Pete Cornish Deluxe SS-3

The Pete Cornish Deluxe SS-3 is a hand built overdrive pedal from UK builder Pete Cornish, described by the maker as an "OVERDRIVE BOOSTER FILTER" and part of the SS-3 Deluxe Series. Pete Cornish describes its character as "great for crunchy rhythm and a thick bluesy lead; the sound is very much like an overdriven vintage valve amp"¹².

What it does

The SS-3 belongs to Pete Cornish's Soft Sustain line, described on the maker's site as "SOFT SUSTAIN WITH PASSIVE TOP CUT + BASS CUT"³. In practice that means the core overdrive and boost voicing of the SS-2, with added passive filtering over the top and bottom of the spectrum. Players who know the earlier pedal can think of the SS-3 as an SS-2 with tone shaping added: the maker states that "Set fully Clockwise the lo-cut control returns the frequency response to that of the original SS-2"⁵, and Aion FX, an independent source, confirms that "With the low cut control set fully clockwise, the circuit is identical to the SS-2"⁶.

That relationship matters if you are choosing between the two. The Pete Cornish SS-2 is the simpler pedal, described as "SOFT SUSTAIN WITH PASSIVE TOP CUT"³, while the SS-3 adds the bass cut control on top. Both sit in the wider family of overdrive pedals, with the boost and filter functions reaching toward boost pedals and filter pedals.

Build and power

The SS-3 is housed in a rugged die-cast box with "Chicken-Head" pointer knobs⁴. Power is by battery, with what the maker calls easy battery replacement via the "drawer"; the battery is switched on when you insert the "IN/PWR" jack, so unplugging the input switches it off⁴.

Pete Cornish also builds a battery-free version of the SS-3, covered on the maker's battery-free page⁷.

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