Pete Cornish SS-2

The Pete Cornish SS-2 is an overdrive/distortion effect pedal built by the Pete Cornish Partnership, the British firm whose custom pedalboards and switching systems have served professional players for decades. Pete Cornish positions it apart from the crowd: the maker calls it "totally different from any overdrive/distortion effect that has ever been previously available"¹. Each unit is hand built, wired and tested by Pete, Lynda and Mingus Cornish².

The SS-2 is housed in a rugged die-cast box with "chicken-head" pointer knobs, measures 171 x 121 x 55 mm, and carries a heavy duty custom made all-metal footswitch with a Hi-Brite LED². It is warranted for twelve months from date of purchase against original manufacturing faults, with normal wear, misuse, unauthorized modifications and accidental damage excepted².

What the SS-2 does to your sound

In the maker's own description, the SS-2 is responsive to guitar volume and picking articulation, with strong low-end hold and a clear mid-range²:

Pete Cornish product page⁴

The maker also describes it as retaining tonal nuances while remaining subtle yet capable of what it calls amazing power and sustain². As with any maker's claims about its own product, that is Pete Cornish's characterization rather than an independent finding; the company's reputation among professional players is what carries weight here.

The standard pedal is set up with two controls, Sustain and Tone. The setup procedure on the Blend versions tells the player to engage the SS-2 and set Sustain and Tone to taste, with Sustain setting the distortion level⁴⁵.

The Blend versions

The SS-2 has been produced in Gray Blend versions that add a Blend Control for mixing the effected signal with the clean signal. Pete Cornish notes that with the Blend Control set fully clockwise, "the SS-2 signal tone and level is exactly the same as previous versions"⁴. The same applies to the earlier Blended SS-2 page⁵.

The Blend versions differ from the standard pedal in one important way:

The Gray Series listing describes the SS-2 Blend as a "BLEND/ GREY BOX/ NO BATTERY" product⁶, and the battery-free listing repeats the same description⁷.

Power: 9V DC, 20mA, center negative

The SS-2 runs on a 9V DC adapter that Pete Cornish specifies must be noise free and fully stabilized, capable of supplying 20mA. The coax connector is 5.5/2.1mm with a negative center pin².

For supplies, the maker recommends:

• The Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus when powering multiple pedals
• A BOSS PSA series adapter for a single unit²

The standard pedal can also run on a 9V battery, preferred type MN1604, switched on by inserting a plug into the INPUT/PWR ON jack and replaced through a removable drawer².

Bypass and buffering

The SS-2 is not true bypass. It uses an RFI rejecting input and bypass buffer², which Pete Cornish describes as a High Impedance, Unity Gain, Class A Buffer Preamp with RFI rejecting capability and a Low Impedance Audio output, designed to eliminate radio station interference¹. The Deluxe SS-2 carries the same RFI rejecting input and bypass buffer³. Players who prefer a buffered pedal to drive long cable runs will find that here by design; players who insist on true bypass will not.

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