I'm very interested in the Pettyjohns you've got. I'm sitting with Wampler/Ibanez combos for boost right now and, while I like it, I could use a little more...iron.
No doubt there are an infinite number of combinations and ways to run the Pettyjohn stuff, but I’ll talk a little about how I use it.
Caveat: I’m not a heavy-handed pedal dialer; I’m a
very low gain guy. I like to just lightly touch the front of the amps, and let the amps do the work for the overdrive and gain. Certainly the PJ stuff can be used differently, and set for higher amounts of gain, but I can only speak to how I use these pedals.
Your needs and uses may be completely, utterly different!
I was looking for transparent but touch-sensitive “crushed glass” around the edges of notes with the Pettydrive 2; traditional OD and boost pedals haven’t been able to give me that, even very good ones. I do however stack the two sides of the pedal when i want a little more gain. Yes, lots of gain can be dialed up, but I’m not that guy.
The PJ pedals are the most transparent I’ve used, and they honestly remind me of using good, vintage studio gear. To make the sound even more transparent, I run the PD2 and the Filter EQ at 18 Volts for additional headroom (you can hear the differences between 9, 12 and 18 Volts with these pedals quite easily). The Lift automatically converts 9 Volts to 18 internally, or that can be doubled by setting a switch inside the pedal and running it from an 18 Volt tap, but it isn’t a headroom thing, it’s a boost thing when you do that. I find 9 Volts fine with this pedal.
There are also lots of very thoughtful, well-considered, touches on each pedal.
Basically, I have all 3 Pettyjohn pedals on almost all the time. The Lift is on even when it’s switched off, because it’s a buffer box with switchable tone filters and a boost function. I’m a huge believer in high quality buffers, and this has one, but more importantly, it just makes my gear sound better. I know that’s vague, but that’s what it does! It has an unusual control that lets you hit the front of the pedal harder before its internal processing comes into play; it’s like increasing the input level on a vintage mic preamp. You get more character that way.
I have one side of the Pettydrive 2 (the Chime side) set for just the slightest touch of grit when I dig in. It’s nearly always on, too. I also cut a little low end mush out of the signal with this pedal, depending on the amp. I like to leave room for the bass and kick in tracks I’m recording, and it’s good to cut bottom end just a little to get good guitar recordings (at least in my mind). One cool thing about the PD2 is that the controls for each side are different, and work with the character of that side of the pedal. An unusual feature of the Chime side of the PD2 is that you can increase the gain coming into the pedal, not just going out of the pedal, to hit its front end harder before the internal gain control comes into play. Pretty cool, even at low gain settings, because it changes how the pedal responds.
The Filter EQ is another “almost always on” box. Not only does the EQ sound great, the box makes everything sound a little more - I hate to use this term but I haven’t got another good one that applies - polished. It’s the only way I can describe it. I use this pedal to shape the signal after it hits the Lift and the PD2. Generally I cut a tiny bit of midrange, and boost a tiny bit of treble, but how I set it depends on the guitar, the amp, and the other effects I’m using. Even when the pedal is set flat, the sound is a bit nicer, more like what I hear on a good record.
There are some great demos of the Pettyjohn stuff on their website; this one is most like how I use the Pettydrive 2; I like what Mike Hermans did to demo it. Listen on good speakers or headphones, and you’ll get a good idea of what it does to the guitar tone:
Of course, it can be set differently, and other demos of the pedal on the site sound completely different! So YMMV.
Linda Taylor’s demos of the Lift and the Filter on the PJ website sold me on those; they’re pretty close to how I use the pedals as well.
At this point, these three pedals are an essential part of what I consider “my” sound. Unfortunately, I haven’t recorded any demos with these pedals, so I have no clips to post.
I’m reluctant to tell anyone “go out and buy this or that piece of gear.” What works for me may or may not work for someone else. But they’re certainly worth trying if a store near you carries them. One thing...there aren’t a ton of labels on the switch positions of the PD2, and that can be confusing at first, but I’d say try all the switches and knobs and see what they do. Don’t just leave it set to everything at noon.
The one thing I would have liked would be silent relay switching. At 9 V the switching is nearly silent, but at 12 and18, I get a little pop. Not a deal breaker for me, and certainly no worse than the JHS or Earthquaker pedals, but my Suhr pedals and Eventides have silent relay switching.