The third chapter of the Parabellum Drive saga, the Cold Bear distortion combines the all tube warmth of the Edison Preamp and the massive 3 band active EQ of our QtheEQ series of pedals with a parallel germanium circuit devised by Nicholas Williams of Dunwich Amps.

 

The flow of controls mirrors the the signal path; The input jack and input gain on the right, the output jack and output volume on the left, and low/mid/hi EQ controls in the middle.

 

The input feeds the Edison Preamp circuit, followed by a low gain transistor stage which feeds two germanium distortion circuits; One designed to amplify high mids and highs with hard clipping characteristics, and the other focused on low mids and lows with soft clipping characteristics.  

 

The low gain stage replaces the buffer stage found in V2, providing more gain on tap.  A grid resistor has been added to filter unnecessary frequencies, and the EQ has reverted to the Op-Amp based EQ found in V1 for a tighter, more focused sound.

 

At full gain, the distortion is creamy but cutting, with a massive low end and a post-eq’d sound out of the box.  At lower gain settings, the sticky germanium artifacts color each note uniquely and give your clean tone a pumped up sound that cuts through any mix or live setup.

 

The enclosure is powder coated in a multi-layer powder coat by local specialist TRG coatings , the polygonal bear deep engraved by local operator Mayhem Machine and Tool, and the stunning custom matching knobs are by local craftsman Haramis Musical Hardware. 

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