Free The Tone IRON FOREST IF-1D

The Free The Tone IRON FOREST IF-1D is an analog distortion pedal from Japanese maker Free The Tone. It keeps things simple: four rotary controls, Gain, Treble, Bass and Level, with no extra switches or modes¹². RockBoard's PedalPedia describes it as delivering a "powerful tone with ample distortion that stands out from the band ensemble sound"³.

The pedal is discontinued. Free The Tone's product page marks it as production ended, at an original Japanese list price of 25,300 yen including tax¹.

A four-knob analog distortion

The IF-1D is built around one idea: a distortion pedal that does the job without a panel full of options. MusicRadar's review framed it as a pedal for players who would "instead of extra switches and options, go for four basic rotaries"². The circuit is analog, as listed in RockBoard's PedalPedia entry for the pedal³.

Free The Tone positions the Iron Forest as a distortion with equalizer-style tone shaping, and its own description of the sound is a "powerful tone with ample distortion that stands out from the band ensemble sound"³. In MusicRadar's review, the reviewer found the tonal options similar to the higher priced Quad Arrow Distortion pedal, with rich distortion and plenty of sustain, biased toward hard rock and modern metal with a brighter tone and sharper percussive attack⁴. That comparison points to the Free The Tone Quad Arrow Distortion QA-2 as the pricier sibling in the maker's distortion line.

The controls: Gain, Treble, Bass, Level

The panel has four knobs, and Free The Tone's specifications list them as GAIN, TREBLE, BASS and LEVEL¹. MusicRadar described the same layout as "four rotary dials; level/gain/bass/treble"⁴.

The two tone controls carry more weight than their plain names suggest. MusicRadar's review found that "the bass and treble pots are very powerful, enabling you to create a metal-type, mid-scooped sound by boosting both", and that backing them toward 12 o'clock returns a more mid-rich sound². For a player, that means the IF-1D can cover both a scooped modern metal voicing and a more traditional mid-forward distortion from the same two knobs.

The HTS circuit

Inside, the IF-1D uses Free The Tone's HTS (Holistic Tonal Solution) circuit, the same circuit MusicRadar noted in the Gigs Boson overdrive²⁵. Free The Tone developed HTS to manage the pedal's interface from the input section through to the output section. According to the maker, it solves the shortcomings of true-bypass circuits and of the common buffer-plus-electronic-switch combination, and manages how the pedal interacts with connected gear and the effect circuit itself⁵.

For the player, Free The Tone says the HTS circuit keeps the effect tone and the bypass tone at the same consistent quality, and MusicRadar credited it with "pure tones, silent on/off switching"¹⁴. That is the practical difference from a standard true-bypass pedal: the signal path is managed whether the effect is on or off, rather than simply cut out of the circuit.

Power and connections

The IF-1D runs on DC9V, from either a 9V (006P type) battery or an AC adapter through its DC9V input jack¹. RockBoard's PedalPedia entry lists the same supply as 9V DC, center negative³. Current draw is approximately 9mA¹³, low enough that the pedal places almost no demand on a shared pedalboard supply.

Connections are a pair of 1/4-inch standard jacks, one input and one output, and the output load impedance is rated at 10k ohms or above¹.

What reviewers said

MusicRadar's verdict on the Iron Forest was positive on the core sound, calling it "edgy, aggressive distortion that avoids ever getting fizzy", and listing that as a reason to buy². The same review noted the hard rock and modern metal bias, with rich distortion and plenty of sustain⁴.

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