Distributor: EGM Distribution | RRP: $129
If you follow the world of boutique and budget pedals, you may have come across Tone City. Founded in 2014 by chief designer J. Wong and known for budget-friendly analog drive pedals, the brand has steadily built a loyal following. In 2025, Tone City released version three of their Golden Plexi pedal.
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What is the Plexi sound?
It depends on which era you have in mind. Originally, the Plexi was designed to be loud, dynamic and touch-sensitive – defining an era of British blues rock and early heavy metal. The amps had two independent channels that players would link together in pursuit of tone and more overdrive. A couple of years later, in America, the Plexi was being discovered by a new generation of guitarists hungry for more gain than the original circuit could offer. Amp techs began modifying Plexis with extra gain stages and permanently jumped channels, and in one famous case, Eddie Van Halen plugged his into a variac to starve the amp of voltage, creating his signature brown sound.
Tone City describes the Golden Plexi as “a classic rock amp sound turned up to eleven.” At its core, it feels based on a high-gain modded Plexi – the kind most associated with late ’70s – ’80s American rock and hair metal. It can get close to those ’60s and early ’70s British blues rock tones with some finesse, but with the amount of gain on offer, it leans towards more modern high-gain sounds.
Spending time with the Golden Plexi, it became clear that while it’s technically considered an amp-in-a-box style pedal, this is more of a snapshot of one specific Plexi voice than a full-spectrum recreation – and what a snapshot it is. Rather than trying to cover every Plexi tone ever recorded, it commits to a lane and does it extremely well.
Controls are straightforward: gain, tone, volume and a two-way toggle switch that selects between Golden Plexi 1 and Golden Plexi 2. Golden Plexi 1 (toggle left) delivers more bass and gain, while Golden Plexi 2 (toggle right) offers a tighter sound with slightly less gain – useful for cutting through a dense mix without muddying the low end. The volume control plays a significant role in shaping the gain character. Running the pedal through a 12-watt 2×10 combo, keeping the volume below halfway, yielded the best range of overdrive and the clearest distinction between the two toggle positions. The pedal has serious output on offer, so players with lower-wattage amps have plenty of headroom to work with. The tone control runs from dark to bright and, given its sensitivity, allows precise dialling – keeping it lower produces a smooth lead tone, while pushing it higher gives a more cutting sound that sits well in a busy mix.
The build quality is impressive for a pedal at this price. The metal enclosure is solid and feels well-suited to heavy gig use, and the footswitch has a satisfying click. The indicator light sits beneath the gain knob, designed to illuminate it – an effect that works best with the knob centred. The pedal is a true bypass and draws 15mA from a standard 9V DC centre-negative power supply (not included). Battery operation is not supported, so a dedicated power supply is required. The DC jack sits on the input side above the input jack – worth keeping in mind when planning your board layout if you use right-angled jack plugs.
The Tone City Golden Plexi V3 is a genuinely impressive distortion pedal that captures a specific, high-gain voice with real conviction and delivers it in a compact, road-ready enclosure. With enough gain and volume to handle most rock and metal genres, and a tone control sensitive enough to work across a wide range of pickups and amplifiers, it represents outstanding value for money. For players chasing a high-gain rock tone on a budget, it’s hard to look past.
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