Miniature Marvel

Fairfax isn’t really a distortion pedal. Instead, it’s a complete miniature amplifier in 100% analog form, based upon a little-known device from the 60’s that powered a number of classic rock anthems. The sound and feel is extremely tube-like, with added harmonics and saturation coming from a clever circuit that emulates the critical behavior of a tube amp’s output transformer. It’s a drive pedal that feels completely natural to play, retains the natural sound of your guitar, and glues notes together in a truly organic way.

More Than A Drive Pedal

Fairfax began as an engineering experiment, initially inspired by the original Garnet Amplifiers Herzog® tube drive unit designed for Randy Bachman in 1965. Strymon's analog guys decided to try and recreate all of the critical elements of a custom Champ-like tube amp circuit fully in the analog domain, but small enough to fit into a pedal enclosure (so it couldn’t use real tubes or an output transformer). The final design features a cleverly miniaturized tube preamp, Class A power amp and an ingenious custom circuit that emulates the saturation characteristics of the output transformer (which is absolutely vital to get the sound right). There’s even a variable Sag circuit that behaves just like a real tube amp does. At low Sag values the behavior is mild and only slightly compressed, and at max values the JFETs can go crazy and unbias — which gates the signal — leading to spitting and chortling sounds more commonly associated with fuzzes.

In order for Fairfax to behave like a real amplifier it needed a massive amount of operating voltage, so a transformer-based power supply converts the 9VDC input voltage to 40V internally. This gives Fairfax the power that it needs for high headroom and amp-like feel, allowing for a wide range of tones. At lower Gain settings Fairfax can be sweet, gently pushing the input to your amp with additional harmonic richness, a touch of saturation and a flat frequency response. At higher Gain levels the sound becomes fully saturated, and that large range of gain on tap allows Fairfax to be used in nearly any setup imaginable.

Series A

Killer code only sounds killer when it’s hosted inside of an ideal analog environment, and even though Strymon are primarily known for their DSP prowess, their stuff wouldn’t sound the way that it does without their strong analog team. The analog guys are always coming up with interesting designs, so Strymon have launched the Series A line of pure analog pedals to give them an outlet, with Fairfax being the first in the line. The designs you’ll be seeing in Series A are intended to offer something different from traditional Strymon offerings, with no MIDI, USB, firmware or digital processing. These will be pedals that are unabashedly analog, which means it could get really interesting! Keep an eye out for more Series A pedals in the future.

Sound Design

Because it’s based upon a tube amp design, Fairfax plays well with all different types of amplifiers and amp modelers. The creamy sustain brings something new to both clean and naturally dirty amplifiers. Strymon have even included an internal jumper that determines the power up state, so if you plan on using Fairfax with a pedal loop switcher or rack drawer system you can choose to have it turn on automatically when powered up, which is a lifesaver on a dark stage or with a complex setup.

Features:

• Complete tube amp circuit fully recreated in 100% analog.
• Custom analog circuits recreate multiple tube stages and the critical output transformer.
• Input voltage converted to 40V internally via galvanically isolated power supply.
• Intuative controls:
  • Level - The Level Control sets the output level for the pedal. Lower settings send less total output signal to your amplifier, no matter where the other two knobs are set.
  • Drive - The Drive Control determines the amount of drive and saturation. Working in tandem with the Level control, you can determine precisely how you’d like to drive your amplifier — with a bunch of crunch and saturation dialed in, as a clean boost, or anything in between.
  • Sag - The variable Sag control allows you to fine-tune the behavior of the Sag circuit, where the amount of Sag is dependent on both the level being sent to the power amp section and on your playing style. At max, the sound can chortle and sputter, and the effect is more or less apparent depending on the Drive and Level settings.
  • Bright - The Bright switch determines the high frequency contour. With the switch set to ‘Off’ high frequencies are attenuated somewhat, smoothing out the frequency response. Set to ‘On’, the high frequencies are left untouched, giving you a brighter response with more treble.
• Wide range of natural sounding and tube amp-like gain for maximum versatility.

For more detailed specifications and audio examples, click here.