initial impressions

I've had the PAS2 put together for a couple of weeks now, and I've been playing through/with it extensively, just about every day.  My setup is always the same, and rather limited: my Squier Mini-Strat (tuned to F#), through the PAS2, and into my slightly-modified Fender Champ.  No effects: I do have my SPX-90 which I want to try out, but not enough patch cables, waiting on Amazon!  So it's good for testing, actually, a very consistent system and pure dry tones.

The sound is that same PAS2 tone which I remember from years back, before I had so much "professional" guitar gear.  And it is amazing!  Totally unique.  Rather limited and flawed in a number of ways, too, it must be said.  But still, very usable: and able to extend the tone of the guitar into voices it never had before.

I should mention that I don't have either the "loudness" switches, or the PC-6 EQ switches, hooked up.  Don't have the component values available.  So, all I have are the bass and treble knobs, and the "filter" switch (high-cut).  The PC-6 EQ is effectively in the "special" position.  But it still seems to generate quite a bass-boost.

As with the original circuit, I can't turn the gain up too high, especially when the two channels are patched in series, or oscillation occurs.  I'd like to solve this somehow, perhaps with better shielding and more use of coax cable; but the fact that this circuit has always done this, in all of its past incarnations, isn't confidence-inspiring.

The tone tends to be exceedingly bassy; yet the controls allow the bass to be stripped out, leaving a thin and cutting tone with this strange murky bass undertone effect.  There seems to be a slow-time-constant envelope-sensitive behaviour to the overdrive, which almost voices the notes like a wah pedal or other swept-filter effect, though subtly.  It takes a while to get used to, to learn to play into this effect with the right dynamics.  It thickens up the naturally-thin tone of this single-coil Squier, and gives it a whole new voice, almost silky and rounded, even on the bridge pickup, but with plenty of sparkly highs.  Quite the opposite of a "tight" sound!  And, very much "Does Not Chug".  But it's helping me get all kinds of warm, expressive blues tones, for my current recording project.  Soon I'll get the cables I need to patch it through the digital reverb, which always complemented my PAS2 tones well in the past.

I had forgotten just how special and unusual the overdrive tones of this PAS2 can be.  I believe a lot of it has to do with the negative feedback in the preamp stages.  Almost no actual guitar amps have this, and it would seem clearly contrary to good "tone production practice".  Maybe so, but it's well worth a listen, mates!

"Soon" I will post a video/recording of the sounds.

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Later: as you can see in the photo, I did get the SPX90 hooked up.  And, I changed the knobs, from the good-looking black aluminum knobs to those ugly plastic ones.  The reason: visibility.  I've just given the rig a good tryout in typical conditions: my living room, with varying light levels but seldom very bright.  I found myself constantly squinting and shifting around to try to see the settings of the "nice" knobs.  Subtle, but this is just the type of usability issue that I want to uncover in this phase of the design process (particularly since these results may also apply to my own amp design).  The plastic knobs look terrible by comparison, let's say "1980s Peavey", but I can already tell that I like the usability better.  Even in the photo, the settings are immediately obvious from a distance.