Thorpe explains: “The Warthog was designed at the same time as the Gunshot. I wanted it to complement the Gunshot, and consequently it has a flatter, less mid-focused EQ – and it can get cleaner and much dirtier, too; at the far reaches of the calibre and gain knobs it is fuzzy in its breakup. If I had to sum up the Warthog, I’d say its distortion characteristics were American in flavour – eg, a driven tweed amp through to higher gain.”

Imagine a great Rat pedal that occupies the space between overdrive and fuzz, minus the over-compressed response that often stops a Rat cutting through live. With the calibre and gain cranked, the Warthog delivers a joyful brand of carnage; a kind of fuzz-meets-distortion that’s almost Muff-like in its saturation to the extent that you can pull off Siamese Dream-era Smashing Pumpkins riffs and solos but, crucially, you won’t disappear in the mix or experience a total meltdown.

Back off the calibre control and the voicing is more amp-like, albeit a 6L6 or 6V6-loaded amp working hard. Roll the calibre clockwise again, but this time tame the gain to find Nirvana and early Foo Fighters tones. We wish this pedal had existed in 1994 because, unlike the DS-1 (too quiet), Rat (too compressed) and Big Muff (disappears in a band) pedals on countless garage floors in the mid-90s, the Warthog has the headroom, punch and grit to give your sound a sufficiently aggressive kick. And it sounds great.