Rainger FX Pull Focus Pedal

Product Description

The Rainger FX Pull Focus is a high gain distortion pedal, with either a reverb or chorus effect fading in after a short while. The distortion is all-analog while the reverb, chorus and fade-in are digital. There's also a noise gate which unobtrusively keeps the pedal silent when you're not playing. The Pull Focus is a multi-effect pedal of a very particular kind - intuitive and fun to use!

There's an on/off status LED, plus a large 'ramp' LED - which gives a visual indication of what's going on sonically. The 'sens' switch adjusts the sensitivity of the gate and pick detection circuits to ensure they work great whatever kind of instrument output you're using. Pull Focus is true bypass, features custom-designed knobs, and is housed in another deeply cool Rainger FX custom enclosure.

DISTORTION

The distortion is made from the same overdrive circuit found in the Reverb-X and El Distorto, while also going into the back-end of the Tonebender circuit on Rainger's Freakenbender pedal. It is as balanced, versatile, powerful and silent as possible for a full-range and un-scooped tone. There are volume, tone, and gain controls. The gain goes from a loose, mild overdrive up to a massive chunky sound - through to a tiny hint of sag.

FADE IN

Developed originally for the Break Box pedal, the Pull Focus has the same delayed fade-in for the chorus or reverb effect - but with an adjustable fade-in ramp. With the 'ramp' knob fully CCW, the effect is in all the time, but as you start to turn it the effect takes a short while to appear after the pick attack. As you turn it more, this delay time gradually increases - to around four seconds maximum, until at fully CW it never actually fades in at all, i.e. if you only want distortion you can turn off that effect totally.

CHORUS OR REVERB

The chorus is deep and only rate-adjustable with a very wide range of speeds available from the 'effect' knob. Great for shimmery sustaining chords, or a double-tracking effect. It goes from a very slow twist (think Jane's Addiction/Smashing Pumpkins) through a mid-speed obvious modulation (Bowie's "Lodger") up to a fast psychotic wobble (Devo/Spongebob/Peewee Herman).

The 'effect' knob is dual-purpose - press the 'effect' switch and the chorus sound is replaced by a spectacular digital reverb effect that goes from a subtle, small room/almost not there, right up to a massive hall reverb.

With lots of short notes the guitar is totally dry all the time, but intense and powerfully distorted. But play a long note or chord and the reverb blooms into a huge spatial thing. All of your long bent notes automatically grow into epic, swooping sounds, full of emotion and with the ambience of a big space! It's incredibly dynamic to play through! However with the next note you play it dramatically snaps off hard - back to a totally dry distortion - close, and focussed.

So the listener's attention is drawn from up-close and in-your-face to a more distant reverb'd sound - and then back. Just as in film-making where a 'pull focus' leads the viewers attention from a nearby face to a face further away. The Pull Focus pedal is a very '3D' effect, your guitar automatically moving from near to far away in an original and exciting way.

ACTIVE SUSTAIN

This fading-in of the secondary effect is actually active sustain. You feel a definite increase in your guitar signal level - as opposed to the usual dying away. On the chorus setting this feels like a churning wave coming from behind to lift you forwards. With reverb it's a monster growing out of your guitar!