The Zander Circuitry Cranium Dual Gain Distortion is a distortion pedal built on the ProCo RAT circuit. Rather than committing to one diode arrangement, it puts the clipping options of the various RAT variants on a rotary switch, so one box covers the range of tones those pedals produce. Guitar.com reported in 2020 that it was the company's best-seller, with Samuel Roberts and Alex Millar saying, "Our best-seller has been the Cranium Dual Gain Distortion"1.
What it does
The RAT is one of the most cloned distortion circuits, and its many variants mostly differ in the type of clipping diodes they use, which shapes how the pedal distorts. Millar explained the idea behind the Cranium: "I wanted to create something that captured all of those tones in one box"1.
The central control is that rotary switch, which selects between the various clipping options1. Turn it and the pedal moves between the clipping characters of the different RAT variants, from the softer clipping of one diode type to the harder clipping of another, without changing pedals.
Versions and related pedals
The Cranium's defining control is its clipping rotary switch, which Zander Circuitry describes as offering "various clipping options on a rotary switch"1. That multi-mode clipping arrangement is the pedal's core approach to shaping its distortion character, letting a player move between different clipping voices without changing pedals.
The Cranium Dual Gain Distortion's clipping options are selected with a rotary switch rather than individual clipping toggles, so the full range of voices is dialed in on one control1.
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Zander Circuitry
Zander Circuitry
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Sources (1)
- How the Cranium Dual Gain Distortion put Zander Circuitry on the map, Guitar.com, 2020-08-26
