PULL FOCUS

The 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, the reverb, chorus and the fade-in are all digital. 

Plus there’s a noise gate too, which unobtrusively keeps the pedal silent when you’re not playing.

It’s very intuitive and fun to use!

It’s a multi-effects pedal, of a very particular kind….

Distortion

The distortion is made from our favourite overdrive circuit (from Reverb-X, El Distorto etc), but going into the back end of the Tonebender circuit that we made for Colorsound - when we did our collaboration on their Freakenbender pedal a while back. 

We worked hard to make it as balanced, versatile, powerful and silent as possible, ending up with an incredibly satisfying sound. Full-range, not very scooped, tonally.

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 our 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 (less than a second?) 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 comes in at all, ie if you only want distortion you can turn off that effect totally.

Chorus Or Reverb

The chorus is deep (modulated signal equal to unmodulated), 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, which - turning the knob - goes from a subtle, small room/almost not there, right up to a hall reverb - and tons of it! 

So with lots of short notes (eg fast soloing) 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 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 reverbed sound - and then back; just as in film-making, a ‘pull focus’ leads the viewers attention from a face close by (a further-away face being blurred) to a face further away (the close-by one now being blurred). 

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!

There’s an on/off status LED, plus a large ‘ramp’ LED - which gives a visual indication of what’s going on sonically.

There’s a ‘sens.’ switch - adjusting sensitivity of the gate and pick detection circuits - to ensure they work great whatever kind of instrument output you’re using.

It’s true bypass, has custom-designed knobs, and is housed in another deeply cool Rainger FX custom enclosure. Desk-style, a slight flare to it, and symmetrical - to help all our OCD musician friends.

It’s been developed from our Break Box pedal - but without the vinyl scratch, and with a reverb option.

What is the current draw?

About 60mA

What are the dimensions?

L118 x W66 x H57mm 

Is the noise gate adjustable?

Yes - the ‘sens.’ switch lowers the threshold.

Is the chorus depth adjustable?

No it’s not - it’s set to be as noticeable as possible.

Does the chorus go down to stationary - not moving?

No it doesn’t. Just to very slow.

On the reverb setting, what does the ‘effect’ knob adjust?

It adjusts both the length and the amount of reverb together.

Is it possible to have chorus and reverb at the same time?

No it’s not.

Is it possible to have the reverb un-gated?

Depending on your guitar’s output, sometimes with the ‘sens.’ switch in this is possible, but generally no - it’s not.  We felt that the cut off reverb sound was distinctive and unusual, incredibly dramatic - but useful, and so fits right into the Rainger FX aesthetic.

Is the ramp knob just pre-delay for the reverb?

It’s similar, but actually the reverb begins with the start of the note, and fades in. Pre-delay is the whole reverb sound delayed.

Is it possible not to have the reverb or chorus?

Yes - turn the ramp knob up to maximum fade-in time

Can the reverb or chorus be on all the time?

Yes - turn the ramp knob fully CCW.

Does the ‘sens.’ button affect the amount of distortion gain available?

No - it has no effect on that at all.

Is there an Igor facility with the Pull Focus?

No there’s not - we wanted to have the whole thing self-contained and as easy to use as possible.

Why do you make custom knobs?

We often want to use small knobs, and couldn’t find any small enough that looked good - so we designed some ourselves.

Why does this have a custom enclosure?

The Pull Focus is a unique multi-effects pedal, making new sounds…. And that needs its own special enclosure! It’s very important that everything about a pedal works in harmony - from the sound onwards; the circuit design, components used, the look corresponding to the sound - enclosure and graphics (which are by Rich Dimaio)… everything - the whole vibe, right through the customer support around it!

Why did you paint the metal enclosure to look like metal?!

Because it looks really, really great!

If Rainger FX is all about original sounds, why did you copy a Tonebender?

We were asked by Colorsound - the originator of the Tonebender from way back in the 1960s - to make a Tonebender for our Freakenbender collaboration… At the highest gains it transformed into our Dr Freakenstein circuit. 

So this was a circuit we designed for Colorsound, using their Tonebender as the blueprint.

We felt like we were using a section of a circuit that we had some part in putting together.

Is the Freakenbender still available?

No - sorry! But email Anthony Macari (Colorsound boss) about making some more!