Rift Amplification Elysium

The Rift Amplification Elysium is a low-gain fuzz pedal from Rift Amplification, a UK-based amp manufacturer, and it is the company's second stompbox¹. Where most fuzz pedals give you a knob to dial in how much fuzz you want, the Elysium fixes the fuzz amount in the low-gain range and leaves you to shape everything else with your guitar's volume control and a single output knob¹².

Guitar.com's reviewer Richard Purvis described its character as sitting between two classic fuzz lineages: "think Tone Bender midrange presence combined with Big Muff smoothness"¹. Delicious Audio framed it as a pedal with a split personality, combining the clarity and dynamic response of a good overdrive with vintage fuzz texture, one that "interacts with your guitar's volume"².

What it does to your sound

The Elysium is built around a deliberately small control set. The fuzz amount is fixed, always in the low-gain range, and there is no knob for more or less fuzziness¹². What you can adjust is how the fuzz speaks and how loud it is:

Because the gain is fixed low, the pedal leans on your playing dynamics and your guitar's volume knob to move between clean-ish edge and full fuzz. Delicious Audio describes the result as a textural and dynamic fuzz with a double personality, one that cleans up and responds the way a good overdrive does while keeping vintage fuzz texture². For a player used to a distortion or overdrive pedal with a gain knob, the Elysium asks for a different working method: set the voice, set the level, then use your hands and your volume control.

Power and connections

The Elysium runs on a 9-volt mains supply only, through an industry standard center-negative 2.1mm DC input socket, drawing 10mA¹².

Bypass is true bypass, so the pedal drops out of the signal path entirely when switched off¹. The enclosure is a little black box measuring 125 x 60 x 55mm, small enough to tuck into a tight board¹.

Handwired build and the Rift EL34 connection

Rift Amplification is primarily an amplifier builder, and the Elysium is fully handwired using the same parts and techniques as the company's amps². Guitar.com's reviewer examined the inside and found it to be proper point-to-point construction: "most of the 'wires' are actually component tails (so it's proper point-to-point) and there are no loops or straggly bits"¹.

The Elysium is a smaller unit than Rift's first stompbox, the EL34, but it shares the same discreetly handsome design style¹. The EL34, released earlier, is a three-knob Plexi-style overdrive with an extra boost stage, named after the EL34 tube found in many Marshall amps, and built in the UK with the same point-to-point construction and a laser-cut black-anodised aluminum faceplate with screen-printed graphics³⁴. Delicious Audio's buying guide notes the EL34 "helps emulate the tone and harmonics of an EL34 output stage (the tube found in Plexi amps)"⁴. Where the EL34 chases a cranked Plexi output stage, the Elysium goes after vintage fuzz territory, but both pedals come from the same handwired workshop.

What reviewers said

Guitar.com reviewed the Elysium in February 2023 and rated it 9 out of 10¹. The reviewer's verdict:

Richard Purvis, Guitar.com¹

The review praised both the build quality and the voicing, with the fixed low-gain fuzz amount treated as a design decision rather than a limitation, a fuzz that takes its own approach instead of copying an existing formula¹.

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