Pete Cornish Deluxe P-1

The Pete Cornish Deluxe P-1 is a hand built fuzz and distortion pedal from the English maker Pete Cornish, described by the maker as the world's first double isolated fuzz or distortion pedal. It is best known as David Gilmour's gain pedal: Cornish states it is used prominently by Gilmour in the All Tube Effects Stage System custom designed and built by the company¹. Cornish recommends it for a fat, high-gain, searing lead sound, suited to solos and heavy rock rhythm work¹.

The controls

The P-1 is a fuzz with a single tone control, described by the maker as a "FUZZ WITH B/T SINGLE TONE CONTROL"². The tone control works as a tilt-style bass and treble booster rather than a conventional cut-only tone knob:

The pedal's input stage is a fixed high impedance load presented to the guitar, which the maker says lets the pickups operate at their optimum even when several effects units are connected in series after the P-1³. The Deluxe version adds what Cornish calls a double isolated design: a high impedance, unity gain, Class A buffer preamp at the input, and a second unity gain Class A buffer isolating the fuzz section from bypass¹. If you have read about the related Pete Cornish Deluxe P-2, the buffered input concept is shared across the Cornish deluxe line.

Physically, the pedal is housed in a rugged die-cast box with lined control knobs, and uses a heavy duty custom made all-metal footswitch with a large cap, protection ring and hi-brite LED¹.

Power and battery

The Deluxe P-1 runs from a 9V DC adapter that Cornish says should be noise free and fully stabilised, capable of supplying 20mA. The coax connector is 5.5/2.1mm with the center pin negative¹. A 9V battery can also be used: replacement is via a removable drawer, and the battery is switched on when you insert the "IN/PWR ON" jack. The maker's preferred battery type is the MN1604¹.

Made for David Gilmour

The circuit began life as a design called the "Custom Fuzz", created for David Gilmour in 1976 as part of his integrated pedalboard, according to the circuit analysts at Aion FX⁴. Kit Rae's history of the circuit dates the P-1 as designed for Gilmour before 1981⁵.

The pedal reached players outside Gilmour's rig in stages. Kit Rae notes that Pete Cornish has been selling the P-1 by custom order since 2005⁶. The first pedal version, labeled "Custom Design", was built in 2006 and offered for sale to the public later that year, and the P-1 was added to the regular Cornish pedal line in 2013⁷.

On the road, Rae records that the P-1 was used on the original Wall tour and the On An Island tour, and that on the 2006 On An Island tour it was sometimes used for a few songs, like Comfortably Numb⁷.

Warranty

Pete Cornish covers the Deluxe P-1 for twelve months from date of purchase: should any fault occur in that period, the pedal can be returned post paid for repair of any original manufacturing fault under guarantee. The guarantee is voided if the guarantee labels are damaged or removed¹. For comparison, the battery-free P-1 variant listed by the maker carries a two year warranty, with normal wear, misuse, unauthorized modifications and accidental damage excepted, and the guarantee is not transferable³.

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