Strymon Fairfax - Class A Output Stage Drive

Widely known for their extensive digital pedals hasn't stopped Strymon from diving head first into the world of analogue pedals. Not wanting to make just another overdrive or distortion pedal, Strymon have chased after a very specific tone to replicate - one that came from Randy Bachman running the speaker output of a small combo amplifier into the input of another larger amplifier. For those with some electronics know-how, you won't be surprised that this resulted in quite a few blown up amplifiers due to the lack of speaker load. This finally led to the creation of the Garnet Amplifiers Herzog unit - essentially a small tube amplifier with a built in speaker-load - which would go on to create iconic tones like that from "American Woman" by The GuessWho.

Now for those who don't have space for a full 12ax7 preamp and 6v6 power amp on their pedal board, this is where the Fairfax comes in. Strymon has extensively recreated all the main circuits, with JFETs in place of vacuum tubes, in a way that mimics the dynamic responsiveness of a real tube amp. The input voltage gets converted to an internal 40v for high headroom whilst the Sag circuitry can be used to change the pedal's behaviour from mild sag effects to spitting and gated sounds.

The Drive and Level controls can be utilised to take the pedal from a sweet clean boost, all the way to amp-like gainy goodness. The Bright switch adds a touch of tonal tweekability to the pedal by rolling off the top end when in the "off" position.

This isn't just an overdrive or preamp pedal, it really is a whole miniature amp in a pedal to send your main amp into overdrive!

Please be aware that due to the high internal voltage, this pedal has a high current draw of 500mA at 9VDC and will require a power supply that can deliver this, such as the Strymon Power Supply.