9 Notable Brazilian Guitar Pedal Brands
Brazil is a fascinating guitar pedal marketplace - mostly inward looking, and mostly closed off from the rest of the world. I was the first European I believe to get Aura Amps and Tone Ink pedals shipped out of Brazil. Some of those brands have some experience of shipping up the landmass and into Central and North America, but little or nothing ventures across the waters in either direction.
Andy Timmons has long favoured the GNI/ NIG Music OctaFuzz (as pictured left of centre) - where I’ve been trying to get my hand on one of those for many a year - they’re just not generally available for us Europeans, and very few of those Brazilian brands operate on Reverb.com or Ebay.
I was initially going to do a deeper and wider post covering off as many of those numerous Brazilian Pedal Brands as I could uncover and decipher, but that seemed a slightly futile exercise - as those mostly aren’t bothered about shipping outside of Brazil or the American Continent - so of no real purpose for a large swathe of my readership.
Several of the Brands I touched on for my Central and South America coverage - are no longer operational - like Stomp Audio Labs for instance - their last Insta post is from many years ago now, also Onerr (Roland / Boss collaborator) seems to be long since defunked with quite a few others. So to find what was viable for this feature I spent several hours on the main Brazilian Online Marketplace - Mercado Livre. Where all the early pages are filled with Caline, Joyo, M-Vave, Nux, and various budget brands - alongside a Brazilian brand called Fuhrmann which seems to be a fairly mainstream Brazilian operator with seemingly mostly entry-level pedals.
A little further on (Mercado Live) I came across Kappa Electronics - where I was particularly taken by its extended range Fuzz takes - where I feature the Fuzzion - essentially a Zvex Fat Fuzz Factory take with searing Soviet Germanium Transistors and additional Big Muff style Tone Stack - super handy and well priced (R$490 / US $86). In trying to find further suitably viable and genuinely interesting and differentiated pedals I somewhat struggled, and decided to favour quality over quantity!
So in the end I settled on just 9 notable brands - which are mostly making some attempt to break outside their boarders to a degree, while some have little discernible purpose in that direction - so I guess dealers are still very much needed to bridge some of those gaps.
The most notable one for me in recent times is Krozz Devices - but that is in great part thanks to enterprising individuals like Steve at FX Pedal Planet - Steve was very much the bridge I needed to connect with that brand and its founder Murilo. In fact most of the Brazilian pedal marketplace is somewhat opaque and hidden from the rest of the world - in fact as is the case with much of Japan’s pedal landscape, while more of those typically end up on retail resources that we can easily access. I believe Steve is making some moved next year to connect with more Brazilian and South American brands - to give them a wider outlet!
There are three brands here that I have a genuine connection with - Victor at Aura Amps, Murilo at Krozz Devices, and Emanuel at Tone Ink and I definitely want to collaborate further with them. I’m always happy to collaborate with Brazilian brands - but for a lot of them the rest of the world doesn’t seem to matter too much most of the time. I guess they already have their hands full with local demand - which is understandable with Brazil’s 210 million plus population. And as mentioned there is a little spillover into neighbouring countries and into North America, but nothing notable really across the water.
It’s important to touch on Beetronics FX and Electric Eye Audio also - where those are former Brazilian brands - but their owners are now wholly operational within the USA - and therefore a lot more mainstream and easy to get hold of! I’ve been trying to connect with Beetronics’ Filipe for a while - but that door remains closed to me. I also used to have a decent relationship with Silas at Electric Eye - but he seems to be mostly ghosting me these day for whatever reason!
So here follow 9 of the most notable Brazilian Brands that I have encountered to-date - and I’m glad to say most of those have appeared on this site already in some guise! As always - if you feel I’ve left something significant out - do let me know - and if any Brazilian brands are reading this and wish to be featured on GPX - for wider worldwide consideration - then do drop me a line!
Here then are the featured brands - represented by selected ambassador pedals :
- Aura Amps : Diamond Dual Rectifier style High Gain Distoriton - R$819.90 / US $156
- Deep Trip FX : Page Bender TB MKII - US $199 / R$949
- Fire Custom Shop : Carpe Diem Compact Classic - R$629 / US $110
- GNI / NIG Music : OctaFuzz - R$497 / US $87
- Kappa Electronics : Fuzzion - R$490 / US $86
- Krozz Devices : Airborn Flanger - US $249
- Monstro (Monster) Effects : Rotten Body Brutal / Extreme High Gain Distortion - $769 / US $133
- Tone Ink : Raven 3-Mode Brute and High Gain Distoriton - R$799 / US $140
- VTR Effects : Kailani Reverb - R$ 1299.99 / IS $228
And here below are the summary brand overviews :
Aura Amps
Aura Amps Range Overview :
- Bella Overdrive (BluesBreaker)
- Buddy Guy Dumble Drive
- Clean Station (Compact 70's SilverFace style Amp)
- Chainsaw Bass Distortion (HM-2 inspired?)
- Crunch Master Crunch / Boost / 10th Anniversary Edition / Black (Classic Rock to High Gain coverage)
- Diamond High Gain Distortion (MESA/Boogie Dual Rec)
- Flow Time Analog Delay / Flow Time Gold Edition
- French Press OTA style Compressor
- Griffen Compact Klone
- Jim Tonic Bella + Viking (BluesBreaker / JTM45 + 2204 JCM800)
- Jimmy Vibe Uni-Vibe / Purple (Hendrix style)
- Le Brown Sugar Overdrvei (Plexi + JCM800)
- Signos Klon Klone / Black Series
- St Booster (Strat styled)
- St Fuzz (Strat styled)
- Tl Overdrive (Tele styled)
- Triple Bell Air 3 Overdrive Combo (Tube Short, Bella and Brown Sugar)
- Tube Short Overdrive / Boost (TS808 + TS9 + Harmonic Boost)
- Twin Trouble Victor Pradella Signature Screamer (TS808/TS9 x 2)
- Viking Distortion (Classic MESA/Boogie)
- White Sugar Overdrive / Gold / Blue Pearl (Plexi + JCM800 + Additional Power Stage / Knob)
Prices range from R$480 - R$1500 / $85 - $265
I've indicated my favourites in bold - which also happen to be the ones that I own - both excellent - and the Diamond is possibly the most authentic sounding Dual Rec out there - it could do with a little more output volume though. And interesting selection of understandably mostly gain pedals, and a lot of dual and even triple format pedals for this mainly Amp maker brand - as the name implies.
The ambassador pedal here is the most authentic of Dual Rec takes!
Deep Trip
Deep Trip Range Overview :
- BOG Fuzz / BOG Josh Smith Mod (Hendrix Band of Gypsys style Fuzz)
- Capivara Classic Fuzz (near identical NKT275 style Fuzz Face)
- Hellbender Fuzz / Hellbender Lead Mod (Heavy Tone Bender MKII)
- Kryptone Fuzz (Vox Tone Bender)
- Malacxêta Pepeu Gomes Signature Ovedrive / Distortion with 3-Band EQ and Semi Parametric Mids
- Muffasaur Fuzz (Triangle / Ram's Head Muff)
- Onça-Pintada Booster/Drive/Fuzz (Uses 2 x MP26A Germanium Transistors)
- Pagebender Fuzz (Tone Bender MKII)
- Stormy Monday Vintage Overdrive / Sparkling Blue Edition (Unique Deep Trip circuit)
- Sucuri Fuzz (Unique Biting Fuzz circuit)
Prices range from $199 - $249 / R$949 - R$1299
I should really have gotten at least one of these in by now - they universally sound fantastic, slightly larger enclosures than I'm typically comfortable with but justified by extended-range controls.
The most intriguing one for me here is the almost always out of stock Malacxêta, while the Tone Bender and Muff takes here also have plenty of appeal with their extended topologies - I've highlighted by favourites in bold. I should have included this pedal in my Distinct Enclosures features - as these are most definitely very distinctively obviously Deep Trip! I selected the Page Bender as the ambassador here as its artwork and overall look is particularly captivating!
Fire Custom Shop
Fire Custom Shop Range Overview :
- Ariete +30dB Clean Boost
- Bobber Wah Pedal
- Booster Equalizer (Clean Boost with EQ and Dirty Switch)
- Buffer Mini
- Carpe Diem Dual-Channel Plexi style Overdrive / Distortion
- Carpe Diem Compact Clasic Plexi style Overdrive
- Direct Box
- Dust 'n' Tones High Gain Overdrive Compact
- Fire Overdrive
- HIghway A/B Box
- Hill Billy Compact Personality Drive
- Kronos Analog 940ms Delay
- Little Boy Juninho Afram signature Drive / Distortion
- Lone Wolf Dual Drive
- Loop Trail 2-Loop Switcher
- New Wave Analog Phaser
- Power Bridge 9V Supply
- Power Bridge 18V Supply - 9 / 18V
- Power Bridge Pro Supply - 9 / 12 / 18V
- Sirius Analog Chorus
- Speaker Simulator T.A.S.T.
- Spring Reverb Compact
- Stoner Age Compact Classic Fuzz
- Sweet Chilly Transparent but Spicy Overdrive
- Sweet Chilly Compact
- Time Trek Compact Delay with Analog Voicing
- Trip 'n' Fuzz Extended Range Classic Fuzz
- Ultimate High Gain Distortion
Prices range from R$219 - R$1289 / $40 - $230
Obviously the Carpe Diem Plexi is still the star of the show here - I've gone for the newer compact edition as my Ambassador pedal for this brand - while some will say it should be the original! Also of interest here as the Kronos Delay, Little Boy Juninho Afram Drive, Extended Range Trip 'n' Fuzz, and the 'Ultimate' High Gain Distortion.
GNI / NIG Music
GNI Music Range Overview :
Pocket Compacts
- PADT - Analog Tap Tempo Delay
- PED - Easy Drive 'n Booster
- PBB - Black Clean Volume Booster
- PBL - Felipe Andreoli (Angra) Signature Bass Plus Overdrive
- PCM - Pocket Compressor
- PFT - Fuzz Tortion
- PHD - Hot Drive
- POC - Octa Fuzz
- PPD - Fat Power Distortion
Squares
- MCS - Cacau Santos Signature Phaser & Ring Modulator
- MKL - Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth) Signature Distortion
Boutique Series / Super
- ADSC - Analog Dual Chorus
- AS1 - Amp Simulator
- BSH - Bass Shaper Preamp
- DD1 - Dual Drive
- FZD - Multi Fuzz and Vintage Distortion
- FZD 300 Ltd Andy Timmons Edition - Multi Fuzz and Vintage Distortion
- LS1 - Path Finder Line Selector
- PHF - Phaser & Flanger
- SP1 - Shred Pro
- XD1 - Xtreme Distortion
Prices range from R$389 - R$1100 / $70 - $195
Some intriguing pedals across all the three ranges - there still seem to be some of the Andy Timmons FZD ones on MercadoLivre. The OctaFuzz still remains a priority for me - the Fuzz Tortion and Fat Power Distortion are also of interest, as it the Kiko Loureiro one, the big extremed range FZD types, and of course the XD1 Xtreme Distortion!
Plenty to get excited about here! I feel these used to be in greater international distribution at some stage, but are now relatively few and far between outside of Brazil!
Kappa Electronics
kappaelectronics.mercadoshops.com.br
Kappa Electronics Range Overview :
- 5051 EVH style Distortion
- Antagonist Overdrive (Morning Glory)
- Doom High Gain Distortion (REVV G3)
- Flow Muli-Modulator - Tremolo / Chorus / Flanger / Phaser / Filter / Vibrato
- Fuzzion Germanium Fat Fuzz Factory with added Muff Tone Stack
- Jammy Timmy / Jan Ray Overdrive
- Joker All-Rounder Versatile Overdrive
- Kremlin Extended Range Russian Muff with Boost
- Krusher Marshall in a Box (Crunch Box / Riot / Angry Charlie)
- Octpus CE-1 style Boost / Preamp
- Optical Compressor
- Orion Multi Reverb - Room / Spring / Hall / Plate / Shimmer / Echo
- Pulse Preamp & IR Loader
- Pumpkin JFET Orange Rockerverb style Distortion
- Rectifier Dual Rec style High Gain Distortion
- Royal Boost Drive Screamer
Prices range from R$418 - R$1089
There are several intriguing Extended Range pedals within this collection - Overdrives, Fuzzes and Distortions. I've highlighted my favourites in bold. The Fuzzion Fat Fuzz Factory take with added Muff Tone Stack is my Ambassador pedal of choice here - it has fantastic searing Soviet NOS MП20 type Germanium Transistors onboard!
Krozz Devices
www.krozzdevices.com/collections/all
Krozz Devices Range Overview :
- Airborn Pscychedelic Analog Flanger
- Albino Rhino Versatile Overdrive with Wild and Tame Voicings
- Hammerhead VCA Compressor
- Krakenheart Vibe Abyssal Analog Uni-Vibe
Prices range from $209 - $269
I feel I already have two of the very best from this range - the Airborn and Krakenheart - both superb top tier pedals in their respective categories. I struggled to pick between those two as to which one was to be the Ambassador - it could have been either one on any given day. It's a little like my experience with my 2 PedalPal Overdrives - on some days I prefer the PAL987 and on other days I prefer the PAL800 - like my two Krozz Devices both are wholly superb. While the Airborn is an essential for my preferred EVH tone - so I kind of use the Flanger a little bit more these days - and that's therefore the current favourite!
Monstro (Monster) Effects
Monstro Effects Range Overview
- '70 Germanium / '70 Silicon Fuzz (Fulltone)
- 808 Overdrive Compact Screamer
- Axis 69 Germanium Fuzz Face
- Bat Amp '68 Preamp (Matamp)
- Big Smurf One Knob Muff
- BlackFace '65 (Fender)
- Black Wizard High Gain Preamp (Black Sabbath / Laney Supergroup)
- BlowerBox Bass / Low-End Drive
- Chicago Gainster Overdrive (Clark Gainster)
- Day Of The Titan High Headroom JFET Overdrive
- Direct Drive KT66 style MIAB / Plexi
- Dirty Rat LM308 Distortion with Germanium Diodes
- Distortion +++ (MXR Distortion+ with all the Mods)
- El Sagrado Low End Booster (Perfect for Bass)
- Ezekiel 25:17 Bass Overdrive Preamp (D*A*M Ezekiel)
- Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! 60's Garage Fuzz
- FlyBuzz Fuzz (Jack White / TMH / Union Tube & Transistor Bumble Buzz)
- FuzzRite Fuzz
- FY2 Shin-Ei style Companion Fuzz
- GloryDay Overdrive (JHS Morning Glory)
- Golden Sun One Knob Sludge Fuzz
- HW 100 Preamp (Hiwatt DR103)
- Kashmir TubeSound Overdrive Screamer
- Kraken Preamp (Krank / Krankenstein)
- LD-1 Hot Bonx Buffer + Class A Line Driver
- Mad Nitro High Gain Distortion (Punk / Hardcore / Metalcore)
- MadMan Chris Wolstenholme style Bass Preamp
- Mars Attacks! Clean Boost
- Megalithium Super Saturator Fuzz - Stoner / Droner / Doomer
- MetalBox Heavy Distortion (inspired by Disturbed, Godsmack, Korn, Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold)
- Monga Transmorphous Fuzz
- Obsessive Compulsive Driver Super V3 (Fulltone)
- Orange Factor 72 Preamp (Orange OR120)
- Parallel Logic Chaos Fuzz + Oscillation + Gate
- Pinhead Brutal Fuzz (D*A*M Meathead Deluxe)
- Plexi 800 MIAB Overdrive / Distortion
- Psychor Seductive Chorus
- Punch Bass Compressor
- RangeMaster Germanium Treble Booster
- Rectifier Preamp (MESA/Boogie Dual Rec)
- RiffMaker Distortion (Queen inspired)
- Ritual One Knob Fuzz (inspired by QOTSA and Electric Wizard)
- Rocket Booster Plus Silicon Treble Booster / RangeMaster
- Rotten Body Brutal / Extreme High Gain Distortion
- Russian Muff
- Scarlet Germanium Overdrive
- Shooter Fuzz (Blackout Effectors Musket)
- Shred Metal (Marshall Shred Master)
- Sonic Noise Gate
- Stereoid 2 Channel Split
- Supercollider Fuzz / Fuzztortion (Earthbound Audio Supercollider)
- SynthLab Analog Synth
- Tone Bender MK 1.5 Germanium
- Tone Bender MKII Germanium
- Tuber One Knob Tube-style Overdrive
- Tweed '57 Preamp (Fender)
- UltraLord Stoner / Droner / Doom Fuzz
- UniDrive Dirty Booster / Overdrive (Univox)
- UP! Octave Up Pedal
- Vintage 30 Loudspeaker Cab Simulator
- Vox Repeat Percussion Tremolo
- Warhead Preamp (Randall Warhead)
- Watch The Fuzz (WTF) Wide Spectrum Overdrive / Fuzz-Drive / Fuzz
Prices range from R$319 - R$789 / $56 - $138
63 Pedals in All! What a prolific pedal maker - surely one of the most prolific in the world! Such a wide range coverage for gain pedals in particular - so much to intrigue here. Certainly you can suffer a little bit of option paralysis - but there's actually not much duplication here at all - for some pedals you get One Knob, Compact and Extended varieties - but that is a relative rarity.
It was hard to pick out an Ambassador pedal for this vast range - but I ended up on the Rotten Body Xtreme Distortion - it sounds great, and something about that name really tickled me. My favourites are indicated in bold as usual!
Tone Ink
Tone Ink Range Overview
- Clear Active Bass Preamp
- Cold Shot Clear Overdrive - 808 / Klon / Morning Glory / Fender Twin Reverb / Marshall JTM45 / Dumble ODS (also Blackout Edition)
- CSS Clear Solid State Peamp
- Face Breaker Germanium Classic Fuzz - Face / Bender (also Blackout Edition)
- Gambit Mutant Booster Clean Boost - MXR Microamp / TS808 / Timmy / KOT / DOD250
- Head Captro DI Box
- Line Pumper Preamp / Booster / Buffer / DI
- Rage Master NKT275 style Treble Booster - Jimmy Page / Brian May / Eric Clapton / Cream
- Raven Brute & High Gain Distortion - MB Dual Rec / Bogner Ecstasy Red / Peavey 5150
- Red Briton MIAB Distortion - BluesBreaker / Guv'nor / Angry Charlie (also Blackout Edition)
- Rotten Classic Rat Distortion - OCD / 1981 DRV / Rat 2
- Tone Creamer Booster & Preamp - Xotic RC / BluesBreaker / KOT (also Blackout Edition)
Prices Range from R$699 - R$867 / $123 - $152
I only have the Raven to-date - which I totally love - it needs to be run at 18V though for maximum impact! - great sounding high gain pedal. I always wanted to do more with this range / brand, and since Emanuel loved my Raven review - I thought there would be more collaborations - but it hasn't quite happened yet. I already said at the start that I wanted all those Extended Range Classic Editions - Cold Shot, Face Breaker, Raven, Red Briton and Tone Creamer as was back then, and we have additional pedals now including the Rotten - Rat style circuit.
Great looking pedals with smart functions. I've loved this brand from first encounter and would love to add more of these to my Reference Collection - they are the perfect form factor for my preferences!
VTR Effects
VTR Effects Range Overview :
- Kailani Reverb - Spring / Hall / Plate / Room / Cathedral / Lo-Fi / Shimmer / Dive / Ephemeral / Expand / Divided / Infinity / Mod
- Loki Modulation - Chorus / Harmochorus / Flanger / Phaser / Tremolo / Harmwave
- Helios Analog Overdrive with Advanced Digital Features, including Preset
- Narciso Delay - Digital / Analog / Tape / Overnotes / D-Space / Resonant / Dual / Reverse / Tap3
- Tokamak 9V Multiples Power Supply - 10 Outputs, 500mA / 7, and 3 x Isolated 500mA
Prices range from R$855 - R$1299,99 / $150 - $228
A Sasha Ivantic demo put me onto these. Mostly digital formats here - which are continuously updated - so there will be even better versions in a month or two!. Currently the Kailani Reverb looks the most interesting - and has the most flavours - so that's my Ambassador Pedal Pick here. A lot of these are somewhat reminiscent of the more compact GFI System line - but with more algorithms onboard here!
