Elevating the groundbreaking optical compression of the original Philosopher’s Tone to a new plane of tonal enlightenment, the Philosopher’s Tone 2 is a world-class compressor/sustainer with footswitchable Grit, allowing for more versatility than ever before. Featuring a refined implementation of the overdrive circuit first heard in the limited-edition Gold version of this iconic compressor pedal, the unique germanium distortion found in the Philosopher's Tone 2 delivers smooth top end and rich midrange response, tailored to perfectly match the characteristics of the optical sustainer driving it. In addition to Volume and Sustain controls, the Philosopher’s Tone 2 features a parallel clean Blend knob that allows musicians to mix their instrument’s original tone with the compressor/sustainer effect when the Grit circuit is bypassed. This mixing technique restores natural pick-attack and allows clean settings with extreme sustain to remain dynamic and musical. When the Grit circuit is engaged, the Blend knob is automatically bypassed, circumventing the compromises of the original unit and imparting a colorful distortion to your sound in both Germanium and Silicon modes. This nonlinear diode-clipping can range from subtle overdrive to overflowing distortion, all without unwanted feedback. A Treble control located just before the master Volume provides 6db of cut or boost at 2kHz for fine-tuning the frequency response of the effect. The Philosopher’s Tone 2 features true-bypass switching and internal 18V power rails for maximum clean headroom that is ideal for use with hot pickups, active bass, synthesizers and other line-level sources. Runs on 9VDC.