Palmer THRUSTER Bedienungsanleitung Seite 5

FOREWORD
The Palmer team is happy to welcome you as our customer, thank you for expressing your confi dence
in our products.
It is one of Palmers' main goals to produce useful and reliable devices that effectively support you in
your work. In this context, your experiences are very important and essential to us. So please do not
hesitate to let us know your critique. Suggestions for improvements that are interesting for a majority of
the users will be implemented quickly. Please also use our forum under www.palmer-germany.com to
discuss possible improvements or maybe even just to commend our products.
INTRODUCTION
It seems quite diffi cult to describe the Thrusters' functions since there is, to our knowledge, no com-
parable device on the market. The device carries the subtitle "Lead- and Top-Booster", where the term
"booster" stands for a normal amplifi er that boosts the level of a signal without distortion. Therefore one
shouldn't confuse the Thruster with distortion pedals or fuzz boxes. On the contrary, the device has been
designed to work with extremely high levels without affecting the dynamic range.
One possible application would be to loop the Thruster in before a (vintage) tube amp in order to drive
the tube circuit into saturation and thus achieve a "thicker sound". Since the Thruster is a dual chan-
nel device, you can achieve 3 different settings with a classic single channel tube amplifi er; clean - the
Thruster is off, Crunch – a gentle boost causes a slight distortion, and with the second preset you can
then go into full amplifi cation (12dB = factor of 4) and achieve a nice solid lead sound.
In addition to these pots you will also fi nd a rotary switch for each preset with the switching positions
"FLAT, F1, F2, F3" respectively "FLAT, F4, F5, F6" for preset 2. These switches fulfi l the following func-
tion: In the position FLAT the amplifi cation is linear. The positions F1 to F6 stand for different frequency
responses which are boosted. The frequency responses range from mid to high frequencies depending
on the position of the switches. With the given Frequency responses you can choose between a muffl ed
"thrashy" sound (mid frequency boosted) trough to a pungent sound (high frequencies boosted). With
the 6 Different frequencies there is a wide range of sound variations to choose from.
The Thruster is however also useful for clean sounds. For example, try out preset 2 with the frequency F6
at half boost. Depending on the pickup used, you can add silky smooth high frequencies to signal that
strongly remind one of a directly recorded guitar. A gentle boost of the middle frequencies can result in
a sound similar to that of a Wah-Wah pedal in certain positions.
If you are using a high gain amp with which sustained sounds are possible, it may make sense to use the
Thruster in the effects loop of the amp. It makes sense to use the serial loop but you can also use the
parallel loop if you turn the Wet/Dry control to wet. The Thrusters' features unfold best if the unit is "fed"
with a distorted signal. This is also valid for the signal chain before the amp – distortion pedals should
thus always be patched before the Thruster.
You may have concerns in using a pedal such as the Thruster in the effects loop of the amp, since most
"stompboxes" only have a limited dynamic range and thus often cause unpleasant distortions when
used in an effects loop. This is not the case with the Thruster! Thanks to a voltage pump, the Thruster
can deal with extremely high levels – even above the studio standards.
For the specialists: We have achieved the best results when using the device at the insert "Preamp Out/
Poweramp In" of a 100W tube amplifi er, i.e. directly after the phase split.
Due to its concept and the power consumption in consequence to the high dynamic range, it would have
made little sense to equip the Thruster with a battery compartment. You can however use any standard
power adaptor with a stabilized output voltage of 9V. The Thruster draws a maximum current of 80mA.
Most normal power adaptors supply double the amount so there's little need to worry about overloading
them. Since most users possess power adaptors with multiple outputs, a separate power adaptor is not
included. A separate universal power adaptor with multiple outputs will however be available soon. Find
more information under www.palmer-germany.com
Page 5
PALMER - THRUSTER: Users' Manual