Used Pete Cornish Custom Design SS-3/G-2 Duplex

This Pete Cornish Custom Design Duplex is in very good condition with honest signs of use consistent with a pedal that's been on a working board. The G-2 label shows visible scuffing and wear on the black background, and there's light general wear across the grey enclosure. All six chicken-head knobs are clean and intact, both footswitches engage firmly, and all jacks are solid. Everything here is cosmetic — this is a fully functional Cornish duplex that's been played and taken care of.

Includes an aftermarket AC adaptor. No original box or documentation.

Two of Pete Cornish's most respected circuits — the SS-3 Soft Sustain and the G-2 Germanium Overdrive — hand-built into a single Custom Design enclosure. This is what Cornish calls a duplex: two fully independent pedals with dedicated footswitches, controls, and voicings, sharing one case that's smaller than the two individual units combined.

The SS-3 side is Cornish's take on an overdriven vintage valve amp. It covers a wide range from subtle amp-like breakup through rhythmic crunch to a thick, bluesy lead tone, with exceptional bottom-end retention and a transparent midrange that preserves the character of whatever guitar and pickups you're feeding it. The Lo Cut and Hi Cut controls — the additions that distinguish the SS-3 from the earlier SS-2 — give real tonal shaping range, with the Lo Cut providing up to -20dB of attenuation at 60Hz and the Hi Cut offering everything from -14dB of cut at 6kHz to a +6dB harmonic boost at full clockwise. Notable players include David Gilmour and Noel Gallagher.

The G-2 side is the higher-gain complement. Built around a four-stage overdriven discrete transistor Class A circuit with germanium components, it picks up roughly where the SS-3 leaves off — from rhythmic crunch through to a rounded, dynamic, saturated lead tone that recalls the cranked Marshall sound of 1970s British rock. The germanium stages give it warmer, more musical harmonics than typical silicon distortion circuits, and the original guitar dynamics stay present even at high gain settings. A long list of professional users, including Gilmour, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, have made the G-2 part of their signal chain.

Both circuits run through Cornish's proprietary high-impedance, unity-gain, Class A buffer preamp with RFI rejection — the same buffer design used in his professional pedalboard systems. The buffer maintains pickup loading and signal integrity whether the effects are engaged or bypassed, and eliminates ghost distortion in bypass mode.

SS-3 Controls: Volume, Lo Cut, Hi Cut, Sustain
G-2 Controls: Volume, Tone, Sustain
Switching: Independent heavy-duty footswitch per circuit
I/O: IN/PWR input, Output, Tuner output
Power: 9V DC (tip negative, 5.5/2.1mm barrel), battery via drawer (MN1604 preferred), Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus recommended
Buffer: High Impedance, Unity Gain, Class A with RFI rejection
Construction: Hand-built by Pete and Lynda Cornish
Enclosure: Die-cast, Grey Series
Serial: N/10014