SUN TZU USER GUIDE
The Story
The Story
My quest has always been to design pedals that truly respond to the player. I want to create circuits that feel like an extension of the instrument rather than simply imposing a sound on it. I want to preserve the character of the guitar and amp, and the nuances of your playing, while expanding the range of what they can do.
Sun Tzu is my latest answer to that quest.
I've owned a couple of Roger Mayer Axis Fuzzes over the years and have always had something of a love/hate relationship with them. I was fascinated by the unusual two-transistor circuit and its aggressive character, but also found it difficult to make work with my guitars and amps. Once I'd learned how to design circuits myself, I began exploring what else might be hiding inside that basic topology.
That exploration eventually led to the Groovy Wizard. I was very happy with that pedal, but there were still things about the circuit that I wanted to explore differently. When I started Mayasonic, I went all the way back to the beginning and approached the topology again from a clean sheet of paper.
I actually thought I had finished the new circuit early on in Mayasonic. It even went through several names before Sun Tzu finally emerged. But when I revisited the design months later, I knew I could get closer to the sound and response I was after, so it went back on the breadboard.
What followed was more experimenting, listening and responding. The circuit is deceptively simple, just two transistor gain stages, but getting simple circuits to do exactly what you want can be anything but simple. Change the low end and the attack changes. Fix the attack and the mids feel different. Get the drive sounding great and suddenly the cleanup isn't as good. I kept playing through different versions, changing one thing at a time, until those competing qualities began to settle into balance. It's like a game of whack-a-mole. But I knew what I wanted it to do and kept going until I found the magic.
The final circuit uses a 1Т308Б germanium PNP transistor driving a BC183L silicon NPN transistor in a direct-coupled voltage-feedback arrangement, running at 18 volts. There are no clipping diodes; I wanted the response to remain open and dynamic. The Input and Bright switches grew out of that same process. They're not a collection of preset sounds, but ways of changing the focus and feel of the circuit while preserving its responsiveness. The type of capacitors used is critical to not only how the pedal sounds, but how it feels to play. I experimented not only with cap values but different types and brands too to arrive at the final recipe.
What emerged doesn't fit neatly into one traditional pedal category. Turn your guitar down and Sun Tzu can be clear, dimensional and surprisingly clean. Bring the guitar up or change your touch and it moves naturally through edge-of-breakup, singing drive and full-on roar. Run it into a clean amp and it has a voice of its own. Put it in front of an already-working amp and it can seem to melt into the amp and become part of it.
Is it a fuzz? An overdrive? A boost? I don't know, I guess the answer is yes to all of those. What I do know is Sun Tzu is the pedal I wish had existed all these years. And yes, it does the late-period Hendrix thing. I made sure of that. I think it does that better than anything I've played. But it can take you to other places as well, like turning your clean amp into a treble-boosted stack, among other things. A lot of dirt pedals have one good setting. My goal has always been to try to widen the sweet spot so there are no bad settings.
I've noticed that my favorite guitarists from the 60s and 70s had not only their favorite guitar and amp, but they almost always had some sort of little magic gain box that they relied on to complete their sound. A particular booster or fuzz, or even the preamp from a tape deck or wireless unit — everyone had their little magic box that they couldn't do without.
With Sun Tzu, I wanted to make such a little magic box.
The roar is already inside the whisper.
I'm excited to hear what you do with it!
Rock on!
Howard
Controls
Controls
DRIVE
Drive has a wide range of gain, from clear and open at minimum to full-on saturation at maximum. Start with Drive at minimum and use it together with your guitar’s volume control to position the range of response under your hands. With the right balance, you can move from clean to edge-of-breakup to singing drive and roar using only your guitar’s volume knob and playing dynamics.
The Bright toggle directly affects the Drive control's sweep, especially at Drive settings below noon.
VOLUME
Volume has plenty of boost available for driving your amp, especially when running Sun Tzu at the recommended 18 volts from two internal 9V batteries or an external power supply. Readjust Volume after changing the other controls to find the sweet spot for how hard Sun Tzu hits your amp.
INPUT
The Input toggle changes the frequencies entering the transistor gain stages and has a big effect on both the sound and playing response of the pedal.
Thick is the full-range setting. It has a broader, weightier response with more low-end mass and bloom. This is a great starting point for single-coils, or anytime you want the widest and most open response.
Thin focuses the signal before it reaches the gain stages, tightening the low end and making the pedal feel faster and more immediate under your fingers. It works especially well with humbuckers and higher Drive settings, where it can produce focused, treble-booster-like amp tones without losing the body of the guitar.
Another way to think about Input is as an aperture: Thick opens the aperture and lets the whole signal through; Thin narrows it and brings the response into sharper focus.
BRIGHT
Bright is a three-position switch that changes the frequency response of the Drive circuit.
1 is the wide-open setting, with no bright enhancement applied. It preserves the broadest frequency response and is closest to the character of your bypassed guitar and amp.
2 adds a chiming treble presence while tightening the low end and creating a slightly scooped feel.
3 focuses the response further, with crystalline highs, a tighter low end and a fast playing feel. It’s especially useful for cutting through when your amp is already cranked.
The Bright circuit interacts directly with the Drive control. Its effect is strongest with Drive at minimum. As you turn Drive up, mids and lows are progressively blended back into the bright signal, so the differences between the three Bright settings become more subtle. This interaction lets you use Drive not only to add gain, but also to change the balance of body and focus.
LED DISABLE SWITCH
This internal DIP switch allows you to disable the status LED so it does not light when the pedal is on. LEDs slightly clamp the response, particularly in gain circuits. With the LED disabled, you’ll get a more elastic picking feel, sweeter harmonics, a more three-dimensional soundstage and better note bloom. Disabling the LED also greatly extends battery life when powering Sun Tzu from the two internal 9-volt batteries.
Try it both ways. With the LED enabled, the slightly more contained response can work especially well for aggressive rhythm playing. With the LED disabled, the added elasticity and bloom can be particularly rewarding for single-note lead playing. Neither is necessarily better. They’re simply two different responses, so experiment and see which one suits the way you’re playing.
Directions
Directions
Quick Start
You can use Sun Tzu in two main ways.
Be the amp.
Into a clean amp, use it as the foundation of your gain sound. Set the amp for a good clean tone and let Sun Tzu give you responsive cleans through edge-of-breakup, singing drive and roar. You can boost it with your other boosts and drives to make them sound bigger than you’ve ever heard them.
Drive the amp.
Into an amp that is already breaking up, Sun Tzu is your embiggifier drive boost! It’ll make it louder, yes, but you’ll feel it get wider and bigger with harmonic drive that you can control from your fingers. It melts into your amp until you don’t know when the pedal stops and the amp starts.
Start Wide
Start with this setting to get to know Sun Tzu.
Begin with Drive at minimum, Input set to Thick and Bright set to 1. This is also a great starting point when using Sun Tzu to boost your already overdriven amp.
With Sun Tzu on, start with your guitar volume around 7 rather than all the way up. At minimum Drive, this gets you pretty close to the sound and level of your guitar full-up with the pedal bypassed.
From there, you have room to move in both directions. Turn the guitar down for big, high-headroom cleans with bounce and breath, or bring it up for progressively more edge, drive, harmonic complexity and saturation.
You can leave Sun Tzu always-on and get your cleans all the way to your boosted drive tones just from your guitar's volume knob.
Focus With Intent
Once you've established that wide starting point, try the three Bright settings and listen to how they change the openness, focus and attack of the rolled-back sound. The middle position is neutral and the most like your bypassed tone. Bright 2 or 3 adds two different brightness curves that are the strongest when Drive is set in its lower range.
Then try the Input switch.
Thick gives you the broadest aperture and lets the full guitar signal into the gain stages.
Thin focuses the signal before the gain stages. It can be especially useful with humbuckers, a neck pickup at higher guitar-volume settings, or anytime you want a faster, more articulate response without losing the body of the guitar. It can give you that juicy treble-boosted sound too!
The six toggle-switch combinations create different range maps of response.
Choose a map. Then travel!
Use Your Guitar and Hands
Sun Tzu is designed to respond continuously to your guitar volume and your hands.
Try staying on one pedal setting and moving through the range with the guitar instead of switching the pedal on and off. Roll the guitar down, change pickups, vary your picking strength, palm mute, dig in, back off.
The more dynamically you play, the more Sun Tzu has your back!
Explore the Clean End
Sun Tzu has great clean headroom when you turn the guitar down.
Sun Tzu not only cleans up from your guitar volume but it also feels really good to play down there; the sound bounces and breathes still. And you can dial in your turned-down clean sound from the toggle switch settings and where you set Drive and Volume.
Leave It On!
Sun Tzu was designed to extend the range of your guitar and amp. The loud gets louder and bigger, and the clean might even sound better than with the pedal off. And now you've got all the in-betweens too. And if you need a scene change you can hit it with another dirt pedal.
You might decide Sun Tzu is one of your always-on pedals!
Pickups
Single-coils generally provide the widest clean-to-drive range, but humbuckers can still produce beautifully clear sounds by lowering Drive and backing down the guitar volume.
As a general starting point, Thick works especially well with single-coils and Thin can be useful for keeping humbuckers or a full neck pickup focused under gain.
But those aren't rules. Experiment and find your jam.
Signal Chain
Sun Tzu isn’t really picky about what comes before or after it.
Wahs and buffered pedals in front are not a problem. Buffers will change the feel a bit though so experiment with both ways to see what works for you.
And Sun Tzu loves being stacked with other dirt pedals in front of it. Its discrete circuitry and 18-volt headroom will make your boosters, overdrives, and fuzzes sound huge!
You can think of Sun Tzu as an amp-like foundation pedal to help you get huge sound and response at any volume from your existing pedalboard. Or use it as your only dirt box to magnify what you already like about your guitar and amp.
Specs
Specs
Input impedance
~ 300kΩ
Output impedance
~ 20kΩ or less, depending on Volume setting.
Bypass
True bypass, grounded input.
Current draw
~ 0.56mA (LED on)
~ 0.24mA (LED off)
Measured at ~ 18 volts.
Power supply
Two internal 9-volt batteries
or
9–18 volts DC, standard BOSS-style center-negative power supply. Optimized for 18 volts.
Sample Settings
Sample Settings
