The Rare is on the lower right of the pedalboard. Pettyjohn stuffs everything into a polished aluminum casing with those cool maroon Davies knobs like the original, but the pedal is shaped like a typical stomp box with top mounted jacks, making it easier to find room for it on a pedalboard.
I'm starting with part of my post from another thread to save some typing time. About Pettyjohn gear:
If you open up one of their pedals and compare it to the typical pedal, even very good pedals, it's an eye-opener - no wonder they sound so good. Building pedals like studio gear is their thing, which makes the pedals expensive, but you know my system: If I can spend more to get what I want, I'm gonna spend more because cheap thrills!
Basically, the Rare is Pettyjohn's idea of a hot-rodded Klon, with more headroom and a bit different tonality, but still in that ballpark. For example, they use 4 of the NOS germanium D9E diodes the Klon used, instead of two; it converts 9V to 18V operation; it has NOS Allen-Bradley resistors; an optional Emerson cap; four controls instead of 3, and some internal parts upgrades to populate the circuit boards more like studio gear.
It's not supposed to mimic a Klon. It's more an 'inspired by Klon' thing. PRS had a similar concept with the Horsemeat, and that's different from both the Klon and Rare as well.
I've run it with all 4 amps on their 'clean to edge of breakup' settings, which is normally where I'd run an actual Klon. I have it as the first pedal following the buffer in the PJ Lift.
Because I'm used to using a Klon at a very low gain setting but with a touch of boost, that's how I set this one up, though I did experiment with all of the controls, level, gain, bass, treble.
The Emerson cap was an option, and PJ says it opens up the high end. I'd say, yes, there's plenty of 'top' with this pedal and it sounds very transparent, snappy and articulate. Unlike my usual pedal setup, I rolled a little high frequency down just a touch, and added a small amount of bass, but those controls are guitar and amp-dependent (see photo above for control settings with the Fillmore). I wound up setting them one way for the Mesas, and differently for the DG30 and HXDA.
The HXDA, being a Plexi, doesn't need a boost or gain pedal. Not that it doesn't sound good, but the extra amount of gain I can get just with the volume knob on the guitar gives me all I need with that amp, so it's unnecessary.
I love it with Mesa's Lone Star and Fillmore. Unusual for me - there's only one other dirt/low gain pedal I really like with those amps: Pettyjohn's Edge (that will go back on the board once I get the correct cable to put it where I want it (I haven't decided that part yet). It also sounds excellent with the DG30, with the controls at slightly different settings from the Mesas, as you'd expect.
While the aluminum case is brushed and polished, it isn't anodized like the aluminum Suhr pedals on the board, so it could scratch more easily. I'm usually pretty careful and not worried about it, but mention it in case it bugs anyone. Clearly they were inspired by the silver Klon, with its cast aluminum case, at least in terms of color scheme.
Anyway, it sounds the business, works with all the amps, and even looks pretty snazzy on the pedal board where it has found a home.
[Edit] I forgot to mention that because Pettyjohn could only get a limited number of NOS parts, the pedal was part of a limited run. I ordered it at Christmas and it came yesterday.
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