Direct In

Direct box for electric guitar that emulates a mic'd clean, pedal-friendly amp's sound, so you can gig or record without an amp

• Luxurious, transparent low end
• bright, chimey mids that are scooped in all the obnoxious frequencies
• detailed, accurate top end (rolled off in accordance with average speaker-cab response curves)

Perfect for "silent stage" venues or any time you don't want to lug your amp along.

Even if you don't plan on going amp-less, you can keep it on your pedalboard as an insurance policy in case your amp ever breaks down at a gig.

Plug your pedalboard's output into its input, connect it to the mixer board or recording interface using an XLR/microphone cable, and use the THRU jack to connect to your amp if you are using one.

Plug and play! All analog; no menus, no complicated setup; just the exact right sound every time. You can always adjust the eq on the sound board or recording interface to dial it in to the context of the mix, but it is ready to go and sounds amazing into a flat eq right out of the box.

The Skreddy Direct In features:

• (a solid-state emulation of) the full preamp section including bridged Normal and Bright channels
• 3-band Hiwatt* model tone stack set to my favorite levels (typical David Gilmour settings)
• power amp emulator including Presence calibration
• speaker cab emulator
• balanced XLR output that sends a strong noise-free signal to the sound board or recording interface (includes a tiny bit of resistance drag to help minimize the typical loud "pop" when it gets plugged in).

The THRU jack is a passive, parallel line from the INSTRUMENT jack that you can send to your amp on stage or any other 1/4" instrument split you might want. The input impedance of the active circuit is very high, so it won't suck any tone when you split its signal passively. You could actually use either the INSTRUMENT or the THRU jack as your input, depending on the way you prefer to set up your board and cables.

The only adjustable control is VOLUME, which of course you'll want to set wherever it needs to be in order to avoid overloading the receiving device. Test for levels using the loudest and most extreme signal peaks you anticipate from your guitar and pedalboard to keep it safely out of the red. Typically you'll find that about noon is the best starting place. An analog mixer board will be more tolerant of a hot signal than a digital interface, but that doesn't mean you should blast the mixer board. High settings on the VOLUME knob will bring up the noise level. Experiment with the interaction between the VOLUME control and the input gain of the mixer if you have time; but again, about noon should work in most situations (maybe a little lower than noon for a digital interface just to be safe).

This is not the sort of amp emulator you should expect to give you any amount of overdrive (that will all come from your pedals); it is clean and very articulate yet silky smooth at the same time, with lots of headroom. It is designed to give you the most transparent pedal-friendly platform possible, and it does sound like a circa 1977 Hiwatt* model DR103, because I tested meticulously against it until I matched not only the tone of the amp but also of the speaker cabinet frequency response (which required lots of math and many multiple iterations, since all of the filters interact with each other).

Finished in a textured black powdercoat that resembles the "elephant skin" tolex of the Hiwatt* amp it's modelled after.

Power supply requirements:
Recommended: 18v for best results. It will still work with 9v, but that might impart transient distortion on hard string attacks; it is calibrated at 18v for optimal performance.
Skreddy pedals use the industry standard Boss/Roland style power supplies, which have a 5.5mm barrel (positive) and 2.1mm center (negative) coax plug, negative-ground.
Does not have a battery clip; adapter only.
It will not make use of phantom power but is not prone to damage from it either.

* The term "Hiwatt" is used for comparison and does not imply either equivalence to or endorsement of the fine people at Hiwatt, who of course own their trademarks.

Special thanks to Rod Elliot at

Elliot Sound Products
for all the helpful information, tips, and math you've provided over the years!