Today, we’re off to discover the Portuguese boutique effects pedal brand that everyone’s talking about at the moment: Tonewave.
Handmade near Porto by TJ Fernandes, discover the current range of this rising brand in the world of boutique pedals:
Preset, the perfect mix of preamp and overdrive
The Tonewave Preset is positioned somewhere between a preamp pedal and an overdrive. Its origins date back to 2002-2003, with initial schematics based on a single gain stage and a high-pass filter. Since then, the Preset has evolved to become a stable component of the Tonewave range.
The pedal is designed to shape the base of your sound (so you can use it “always on”), it excels in a light, bright crunch, suitable for a variety of musical styles. Its controls, including Pre, Bite, Drv and Cut, allow you to adjust the two gain sections independently: on the one hand, Pre and Bite to adjust the grain and frequencies influenced by the preamp, and on the other, the overdrive’s Drv and Cut for a richer, warmer crunchy sound.
Retail price: €189
Borealis, the dumble-in-a-box
The Tonewave Borealis, positioned as an “Amp in a Box” pedal, seeks to reproduce the sonic characteristics of renowned Dumble amps. Its tone, intended to be warm and dense, offers possibilities ranging from light crunch to more intense saturation, drawing inspiration from figures such as John Mayer, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton or Santana.
Simple controls for Drive, Volume, Bite and Filter let you configure your sound to your liking! Instead of the traditional “Tone”, you’ll find “Bite” for managing the attack (treble brilliance) and “Filter” for changing the character of the overdrive. Inside the pedal, a small switch lets you switch between MOSFETs, silicon diodes and Schottky diodes, with the aim of diversifying the sound texture and adapting to your style!
Retail price: €199
Caramel, a transparent Klon Centaur-type overdrive
The Tonewave Caramel is a transparent overdrive pedal. Designed to add a subtle touch to the sound of your guitar and amp without distorting it, it features simple controls with a fairly progressive gain pot, an output volume pot and a “Treble” tone control.
Two switches (“Mode” and “Comp”) also offer greater customization options, with voicing modes (sweet or salty, with more gain) and clipping choices to adjust overdrive compression.
The Caramel preserves the dynamics and reactivity of pickups and tubes, and is ideal for those seeking light saturation or more pronounced gain for solos (chained with other pedals, for example). It’s transparent, but not lacking in character!
Retail price: €199
The Emery, “not a fuzz, DA FUZZ”.
Tonewave presents the Emery, its first fuzz model, inspired by a smiling 60s fuzz. The Emery takes a modern approach, offering considerable versatility in the fuzz arena.
Settings include an Output knob for the output level, Grain for the voltage transmitted to the transistor (allowing “velcro” or more open tones), and Coarse, linked to Grain, influencing the amount of low frequencies in the circuit.
Retail price: €199
