The Zhytomyr Sunset Preamp becomes the 15th Drunk Beaver Pedal Drop - based on a smart combination of Sunn Beta Lead Preamp with Traynor style Passive Tone Stack

This 15th Pedal Drop is another great hybrid evolution of a well-loved classic - this time the Sunn Beta Lead Preamp, where Vitalii has swapped out its tone stack for the passive type used in Traynor TS-25/50/100 solid state amps - which all share the same EQ type - while also makings use of an active recovery gain/volume stage.

Vitalii started off by first tweaking the Beta Lead gain stages - so that the circuit fully captured that Beta texture and takes you from clean to a saturated fuzzy mess! The core of the circuit is based on two opamp gain stages, and more interestingly four CMOS inverters (labelled ’Digital CMOS Technology’ on the Beta Preamp) - usually deployed in digital circuits, but here working superbly within a completely analog application!

Each CMOS inverter is a pair of MOSFET transistors and there’s a bunch of pedals that use those to overdrive the signal, including the Way Huge Red Llama, some Darkglass pedals etc.. Why is this so special? Essentially - MOSFET transistors are able to generate really natural, tube style overdrive, and are basically very much part of the Beta Lead signature sound.

Controls - Bass, Mid, Treble, Master, Drive.

The final quirk I suppose is why would Vitalii swap out the Beta Preamp’s regular tone stack for the the passive Traynor style one. Well notably the Beta Lead / Beta Bass Preamp has quite a large circuit for active EQ, while it has a little too much treble for Vitalii’s taste. Where he also checked out some demos and saw players seemingly using those amps with the Treble turned to zero. By contrast the Traynor TS series of amps have passive, but wide-ranging EQs, and Vitalii decided to include that tone stack instead.

Because of the fundamental nature of a passive EQ, the circuit requires something of a level recovery after it, and so he added an active volume stage similar to the one used to great effect in his Bloom / Bixonic Expandora Overdrive / Distortion / Fuzz. The Zhytomyr Sunset pedal ended up having the same vibe as the Beta Lead but with a more useful EQ range.

We’re very privileged to have a demo for this Pedal Drop edition - the first ever really - sweet and short - but it really shows what the pedal is capable of - sounds great to my ears. The pedal will of course be available from the Reverb.com Drunk Beaver Store - as soon as you see this article - for $175 plus shipping and taxes.

I’ve got an inkling of a feeling that this one’s going to go quickly!