Boss FA-1 FET Amp vs Z.Vex Super Hard On
The Boss FA-1 FET Amp and the Z.Vex Super Hard On are both pedals sharing clean boost, transparent, harmonically rich. The Z.Vex Super Hard On leans compressed. Current prices: $379.99 vs $189.
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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.35% — somewhat different
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Derived from overlapping tonal signals across both listings.- clean boost
- transparent
- harmonically rich
Boss FA-1 FET Amp
Boss · pedal
Z.Vex Super Hard On
Zvex · pedal
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Citation/mention fame — how often this gear is cited across artist rigs and gear discussion.$379.99via Reverb
$189via Reverb
The Boss FA-1 FET Amp is a vintage 1983 preamp pedal by Roland Japan using FET transistors to simulate the input stage of a valve amplifier. Originally marketed as a rack preamp in compact pedal form, it provides transparent clean boost and subtle preamp coloration without significant gain clipping. Famously used by The Edge of U2 throughout the 1980s as a clean boost to drive his amplifiers and enhance his guitar tone. Adds presence, definition, and harmonic body without adding distortion character. Long discontinued and now a collector piece among vintage tone enthusiasts.
The Z.Vex Super Hard On is one of the most influential boutique clean boost pedals ever released, built around a JFET-based circuit that adds significant clean gain and a subtle, musical harmonic push without introducing audible distortion at moderate settings. Zachary Vex hand-painted the earliest units himself, cementing the pedal's status as a cornerstone of the boutique effects movement that emerged in the 1990s, when small builders began challenging mass-produced pedals with hand-built, character-driven circuits. Its deceptively simple single-knob design belies a circuit that's been widely studied, cloned, and referenced by countless other boost and overdrive pedals in the decades since its release.
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Genres this gear is documented as being used in.- Ambient
- alternative
- indie rock
- country
- compressed