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Guided Tour: 

 
The following steps guide you through the sonic palette of Philosopher 
King

 

and show you how to get at the range of tones that it has to offer.  

 
Compression Controls 
 

1.

 

Set all of the controls fully counter-clockwise and set the toggles to 
the right.

 The Release light should be lit, but the other LEDs should be 

off. The Philosopher King is in bypass mode. Play your instrument and 
make sure a clean sound is passing through the pedal. 

2.

 

Turn up the SENSITIVITY to 3:00. 

3.

 

Turn the Volume control up to 12:00. Click the Engage footswitch to 
turn the Philosopher King on. Play your instrument. You should hear the 
same sound as in bypass. Turn the COMPRESSION control up all the 
way and play your instrument. You will now hear the 
compressor/sustain effect.  

4.

 

Turn up the SUSTAIN 

5.

 

Turn up the GRIT 

6.

 

Turn up the TREBLE 

 

SWELL and FADE

  

 

7.

 

Turn on the ATTACK footswitch and bring the ATTACK dial up to 12:00. 
Play a chord and notice how it swells in from silence up to full volume.  

 
Note: 

Once the attack cycle has been triggered, the musician must 

mute their instrument in order to reset the attack cycle.

 When the 

instrument is muted, the RELEASE light comes on, letting the musician 
know that the SWELL function is armed. The touch sensitive nature of 
the SWELL function lets the player control the threshold between the 
volume swell effect and a pure compression sound with playing 
dynamics and muting technique.  

Note: Lower SENSITIVITY settings will require less muting, however the 
SWELL function can reset prematurely if the SENSITIVITY is set too low. 

8.

 

Explore the range of the SWELL control and then turn off the SWELL 
footswitch. 

9.

 

Turn on the DECAY footswitch and bring the DECAY dial up to 12:00. 
Play a chord and notice how it fades out from full volume to silence. 
Explore the range of the DECAY control.   

Summary of Contents for philosopher king

Page 1: ...Pigtronixtm Philosopher King User s Guide All contents Absara Audio LLC 2010 ...

Page 2: ...Index Welcome Anatomy of the Philosopher King Getting Started Guided Tour Notes Limited Warranty Safety Precautions ...

Page 3: ... a standard plucked note into a volume swell stuttering tremolo or even a psychedelic backwards tape emulation With the SWELL and FADE footswitches turned off the Philosopher King operates as a Compressor Sustainer Distortion only The amplitude modulation is introduced by turning on the SWELL and FADE footswitches and can be manipulated by external expression pedals or CV input The Philosopher Kin...

Page 4: ...the 18 Volt 300mA negative tip power supply that came with your Pigtronix Philosopher King Using the wrong power supply could result in a damaged pedal 5 CV in Insert CV control signal or a TRS expression pedal for remote control of the amplitude modulation 6 CV out The internal control voltage that sets the amplitude at any given moment is available from this jack The range is approx 2VDC 12VDC 7...

Page 5: ...nal When turned fully clockwise you will hear only the effect signal note The SWELL and FADE functions will modulate the un compressed clean signal if the COMPRESSION knob is set counter clockwise 14 GRIT This dial mixes a layer of grinding distortion into the effect sound 15 SUSTAIN This dial sets the threshold of the compressor increasing sustain as this knob is turned clockwise 16 TREBLE This d...

Page 6: ... gives you fine tune control of the shorter SWELL and FADE times 24 AUTO RESET The auto reset feature allows for a wide range of variable tremolo effects If there is any input signal present when the end of the FADE cycle auto reset causes the modulation cycle to begin again When AUTO RESET is off you must mute your instrument to set the cycle up for re trigger Leave AUTO RESET on most of the time...

Page 7: ... Turn up the TREBLE SWELL and FADE 7 Turn on the ATTACK footswitch and bring the ATTACK dial up to 12 00 Play a chord and notice how it swells in from silence up to full volume Note Once the attack cycle has been triggered the musician must mute their instrument in order to reset the attack cycle When the instrument is muted the RELEASE light comes on letting the musician know that the SWELL funct...

Page 8: ...tack and fast decay setting provides a tape reverse emulation for plucked string instruments 14 Turn on the ONE SHOT and choose long SWELL and FADE settings Notice how you can mute while the cycle is going and without resetting Notes LIVE PERFORMANCE The Philosopher King provides four preset sounds on stage depending which footswitches are selected 1 Sustainer ENGAGE only 2 Volume Swell ENGAGE and...

Page 9: ...vicing How to contact us for warranty service Email tech pigtronix com Warranty Limitations This warranty does not cover defects resulting from improper or unreasonable use accident unauthorized tampering or modifications and warranty shall be considered void if Philosopher King chassis has been opened Please consult the instructions and warnings in this manual for proper use Warranty is only vali...

Page 10: ... ONLY Be sure to use only the 18 Volt DC 300mA Adapter that came with your Pigtronix Philosopher King and is specified in this user s guide DO NOT EXPOSE TO WATER BEER To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock do not expose your Philosopher King to rain or moisture If water gets inside the unit turn off the power supply and consult your dealer or nearest authorized service provider Final Notes ...

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