedal around what they found¹². The target player is specific: Pedal of the Day reported that the High Voltage "was designed to emulate Malcolm Young and his tone," the rhythm guitarist who carried AC/DC's chord work³.

The review found the results usable beyond the tribute angle:

The same review called it "a true powerhouse of a pedal" and noted that, based around the Marshall Plexi, "it makes your chords stand out in any mix"³.

The controls

Four knobs sit on the outside of the pedal: Bass Cut, Gain, Tone and Out¹⁵. Anasounds describes the Gain pot as running from a slight transparent overdrive to a very powerful distortion, so the pedal covers both overdrive and full distortion territory from one knob¹. The Out pot sets output volume, and Anasounds credits its Texas Instruments OPA (operational amplifier) circuitry with what it calls "40V effective" dynamics¹⁵.

Pedal of the Day summed up the front panel as "Output, Tone and Gain give you three recognizable controls to deal with," alongside the bass control³.

Internal voicing trimpot and treble cut switch

Inside the enclosure are two additional adjustments: a treble cut switch and a voicing trimpot¹⁵. The voicing trimpot, which Anasounds calls "the magic trimpot of voicing," shifts the character toward more modern saturation or a warmer, more vintage sound¹⁵. Pedal of the Day described it as adjustable "Voicing (modern or vintage-type flavors)"³.

The treble cut switch ships activated by default, and Anasounds explains why in terms of the source material: when you listen to Malcolm's song, there is nothing over 4kHz⁵. Players who want a brighter, more modern top end can open the pedal and switch the cut off.

Power and connections

The High Voltage runs on an external 9V DC supply with negative polarity, drawing 55mA, with a hum and noise filter built inside the pedal¹. There is no battery option in the maker's specifications. Input impedance is 1.4M and output impedance is 7.6k¹. The pedal is an analog design², and switching is handled by a soft click footswitch driving a true bypass relay¹.

Limited edition Savage and High Voltage set

In 2022 Anasounds released a limited edition combining one Savage overdrive and one High Voltage overdrive in the same enclosure⁶. Only 50 registered pieces were made⁶⁷. The double pedal added a chain invert switch to the familiar Bass Cut, Gain, Tone and Out controls, included a bumper buffer before both pedals, and used the same true bypass relay switching with a soft click footswitch on both sides⁶. Its 9V supply, plugged into the back, was duplicated, separated and filtered to feed the whole system and prevent noise⁶.

Where it is made and where it stands

All Anasounds pedals are handmade in France⁴, something Pedal of the Day also noted in its review³.

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