Attic Audio Putty review – will this ultra-mouldable preamp give you The Edge?
€169/£179, atticaudio.mt/northernstomps.com
The Edge, when you think about it, is a profoundly silly name for a musician. But there’s nothing silly about the hugely respected U2 guitarist’s approach to gear – so, given that he’s a big fan of the Boss FA-1 preamp, the only mystery is why this oddball unit from the early 80s hasn’t been copied more often.
READ MORE: Milkman/Benson The Amp review: “a compelling solution for players looking to replace a traditional tube amp”
Attic Audio is an indie pedal maker based in Malta, the little Mediterranean island famous for… Maltese stuff. This is its take on the FA-1, copying the original in spirit but turning it from a simple tone-improving preamp into something of a sonic multi-tool. And it’s just arrived in the UK courtesy of Northern Stompboxes.
Image: Richard Purvis
Attic Audio Putty – what is it?
The first thing you notice is the word ‘Putty’ being squished into oblivion by a picture of itself in the middle; that aside, this pedal has been laid out for simplicity and clarity. The four main controls are gain, volume, bass and treble – basically the original Paul Cochrane Timmy template, about as standard as it gets.
But there’s also a three-way toggle switch for high, low or no clipping, and a push-button on the side to make that clipping symmetrical or asymmetrical. Add another switch to put the tonestack before or after the gain, and you begin to see the potential for this to be more than a straightforward dirt provider.
Image: Richard Purvis
Attic Audio Putty – what does it sound like?
A dull, unimaginative person would start with all the controls at halfway and the clipping switch in the off position… so it’s lucky I’m a dull, unimaginative person because that’s what I did and it sounded great. This starting point is a subtle clean boost that adds some sparkly bite to the top end; in some setups it could easily serve as an always-on tone enhancer.
If you need more than enhancement, the tone controls can help: there are usable sounds on offer all the way around both of them, from a zingy treble boost to a gently thickening, spike-suppressing jazzy tone that I found uncannily addictive – especially with a spoonful of drive added.
The only question there is, how big is your spoon? Again, the Putty lives up to its promise of shaping itself to whatever you want from it. It can do a lovely low-gain thing that sounds a lot like a Klon but without the midrange push, it can work equally well as a medium-gain ODR-1 or EarthQuaker Devices Plumes type, and it can even dip a toe into the shallow end of fuzz. In general we’re talking fluffy distortion rather than anything too raspy, but the carefully tuned power of those tone knobs means you shouldn’t have any issues with balance or control.
Image: Richard Purvis
Attic Audio Putty – should I buy it?
This is a stompbox of many sounds, but they’re all variants on a theme that’s best described as… niceness. You only have hands-free access to one of those sounds at a time, of course – some players might wish it had a second footswitch for clipping mode instead of that little toggle – but the Putty is not here to displace your favourite dual drive. It’s a sweet-toned all-rounder that’s on hand to fill a gap of virtually any shape or size.
Attic Audio Putty alternatives
The JHS Pedals Clover ($199/£199) is based on the Boss FA-1, as is/was the discontinued Drunk Beaver FET OverBooster. Other high-quality drive pedals with similar shapeshifting powers include the Silktone Expander ($269/£279) and Coggins Audio Dinosaural Hypoid Drive (£219).
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
