The FFX Pedals Sir Reel is a subtle tape-style drive pedal built around the preamp of a German echo/reverb unit made by Dynacord in the 1970s. It sits in the broader family of preamp pedals, where the goal is less about heavy distortion and more about the color and compression character of a vintage recording-chain stage1.
What it does
The Sir Reel takes the preamp section of that Dynacord tape machine and packages it as a guitar pedal. As a drive in the tape-style mold, it aims at a gentler kind of saturation than a typical overdrive or distortion pedal, leaning on the character of the original circuit rather than on clipping stages1.
Its distinguishing feature is a Blend mix control. Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio describes the pedal this way1:
"That's what the Sir Reel does, with the adding functionality of a Blend mix that can reintroduce the clean signal for definition and added dynamics1."
Paolo De Gregorio, Delicious Audio1
In practice, a blend control of this kind lets a player run the tape-style drive harder while dialing the untouched guitar signal back in underneath, keeping note definition and picking dynamics intact. That parallel-clean-signal approach is also common on compressor pedals marketed as having a mix knob, and it serves a similar purpose here.
Videos
EytschPi42
TL Toneworks
Sources (1)
- FFX Pedals Sir Reel Preamp, Delicious Audio, 2021-01-13