Audio Kitchen's Steve Crow Employs High Spec Audio Transformers to deliver the Ultimate EL84 Profile Solid State Preamp - the Fake Plastic Trees

Audio Kitchen is probably best known for its line of ’Chopper’ Tube Amps which then evolved into The Big Trees Tube-based Floor Preamp - delivering that classic sparkly EL84 profile. Once that was in production Steve and main partner James Dunbar set out to see if they could recreate the Big Trees experience in a smaller entirely solid state device. It had to have the same exacting tonal profile - articulation, dynamics and elegant guitar volume knob cleanup. 

Several months later they had managed to combine Class A, hand-graded JFETs, a discrete stage modelling the EL84 grid-clipping profile, a custom MuMetal output transformer, The Big Trees speaker load circuit, and a Class A line driver - in just such a device.

In fact if you look at the, circuit the most stand-out features are the relatively hefty transformer and line driver needed to produce that exceptionally textured output.

For me this is a really versatile and great sounding low-to-mid-gain overdrive - who’s Pre-Gain Dual-Band EQ has a significant impact on Gain Structure and renders all manner of interesting tones. With just four knobs it’s incredibly easy to dial in - and it always sounds great - with tremendous note clarity. It also has exceptional guitar volume cleanup - which I’m well used to from my usually favourite Blues Driver OverDrive.

The Fake Plastic Trees is relatively pricey - but with all the handiwork that goes into the parts selection and parts matching - and the overall pedal calibration - it’s pretty much worth it. I acquired mine from Andersons for the princely sum of £375. Note that unlike its Big Trees Sibling, the Fake Plastic Tree cannot drive a speaker / cab - it needs an additional power stage / cab sim for that.

This was another pedal I alas overlooked last year - and actually caught up with it on one of the end of year Gear Nerds Podcasts - where 3 of my good friends - Matt Knight, Adrian Thorpe and Mikey Demus - jointly voted the Fake Plastic Trees as their standout pedal for 2021. Andertons is the easiest place for me to get the pedal from - where I kept tabs when they had more in stock - and finally hit the trigger when there were only 2 left of that batch.

As always I have quite the juggling act to keep everything ticking over smoothly - and I always prioritise pedals which are in sort supply and generally trickier to get hold of. There’s lots of people out there raving about how good the Fake Plastic Trees is - don’t just take my opinion / recommendation for it. This is exactly the kind of pedal that really appeals to me, and I’m a great believer in solid state circuits - which with due diligence and some electrickery can yield near enough as extraordinary results as their tube-powered forebears - as certainly is the case here.

So of you’re a fan of that sparkly EL84 sound and want that in the neatest package currently available - then the Fake Plastic Trees is definitely for you - a future classic for sure, and a benchmark for just what can be achieved with clever solid state engineering!

There are a handful of Audio Kitchen dealers out there - like Andertons - while you can of course order direct from the Audio Kitchen Webstore too!

I expect the Fake Plastic Trees will be in fairly regular rotation in my chain!

Which of you dear readers are Audio Kitchen fans?