Abasi Pathos Distortion vs Mad Professor Mad-Rbo
The Abasi Pathos Distortion and the Mad Professor Mad-Rbo are both pedals sharing mid-forward, bright, transparent. The Abasi Pathos Distortion leans crunchy and high gain. The Mad Professor Mad-Rbo leans edge of breakup. Current prices: $199.99 vs $188.58.
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Blended from circuit-archetype lineage, dynamic feel, tone-signal overlap and tone-vector distance — the tone vector itself is derived from editorial description text, not a measured acoustic signal, so this reflects how similarly the catalog copy describes the two, not a lab measurement. Shown only within a gear class, and only where there's enough evidence to be meaningful.44% — somewhat different
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- mid-forward
- bright
- transparent
Abasi Pathos Distortion
Abasi · pedal
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$199.99via Reverb
$188.58via Reverb
The Abasi Pathos Distortion, designed by Tosin Abasi and Brian Wampler, is built to capture the character of a driven American-style tube amp channel rather than a typical stompbox distortion circuit. Its Smooth and Edge voicings range from an emotive, singing crunch to a scorching, tightly controlled high-gain distortion, shaped further by musically tuned EQ shelves and a dedicated mid control. It works equally well as extra grit pushed in front of an already-driven amp, as a full distortion channel in front of a clean amp, or as a boost into a digital modeler. It suits progressive and modern players wanting amp-like distortion character with real tonal shaping rather than a single fixed voicing.
The Mad Professor Royal Blue Overdrive covers a wide range from light overdrive into full distortion, with Volume, Distortion, Treble, and Bass controls. At its lowest Distortion setting the pedal behaves almost like an EQ stage, adding minimal filtering for a transparent boost. Turning the Distortion knob up moves it into a crunchy, tube-amp-like breakup and eventually into heavier gain. Both Treble and Bass are boost/cut shelving controls, giving broad tonal shaping rather than a single fixed voicing. It is built to go from subtle amp-like grit to genuine distortion within one pedal, and forms the basis of Mad Professor's Supreme A-side circuit.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Metal
- Classic Rock
- Blues
- Rock
- crunchy
- high gain
- tight
- sustaining
- edge of breakup