Strymon Sunset Dual Overdrive Pedal Overview
Sunset gives you the best of the best classic overdrive circuits, custom-voiced for instantly gratifying control over a huge range of sought-after tones. We studied six circuit types found in many truly timeless and iconic overdrive and boost pedals, and put our takes on all six of them into a single two-channel unit.
Two pedals at once.
Sunset is really two customizable overdrive pedals, independently selectable and flexibly routable, designed and voiced for complementary tones when stacked. Six distinct circuits each feel and react differently in your hands, two at once, all in one convenient package. Push your amp any way you want, from transparent “more amp” to heavy saturated fuzz, and all the best places in between.
Holy Grail tone, minus the quest.
We are all familiar with the endless search for the ultimate overdrive pedal and the perfect tone. We did the critical listening and custom voicing to design each side of Sunset with just one tone knob, so you can quickly dial in the sound you want. The knob ranges for each circuit type are custom calibrated to provide maximal usable control. We applied the same design philosophy and care to the stacking options, ensuring each combination interacts optimally and sounds great, so a huge range of classic overdrive tones is instantly achievable.
Optimized Stacking.
Since the time when overdrives were created to simply push an amp in order to achieve an overdriven sound even at sane volume levels, players have evolved to want more layered, multistage tonalities. Stacking gives you more flexibility and tone range on the floor. You can find an overdrive that sounds good on its own, then run it through a second drive to add new dimensions to your tone. Sunset allows you to use any of its six overdrive circuits on their own, route the Channel A drive circuit through Channel B, or Channel B through Channel A, or use two circuits in parallel. Routing options have been chosen deliberately to present the best-sounding combinations of drive circuits. Sunset eliminates the guesswork.
- The Ge overdrive combines the softer response of germanium diodes, with a parallel path that blends in the dry signal as the Drive is backed down
- The Texas overdrive employs a single stage soft-clipper configuration that is filtered before and after the gain stage to create a smooth and dynamic overdrive.
- The 2stage overdrive combines a soft-clipping stage followed by a hard-clipping stage, creating a complex overdrive with a wide range of gain.
- The Hard overdrive uses a single-stage hard-clipping circuit that has a ton of available gain, approaching fuzz territory with the Drive knob maxed out.
- The Treble type is a treble booster that removes the low frequencies as the Tone knob is turned up – great for tightening up an overdriven amp, or another drive pedal that's a little looser.
- The JFET type is a clean boost that subtly beefs up your signal with the dynamics and responsiveness created from the JFET front end. Great for giving your amp a little extra.
- Six drive circuit topologies with custom tuned voicing for each drive type
- Precision crafted drive circuits stackable in multiple combinations for a wide variety of complex, responsive tones.
- Analog class A JFET input gain stage maximizes headroom while adding up to 20dB of pure analog gain
- Drive and Tone control ranges optimized for each circuit topology
- Series, reverse series, and parallel drive circuit stacking via Config switch
- Bright switch to tailor the sound for use with all amplifiers from dark to bright
- Optional variable-threshold noise reduction for taming noisy guitar pickups
