Dusky Electronics cooks up the Toasted – an “amp-like” overdrive pedal with a pair of MOSFET gain stages

Durham, NC pedal-builder Dusky Electronics has debuted the Toasted pedal, a refinement of its Toasted Drive which packages a Class A circuit and two MOSFET gain stages into a stompbox format.

Dusky is promising the new and improved Toasted does “everything its ancestor could do, just better.” We certainly rate the new paint job but the most interesting elements remain under the hood. 

As mentioned, at the heart of the design are the two MOSFET gain stages, which cascade into each other, emulating the gain stages of a tube amplifier. 

Characterising it as a “semi-transparent” medium gain overdrive pedal, Dusky says the “substantial output volume allows it to push a tube amplifier over the edge”, which should make it ideal for stacking with other pedals.

Control-wise, there are three rotary dials on the pedal’s exterior. ‘More’ controls the overall volume output, ‘Heat’ dials the gain up or down and ‘Color’ allows the player to increase or decrease the gain on the treble frequencies.

Inside the handmade pedal there’s also a ‘MEAT’ switch, which enables users to expand the low-end range of the Toasted. Power-wise, it will run on 9V battery or a 9-18V power supply.

Ryan over on the Demos In The Dark YouTube channel has given it a run-through, so you can check out his take in the video above.

The Dusky Electronics Toasted retails for $180 and is available direct from DuskyAmp.com, alongside selected stores.