Solodallas STORM Schaffer Replica Pedal

The Solodallas Storm is designed to give you the same "Instant Angus" tone as the original (currently not in production) TSR Replica pedal in a smaller, more pedalboard friendly 9V package. It's still awesome, and has been bringing great tone to guitarists of all stripes worldwide.

The Solodallas Storm uses a 9-12VDC tip negative DC power supply. This is new Revision 4.2.1 production models.

First released back in the 2015, the original Solodallas Schaffer Replica pedal (TSR, or "The Schaffer Replica") was an instant hit with tone hounds. It's the brainchild of Filippo (Fil) Olivieri, guitarist, collector, blogger, and lover of all things Marshall, AC/DC, and Angus.

Here is the quick back story: The Schaffer wireless system was developed in the 70's, and used some ingenious compression and expansion techniques to boost the dynamic range of the transmitted signal to well over 100 dB. This "companding" circuit plus line buffering created impressive dynamics and clarity. With the addition of both input and output level controls, guitarists discovered that the Schaffer transmitter could also act like a signal boost. Bingo! It may have been a wireless transmitter, but guitarists loved what it did to their tone...and one of those guitarists was Angus Young.

So along comes the TSR pedal, and players everywhere are loving it. It's not a distortion pedal, and it's more than a signal booster. I would describe it as a signal booster and signal conditioner. The signal conditioning part being the compression/expansion circuitry along with a line buffer, which helps reduce signal degradation due to cables and other effects. The Solodallas makes any amplifier "pop," enhancing the spaciousness and "bigness" of the signal. Think of it as a very effective presence control that makes the sound fill the room -- rather than just come from the speaker -- without it actually being louder or brighter.

But the original TSR pedal had a couple perceived -- or actual -- drawbacks: It's a little large, and it requires a 12VDC tip positive power supply with a fairly high current draw. So the sound is dynamite, but unless you haul a separate power supply, it's not necessarily a drop-in device. So the gang at Solodallas went back to the woodshed, and out comes the 9VDC tip negative Solodallas Storm. 

So the Storm brings "Instant Angus" to every pedalboard. But how does it sound, and how does it compare to the original out-of-production TSR?

Running them side-by-side our first impression is that the Storm has a little more natural brightness, while the TSR has more of a slightly darker, more forward midrange push. At first the Storm might sound more compelling because we are naturally inclined to like brighter sounds, but the original TSR sounds a touch more substantial. That being said, single coils sound great with the Storm, with lots of tasty definition and a tactile feel that goes to relative mush when you turn it off. It's not just brighter, it's better, plain and simple.

The "Snap" control is new to the Storm (and is also on their high end Tower version), and it acts as a signal limiter. Run it at low levels and there is more natural attack, more bite, and little crisper edge. At higher (clockwise) levels the sound is smoother and a little more even and compressed. It's a matter of taste, and we liked it at around 11 o-clock where it preserved the "snap" and spaciousness around the notes, but with a touch of smoothness.

We like the Storm (or TSR) last on our board, where it can act as a buffer, and where it also greatly enhances the tone of anything coming before it. We tend to use it just as a slight boost so that we can leave it on and fine tune it with the guitar's volume control. It's also perfectly happy earlier in the signal chain goosing your favorite gain pedal. We've previously described the TSR as "Sonic Crack" and the Storm certainly earns that description too. It's a hard pedal to turn off....

The Storm takes away any excuse not to have "Instant Angus" on your pedalboard.