HiddenGold Power Amp Cranker

The sound of a vacuum tube power amplifier pushed past its limits is legendary: thick, compressed, and roaring. This is the sonic territory of a certain 1970s amplifier head that became the backbone of Doom, Stoner, and Drone metal, the vintage Sunn™ Model T. A single push-pull power stage driven into saturation, no gimmicks, just raw tube compression rolling straight into wall-of-sound distortion.

A well-known distortion pedal later condensed that massive cranked-amp sound into a single knob: two cascaded clipping stages, hard-driven, zero tone controls, because the amp it honored never needed any either. HiddenGold started from a simple question: what happens when you take that idea and set it free from the limits of a fixed pedal circuit?

It’s not a copy of the amp. It’s not a copy of the pedal Acapulco Gold™ that copied the amp.

HiddenGold keeps the same DNA, the same cascaded clip, the same thick, low-mid-forward “amp on the edge of collapse” voice, but stretches it into a single continuous sweep.
One knob takes you from barely-there edge-of-breakup all the way to a wall of near-square-wave fuzz, replacing what used to be your guitar’s volume pot with real, dedicated range.

Under the hood: a two-stage cascaded clipper, auto-compensated output so loudness stays honest as Drive climbs, pre-clip Low Cut to keep the low end tight instead of farty, and post-clip High Cut standing in for the cab that tames the fizz. Oversampling keeps the top-end aliasing-free even when the curve slams hard into its plateau.

Who it’s for: doom, stoner, sludge, and fuzz players chasing that specific thick, non-scooped low-mid roar. Anyone who’s used that pedal and wanted more range without losing its voice. Producers who want one distortion that goes convincingly from “just breaking up” to “collapsing under its own gain,” without stacking three pedals to get there.

™: HiddenGold is an original power-amp fx, developed by Turn2on. It is inspired by the circuit ideas, based on the original cranked amplifier. 
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MAIN CONTROLS

DRIVE: Sweeps the signal from a gentle, near-linear edge-of-breakup at low settings to a hard, buzzing, near-square-wave plateau at maximum inthe style of power amp cranker. Output loudness is automatically compensated across the full range, so turning Drive up changes character. Defualt value inspired by Model T™ amp sound.

LEVEL: Independent output trim, applied after Drive’s internal compensation. It has no effect on distortion character, only loudness.

LOW CUT: A pre-distortion filter. Removes low-frequency content before it reaches the clipping stage, keeping the distortion tight rather than farty or muddy, especially important at high Drive settings and with low-tuned instruments.

HIGH CUT: A post-distortion filter, standing in for the cab/speaker in a real amp rig. Shapes how much of the harsh upper-harmonic content generated by clipping survives to the output. Set high, near 25kHz, for maximum fizz and openness; lower it for a smoother, more vintage voice.

OVER-SAMPLING: Reduces aliasing artifacts from the clipping stage. Recommended ON, especially at higher Drive settings where signal edges get sharp and fast. Turn off only if you need to save CPU and are working at lower Drive levels.

MONO FREQ: Sums content below the set frequency to mono before it reaches the distortion stage, preserving low-end phase coherence through the nonlinear clipping. Useful in stereo or wide-tracked guitar setups where phase-cancelled bass can otherwise turn thin or hollow after heavy distortion. Set to 0 to disable.

QUICK START

1. Gain Stage: Set your instrument’s own output level first, at the level you plan to actually play at. 
Drive reacts to whatever hits it. A hot humbucker and a weak single coil will land in very different places on the same Drive setting.

2. Initial Settings: Start with Drive low and Level at unity (0dB), Low Cut around 80 to 100Hz, High Cut wide open.

3. Dial in Dirt: Bring Drive up until you find the character you want: light breakup, mid crunch, or full wall.

4. Volume Match: Use Level to match loudness against your bypassed signal or the rest of your mix. Drive’s internal compensation gets you close, but Level is there for the final word.

5. Refine Tone: Dial in Low Cut if the low end feels loose or muddy at higher Drive. Dial in High Cut if it feels harsh or fizzy.

6. Oversampling: Leave Oversampling ON unless you have a specific reason not to.

7. Advanced: If running in a wide stereo chain, enable Mono Frequency to taste to keep the low end solid through the clip.

TIPS & TRICKS

• Guitar volume as a second gain control. Even with Drive fully compensated, rolling back your instrument’s volume before HiddenGold still shifts where you sit in the curve’s knee. A genuine extra layer of dynamic control.

• Low Cut as a tightness dial, not just cleanup. Sweeping Low Cut higher (150 to 250Hz) at high Drive settings can turn a wooly wall of fuzz into something surprisingly articulate for riffing, without touching Drive itself.

• High Cut fully open for feedback and drone work. Players chasing sustained, harmonically rich tones can leave High Cut near 25kHz and let the amplifier stage’s natural harshness do the work. Pairs well with high Drive and low Low Cut for a genuinely wall-of-sound texture.

• Mono Frequency as a glue trick, even on mono sources. Subtly engaging it can tighten how the low end feels through heavy clipping, since it’s really about phase coherence going into the nonlinearity, not just stereo width.

• Stack HiddenGold at low Drive into another dirt box for a multi-stage gain structure reminiscent of a boosted amp. HiddenGold’s own two internal clipping stages plus a pedal in front gives more total gain stages, useful for extreme genres without needing an extreme single Drive setting.