Sunn Life Pedal Distortion Booster Earth Quak Owner’s Manual

Sunn Life Pedal Distortion Booster Earth Quak

Important Information

Sunn O))) (the band) are pleased to present the Life Pedal distortion, in collaboration with comrades at EarthQuaker Devices of Akron, OH, and in parallel with their new album “Life Metal”.

In the writing sessions for “Life Metal” Stephen & Greg worked extensively shearing their tones toward a broader energy spectrum over high powered saturation and across planes of sonic character, with the ambition to take full advantage of Steve Albini’s (the recording engineer for the album) exacting capture skills.

The results are astounding: there is breadth and luminosity of colour, vast sonic cosmoses, flashes of abstract colour (synthetic and objective) through resulting themes which emerged from the mastered depths of saturation and circuits between the two players and their mountains of gear.

The Life Pedal is designed to represent the core front end chain used in those sessions, to drive the tubes of the band’s multiple vintage Sunn O))) Model T amplifiers (or take your fancy) into overload ecstasy. This is a 100w tube amp full stack’s holy dream, or its apostate nightmare.

An octave fuzz inspired by the Shin-Ei FY2 & FY6 units leads the circuit into a LM308 chipped and brutal rodent big box distortion, recreated with the best components, and including a three-way clipping switch (op Amp, Asymmetric & Symmetric). Second stage is a purely clean boost to further overdrive the preamp tubes of your vintage system into -scaped harmonics, and feedback overtone bliss. Chasms are cleared, mountains sheared, glaciers calved, novæ birthed. Vintage valve amplifiers recommended. We hope you transcend.

What is it?

Life Pedal is an octave distortion and booster built in a custom folded aluminum enclosure. It is faithfully modeled after the classic LM308 “White Face” distortion pedal, right down to the LM308 IC and tantalum caps. The only modifications made to the original circuit are in the clipping section. The traditional circuit uses a single pair of silicon diodes for a tight, compressed crunch. The Life Pedal introduces two additional clipping options to better adapt to different rigs. The first position is no diodes to allow for full, grinding Op Amp assault at maximum volume. The second position utilizes two silicon diodes and one LED in an asymmetrical clipping configuration. This delivers a slightly compressed and smooth crunch, similar to a valve amplifier. The last position is the stock double silicon diode configuration which provides that classic tone you know and love.

The Octave in Life Pedal is an all-discrete, analog full-wave rectifier circuit built around a pair of Russian Germanium diodes. Located at the input of the circuit, the Octave control slowly blends in the octave effects as you turn it clockwise. Because this is an analog octave effect, it is monophonic and works best playing single notes above the twelfth fret while using the neck pickup. Playing chords with the analog octave will sound clanging and chaotic. Using the bridge pickup and playing below the twelfth fret will produce a very subtle octave effect. Going full Octave transforms Life Pedal from a simple distortion device into a swelling, raging fuzz similar to the classic Super Fuzz!

The boost section of Life Pedal is a simple all-discrete MOSFET booster designed to blast your preamp tubes and drive them wild. It is a 100% clean, no-nonsense, high impedance booster that adds very little color to your tone. It does not add distortion on its own but has plenty of output to push your amp into saturation.

The signal path goes Octave>Distortion>Boost. The octave distortion and booster can be used independently with their own respective foot switches. The Petrine Cross is the octave distortion and the Christian Cross is the booster.

Life Pedal Tech Specs

Octave Distortion
Input impedance: 1M Ohm / Output impedance: <1K Ohm

Booster
Input Impedance: 500K Ohm / Output Impedance: <1K Ohm

Current Draw
15mA

Power

This device can be powered by a 9v battery or a standard 9-volt DC power supply with a 2.1mm negative center barrel. We always recommend pedal- specific, transformer-isolated wall-wart power supplies or multiple isolated- output supplies. Pedals will make extra noise if there is ripple or unclean power. Switching-type power supplies, daisy chains and non-pedal specific power supplies do not filter dirty power as well and let through unwanted noise

• If using a battery, unplug the input cable when not in use to preserve battery life.
• DO NOT RUN AT HIGHER VOLTAGES!

Documents / Resources

| Sunn Life Pedal Distortion Booster Earth Quak [pdf] Owner's Manual
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