Acapulco Gold

What Does the Acapulco Gold Bring to the Table?

EarthQuaker’s Acapulco Gold is a distortion effects unit like no other. Designed to recreate the classic sound of the Sunn T Model amplifier, this beautiful, American made, stylish looking little box packs a hell of a punch. This pedal is loud, heavy, and brimming with fuzz.

But it’s more than just volume that makes the Acapulco Gold stand out from the crowd.

A Different Kind of Effects Unit

This pedal markets itself on one major selling point: its simplicity. The Acapulco Gold isn’t the kind of pedal you’ll spend five hours fiddling with to get the perfect levels, and that’s because you can’t. This effects unit doesn’t have all the advanced controls you might find on some distortion pedals. It has one big volume knob, and that’s it.

Too simple?

Well, while some may find this stripped-back design overly simplistic, it’s hard to deny that EarthQuaker’s plug-in and play approach to an effects unit is something of a breath of fresh air. It’s not that we don’t love our audio plasmas, or just about anything Boss puts on the market for that matter, but sometimes you have to admit it’s nice to pick up a pedal without feeling like you need a PhD in music theory to use it.

This Pedal Brings the Style but has it really got the Sound?

It’s all well and good for us to wax lyrical about how great this pedal looks, and how refreshing its simple design is, but has it managed to capture the iconic T Model sound? And is one volume knob really all you need on a distortion pedal.

According to EarthQuaker, by properly utilising your guitar’s pickups and tone knobs, one volume knob is all you need to have full control over your sound.  As for that T Model sound, it certainly manages to recreate that vintage fuzz and brings immense amounts of sustain.

As far as we’re concerned the Acapulco Gold might not be complicated, but it’s one epic pedal nonetheless.