The Anomaly Vintage Distortion is a boutique drive pedal that is based on the Crowther Hot Cake, an overdrive pedal from New Zealand that was first introduced in 1976. The Hot Cake gained popularity for its unique method of overdriving an op-amp directly, rather than using diodes for clipping.

The Anomaly is specifically based on the 2008 revision of the Hot Cake, which introduced internal switches for “Bluesberry” and “XLF” (extra low frequency) modes. Aion FX, a company specializing in pedal reproductions, traced this version of the Hot Cake to create the Anomaly in 2020.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Hot Cake is its lack of clipping diodes. Instead, it directly overdrives the TL071 chip, which can result in a slight “fizz” as the note decays, particularly at medium gain settings. The Bluesberry mode in the Hot Cake helps to reduce this fizz, but it is still considered part of the pedal’s unique character.

In late 2020, an updated version of the Hot Cake was released, which moved the internal switches to the outside of the enclosure. However, the manufacturer states that the “Cream” mode in the updated version is not the same as the earlier “Bluesberry” mode.

The Anomaly is designed to be an identical reproduction of the Hot Cake in terms of its effect mode, but there are some alterations to the bypass mode. The original Hot Cake uses a relay to disable the gain of the op-amp and deactivate other frequency-shaping filters, effectively transforming it into a unity-gain op-amp buffer. However, this approach is considered overly complicated. The Anomaly simplifies the bypass configuration and converts it to a standard true-bypass setup.

Summary created by AI from the original source.