The Snowblind Limited Edition of Frost Giant's Architect of Reality Dual Channel Preamp has landed!

Feb 10, 202208:00 by

Stefan Karlsson

Brown Sound DistortionDistortionDual-DriveFrost Giant ElectronicsMarshall Style DistortionMetal Distortion+-

Frost Giant’s Architect of Reality was one of the pedals I missed out on last year. I had been peripherally aware of it for a while - but struggled to fit it into my incredibly busy end of year schedule - and thus determined I would tackle it nice and early in the new year.

Over the Christmas holidays I noted that Mr Frost Giant himself - one Eric Calvert had a 25 limited run ’Snowblind’ colourway edition out which really appealed to my senses - and so I snagged #18 of those on the evening of Boxing Day. That pedal has just arrived now and looks every bit as gorgeous in the flesh - while it took me a while to get the picture contrast and exposure just right to showcase its somewhat subtle but undoubtedly elegant artwork.

Pedal Controls - Presence, Bass, Mids, Treble, Bass Boost : On/Off, Mids Boost : On/Off, Treble Boost : On/Off, AOR Volume (Ch2), Master Volume (Ch1), Preamp Gain (Ch1 mainly + Ch2 Blend), AOR Gain (Ch2), Channel Footswitch, Engage/Bypass Footswitch. Channel 1 is Red, Channel 2 is Green.

As spelled out in several written notices on the circuitboard - the 5 blue trimmers are not to be messed with in the slightest - they are what Eric uses to set up and tune each pedal originally - and should retain those ’factory settings’ ever more - on pain of death!

The Architect of Reality is based on the Laney AOR 100 Amp (Advanced Overdrive Response) - featuring the same core 8 controls - as you can compare and contrast with via the below visual. In place of the Pull functions on pertinent amp knobs - the Architect of Reality pedal utilises 3 x 2-way toggle-switches.

Laney's AOR was in turn its own hot-rodded and modded take on the Marshall JCM800 - with an expansive and extended range, and myriad additional control options - enabled by secondary 'pull' functions on several of those knobs.

The AOR's heyday was early 80's through much of the 90's - and it enjoyed a loyal following from some of the leading rock / metal players of that era, including - Randy Rhoads, Vinnie Moore, George Lynch, and Ace Frehley.

The pedal preamp circuit has an internal charge pump which takes the 9V input up to 36V - a LT1054CP opamp is used as a voltage regulator, and the core tone-making components appear to be 7 x 62P SMT type JFET Transistors.

So what the AOR Dual Channel Preamp represents is a very faithful take on the original AOR Amp - which give you even more flavour than its very original inspiration. In using those extra boosts you can get into all kinds of territories that the JCM800 just doesn't quite reach - including a number of somewhat fuzz-edged voicings.

This is for those who always loved the Marshall Metal sound - but wanted a little extra out of that format. Channel 1 (Red) is controlled by Master Volume and Preamp Gain knobs, while when in Channel 2 (Green) the AOR Volume takes over, but you can still used the Preamp Gain knob (Channel 1) to Blend that Channel into the AOR one (Channel 2). The Presence, Bass, Mids, Treble and 3 toggle-switch boost controls are all shared for both channels.

So in effect a souped up and super-charged Metal Marshall. I haven't had it long obviously, but I'm suitably impressed already.

I'm often not a fan of artificially limited colourway editions - while this one just really appeals to me and I felt I had to have it!

Are any of you familiar with the Laney AOR - perhaps you have deployed one of those amps before - and for sure some of you own the standard black edition of this pedal? The Snowblind edition was exactly the same price as the standard black version - $250 - which of course is still currently available on the Frost Giant Webstore. I paid $25 additionally for shipping which seems very fair! I'm sure many of you will prefer the black version in any case.

I have already marked out Frost Giant's Soma V2 Fuzzstortion as my next acquisition from the range - a super-charged version of Frost Giant's Massif One-Knob Fuzz.