CygnusDistortion / Sustainer

From the vendor

Based on the classic Big Muff circuit, this pedal adds a meticulously-tuned buffered bypass along with an additional transistor-based buffer stage on the effect input.

The Cygnus Distortion/Sustainer is adapted from the Pete Cornish P-2 and G-2, two Big Muff-based pedals that share a PCB but with several part differences to distinguish them.

Cornish pedals are probably best known for being extremely expensive. There are two reasons for this. First, the build quality and reliability is unmatched. Second, the mysterious nature of them, partially due to the fact that the circuit is obscured and partially because of the A-list of clients. The P-2 was originally designed for David Gilmour, while the G-2 was developed with Lou Reed.

Inside, the circuit is a basic Big Muff with a few changes such as a simplified hi-cut tone control and the famous class-A transistor buffer design. The P-2 is similar to a Ram’s Head Muff, while the G-2 was designed to be much lower gain with a drastically different EQ as well as germanium clipping diodes. In fact, until the G-2 it was traced in 2009, people had no idea it was a Muff derivative. The P-2 was traced by Aion FX in 2023.

The Cygnus is a faithful reproduction of the P-2 and G-2 circuits. The kit is for the P-2 version, but the parts list in the PCB build document includes both variants. The default is the P-2 circuit, while each G-2 change is listed in the “Notes” column.

We’ve made one major addition in our project: an internal switch allowing the pedal to be used in true-bypass mode instead of buffered bypass. As with the Klon KTR, the buffer mode is “almost always better”, but you can be the judge of that.

Note: The PCB-only version of this project uses a type of capacitor that has been temporarily discontinued by WIMA. Please see our news article about the issue and the substitution spreadsheet for project-specific recommendations. We are stocking a limited supply in the mean time. The build document has not yet been updated to reflect this. It does not impact the kits.