Seymour Duncan launches the Diamondhead, a multistage distortion pedal

After teasing a new pedal on Instagram last week, Seymour Duncan has revealed its latest stompbox to be the Diamondhead – a multi-stage distortion pedal that incorporates multiple gain stages, allowing for flexibility in how you push your tone into high-gain.

The Diamondhead starts your tone off with the optional SAT mode, then it’s fed into the main distortion stage, and then finally the boost stage.

Managing these stages are six control knobs – an active 3-band EQ, level and gain controls, and a knob dedicated to the boost stage. It can sweep from zero to 15dB of clean boost, kicking any rig into a solo sound at the press of a footswitch. A small toggle switch will engage the SAT mode – which adds 24dB of boost before the gain stage, tightening up low-end and rolling off the high-end slightly, allowing for a punchier, more midrange-focused sound.

Seymour Duncan are clear that the Diamondhead takes inspiration from the classic stalwarts of heavy metal such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath – who achieved their signature sound not from in-the-box high-gain but from pushing a cranked half-stack. It says of the pedal: “Diamondhead captures the power and versatility of that era-defining rig in a package that will find a space on any pedalboard. Whether you’re running it into a clean pedal platform amp or into the front end of an overdriven tube amp, the Diamondhead provides the flexibility and tonal clarity to authentically capture the sound that defined an era.”

Hear The Diamondhead in action with Seymour Duncan’s demo below:

More information at Seymourduncan.com.