Picture the proverbial, pure, vintage, well-worn, all-American, guitar-into-amp experience. Let's paint the portrait: Faded tolex, blurry tube glass, a fretboard radiating some absorbed perspiration, a warm tone you could wrap yourself up and read a book in. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds pretty homey – a little hazy, slightly nostalgic, purely uncomplicated. That's the kind of musical experience you get from Browne Amplification.
Of all the boutique outfits putting out pedals these days, you'd be hard pressed to find a brand with an artistic vision as clear and consistent as Browne. Kansas City, Missouri's finest in sleek, clean, reverently retro pieces, Browne Amplification slings some of the simplest musical devices around for cutting to the chase quickly on musical inspiration. Let's talk about it.
Browne About Town
Browne Amplification History
Like their pedals themselves, Browne Amplification's story isn't much for frills or frivolities.
The Browne Amplification story starts and ends with David Brown. A veteran of the Kansas City music scene for decades, Brown's trekked track has covered extensive performing and recording experience, guitar tech work, custom pedal design, and amp servicing. All of these gigs put Brown in a unique position to become one of the world's most trusted names in gear. Browne Amplification's rubber first hit the road with their Protein overdrive, a dual-headed drive balancing classic overdrive tones on either head.
Brown and Browne have since evolved and flourished with plenty of new, all-analog creations sprinkled along the way. The brand prioritizes simplicity, utility, and quality with every release, and at this point, the proof is in the pudding. Today's Browne Amplification catalog is chock-full of unique but intuitively operated and effortlessly inspirational pieces. Fire up any of them and you're off to the races quickly. Let's run down a few of the pieces that put Browne over the top for so many in terms of quality, reliability, expression, and inspiration.
Browne-Eyed World
Browne Amplification Effect Pedals
Take a stroll through Browne's library of effects and you'll see a consistent, unified visual and tonal vision. Browne's favorite type of effect, if we could be so bold to hazard a guess, is drive, so if you're a fiend for getting down-and-dirty, Browne has you covered.
Browne Amplification Effect Pedals
Where it all started, the Protein Dual Overdrive is probably Browne's flagship pedal. This double-barreled overdrive packs in two classic drive tones with all the high-fidelity sound and streamlined design the Browne name has become synonymous with. The Protein has gone through quite a couple versions, getting that little bit better every step of the way. Today's V4 Protein features a transparent Bluesbreaker-style drive, a saturated Screamer-style drive, top-end signal cutting, and internal controls for covering just about all your bases for an overdrive whether you're driving an amp or want to partake in its sweet, smooth overdrive tones all their own.
Breaking out from the original, the Protein's two unique drive sides are also available on their own in the forms of the Carbon and the Gritador. Carrying with it the same great signal-shaping, clarity, and transparent oomph as the Protein, the Carbon's Bluebreaker-style drive slips seamlessly into any board for the perfect first stage drive. Its spiritual sibling, the Gritador, punches in with plenty of natural, tube-style saturation for a warm-and-fuzzy "screaming" tone that similarly plays well with others up and downstream in a signal. The Carbon's taken on something of a solo career of its own with its own doubled-up model, the Carbon X, with two identical, stackable Carbons splitting the rent on a downtown walk-up.
The Browne catalog has expanded beyond its Protein origins, also, with different releases covering other effect bases. Browne Amplification's T4 Fuzz throws it over to classic fuzz circuits with plenty of heavy, searing, sustaining, woofing tone to break the mold while their Sky Snake Hawk Attack Chorus revives the sounds of classic bucket brigade chorus stompboxes with all the Browne-style clarity to get to all your favorite swirling, shimmery, seasick modulated pastures with ease.
The Sound of Browne
For so many players, Browne Amplification is a straight shot to pure, analog inspiration. Their pedals balance honest-to-goodness warmth and grit for something authentic and inspiring at every turn. Guitar-to-amp purists can take solace in Browne's simplicity and expression, stop clutching their pearls as they run a Browne Carbon or Gritador into their favorite vintage tube amp, and smile as they find that it's a match made in heaven. Vividly expressive and blissfully simple, Browne is never a name to count out.
