Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII vs ThorpyFX Heavy Water Dual Boost
The Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII and the ThorpyFX Heavy Water Dual Boost are both pedals sharing transparent. The Benson Amps Portable Distortion 424 MKII leans saturated and edge of breakup. Current prices: $199 vs $246.85.
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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.32% — somewhat different
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- transparent
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$199via Reverb
$246.85via Reverb
The Benson Amps 424 MKII is a preamp and distortion pedal designed to recreate the saturation and harmonic character of the input stage of the Tascam Portastudio 424 MkII cassette four-track recorder. The circuit captures the non-linear behavior of cassette-era input electronics, spanning from subtle coloration and clean boost through compressed broadband distortion and unstable breakup. A switchable front-end buffer fundamentally alters the gain structure: engaged, it presents a high-impedance guitar input with tighter low end and increased headroom; bypassed, the circuit returns to a darker, fuzzier low-impedance cassette response. Four controls -- gain, trim, bass, treble -- cover a wide EQ range. Internal 18V operation provides increased headroom. Made by Benson Amps in Portland, Oregon.
The ThorpyFX Heavy Water is a dual high-headroom boost, built after requests to release the boost side of the Dane as a standalone pedal. The right-hand side is that Dane-derived clean boost, with Output and Lows controls that thin the signal out or fatten it up while otherwise leaving the amp's character alone -- at modest settings a subtle always-on lift that simply makes an amp sound better. The left side shares the same controls but clips through germanium diodes for a grittier, warmer, more textured boost with a touch of natural compression. Each half works independently, and stacking both will smash the front end of a valve amp into full overdriven submission. Reviewers rate it among the most versatile boosts available, running from transparent tone enhancement to an outright lead screamfest, in ThorpyFX's exemplary aircraft-aluminium build.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Electronic
- Experimental
- Indie
- Indie Rock
- Hard Rock
- saturated
- edge of breakup
- bright
- fuzzy