Ursus
Ursus
Preamp and Distortion pedal
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Designed to capture the dark, aggressive character of doom metal, this hybrid preamp and distortion pedal delivers a gritty, heavily textured drive with a fuzzy, blown-out quality. The result is a dense, aggressive sound well suited to slow, heavy riffs and saturated low-end tones.
A powerful 3-band active EQ provides a wide adjustment range, allowing the pedal to move from thick, bass-heavy sounds to more focused and cutting tones. An integrated boost further tightens the response while adding compression, saturation and sustain.
The pedal offers two distinct operating modes. In Preamp Mode, it functions as a complete preamp and can be connected directly to a power amplifier, an amplifier's effects return, or an audio interface. Distortion Mode provides a flatter overall frequency response, making the pedal better suited for use in front of a clean amplifier where the amp's own tone controls shape the final sound.
For flexible integration into different rigs, the pedal also supports both true bypass and buffered bypass, selectable using a dedicated switch on the underside of the enclosure.
Features
- 2-stage analog distortion circuit
- Integrated overdrive/boost
- Active 3-band EQ
- Operates both as a preamp and a distortion pedal
- Filter control for high-end rolloff
- Switchable true bypass or buffered bypass circuitry
- Soft-touch footswitches that persist state, even when disconnected from power
- External control input for operating the pedal with a controller / channel switcher
- Solid steel construction with durable powder coating.
Video coming soon...
Product Details - Ursus
Controls
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Bass, Mid, Treble - Active 3-band tone control.
- When all 3 controls are set to 50%, the frequency response becomes completely flat.
- Volume - Controls the output signal amplitude.
- Filter - 1-pole lowpass filter that rolls of the treble frequencies. Can be used in combination with the Treble knob to adjust the high-frequency response.
- Gain - Master gain knob.
- Mode Switch - Switch between "Distortion" mode and "Preamp" model (See more details below)
- Boost Footswitch - Activates or bypasses the Boost circuit.
- Active Footswitch - Enables or bypasses the pedal entirely.
Details
The 3-band active EQ produces a completely flat frequency response when all knobs are set to 50% / noon.
The Mode switch works by engaging or bypassing a fixed tonestack, based on the standard Marshall design, with all controls set at 50%. When the switch is set to "Dist", this tonestack is bypassed, and the pedal is more suited to being connected to the input of a clean amp, where the amp's own tone controls can be used to shape the tone instead. Of course, this means that the final tone is very dependent on the amp's tone, and different amps may need very different adjustments to sound similar.
You may also find it necessary to use the Filter knob to cut out high frequencies, as the pedal may otherwise be too bright and treble-heavy, when used in front of a clean amp.
The pedal can be controlled using an external switch, connected via a 1/4" TRS connector. Both footswitches can be toggled using the external switching system.
Technical Specs
- Power Requirement: 9V DC, 100mA
- Power connector: 2.1mm center-negative barrel jack
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External Switching: 1/4" TRS connection. "Short to ground" operation.
- Tip: Active Footswitch
- Ring: Boost Footswitch
- Sleeve: Ground
- Input Impedance: >1MΩ
- Output Impedance: 1kΩ
- Bypass circuit: Buffered bypass
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Footswitch mechanism: Momentary, soft-touch, relay control.
- Footswitch state is stored and recalled even when the pedal is disconnected from power.
- Dimensions: 83mm (W) 125mm (D) 55mm (H)
- Dimensions (with packaging): 126mm (W) 146mm (L) 67mm (H)