The STL Tones Revenant is a high-gain preamp in pedal format for electric guitar, and it was the company's first ever piece of hardware12. It is a signature product for guitarist Andy James, developed by STL Tones together with its Italian partners Ignite Amps1. STL Tones opened pre-orders for the pedal on September 20, 2019 at $299.9913.
Unlike many preamp pedals, the Revenant does its work with solid-state circuitry that is engineered to behave like a tube amplifier. STL Tones says its circuit carefully emulates tube amp behaviors such as triode cut-off, grid current limiting and the Miller effect1. The gain range is wide: the company says it can do anything from light crunch to full high-gain modern distortion, keeping the saturation smooth and tight even at low tunings through carefully engineered gain staging and filtering3.
How it is controlled
The Revenant's panel centers on a gain stage, a four-control tone stack, a Shape function and the Focus mode351.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Gain | Runs from light crunch to full high-gain modern distortion, with saturation kept smooth and tight even at low tunings3 |
| EQ | A four-control tone stack for tonal shaping3 |
| Shape | Switches between modern and classic tone control response35 |
| Focus footswitch | Adds gain, tightness and compression to the signal5 |
The Shape toggle chooses between modern and vintage response5, working with the tone stack rather than as a separate voicing. The Focus footswitch is the performance control: STL Tones says Focus mode delivers additional gain, tightness and compression, making it suited to singing lead tones and solos or to super tight modern chugs1. Gearnews described the same switch as toggling between normal mode and Tight, which adds gain, compression and tightness4.
How it responds
The Revenant is geared toward the high-gain end of things, but it cleans up like a tube amp. Guitar.com found that backing off either the guitar's volume or the gain knob yields a more responsive, articulate overdrive that takes advantage of the preamp's tube simulation2. Andy James put it this way:
"It's so responsive, even when you turn the guitar down, just the sort of thing you would expect a valve amp to do."
Where it came from
The Revenant is effectively a hardware follow-up to STL Tones' earlier collaboration with Andy James, the Tonality collection of plugins, released in September 20192. Before the pedal, STL Tones was known as a software company, so the Revenant marked its move into hardware4. The pedal was developed by STL Tones and Ignite Amps alongside James1.
The plugin version
The Revenant also exists in software. The Tonality: Andy James Plug-In Suite includes a digital emulation of the Revenant preamp pedal3, and Guitar.com notes the preamp is available in emulated form as part of that collection2. A player who wants the Revenant's character in a recording setup can get it either way.
What reviewers said
Gearnews saw the pedal as a flexible tool rather than a one-trick high-gain box4:
"It could be a great solution for using as a front end for your DAW, or to add a high gain channel to your existing amp."
That points to the two main ways players use a preamp pedal like this: driving a DAW or amp sim directly, or stacking it into an existing amp as an extra high-gain channel, alongside distortion and boost pedals.
Don't confuse this with the Revelation Effects Revenant Preamp & Boost, a different pedal from a Canadian company best known for its cables. That pedal is a high-headroom preamp and boost circuit with a separate boost footswitch and a 3-band EQ6.
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Questions
Is the STL Tones Revenant analog or digital?
It is a solid-state pedal. Its circuit is designed to emulate the electronic behaviors of a tube amplifier, including triode cut-off, grid current limiting and the Miller effect, using solid-state components rather than tubes or digital modeling. STL Tones describes it as carefully emulating all of these tube amplifier behaviors.
What does the Focus footswitch do on the Revenant?
The Focus footswitch toggles a mode that adds gain, compression and tightness to the Revenant's sound. STL Tones positions it for singing lead tones and solos, or for super tight modern chugs. Gearnews described the switch as toggling between normal mode and Tight, which adds gain, compression and tightness.
Who designed the STL Tones Revenant?
The Revenant was developed by STL Tones together with its Italian partners Ignite Amps and guitarist Andy James, whose signature product it is. It was STL Tones' first ever piece of hardware, following the company's earlier Tonality: Andy James plugin suite collaboration with James.
Is the Revenant available as a plugin?
Yes. The Tonality: Andy James Plug-In Suite includes a digital emulation of the Revenant preamp pedal. Guitar.com noted that the hardware pedal is effectively a follow-up to that earlier Tonality collection of plugins, and the Revenant is also available in emulated form as part of the collection.
What does the Shape toggle do on the Revenant?
The Shape toggle switches the tone controls between two responses: modern and vintage, which STL Tones also describes as modern and classic tone control response. It works alongside the four-control tone stack to shape the preamp's EQ character.
Sources (6)
- Andy James Signature Preamp Pedal by STL Tones, Premier Guitar, 2019-10-10
- STL Tones reveals the Revenant preamp pedal, Guitar.com, 2019-09-24
- REVENANT: Andy James Signature Hardware Preamp PedalNow Available for Pre Order., MusicPlayers.com, 2019-09-21
- STL Tones' Andy James Revenant preamp pedal: Raising the bar on tight high-gain tones?, gearnews.com, 2019-09-26
- Andy James' STL Tones Revenant preamp pedal offers "perfect response", Guitar World, 2019-09-23
- Revelation Effects Revenant Preamp & Boost, Delicious Audio, 2023-11-16
Andy James
