Sustain Punch screamy dreamer

This is a pretty versatile pedal from Sustain Punch, a Canadian Manufacturer. I've heard recently that they've gone out of business, so I guess I was lucky to play the one that I did. There are 1/4" input and outputs, as well as adapters for a power supply. This is an analog pedal through and through, so there are no MIDI or USB connections, and it is not rackable.

UTILIZATION

The editing of effects on this pedal is really easy. The only confusing thing about it is the names that go with each knob, but there are only three of them. Punch is basically Volume, or output; Cream is EQ, or Tone; and Sustain is basically Drive/Compression. It works similar to a Big Muff in this respect. There are also funny descriptions for low and high for each knob, but we won't get into that. I didn't see the manual so I don't know what it's like, but it's pretty unnecessary anyway.

SOUND QUALITY

I've heard that this is better than the Big Muff, which it supposedly is a rip-off of. I don't know though, I find that I prefer the muff overall. I use it with a Strat, a Tele, and a Les Paul, and I find that they each sound pretty good. The one thing this pedal does have over the muff is more variety, as the Muff tends to make everything loud and fuzzy, and can really only control the degree. This pedal will give you much lighter tones at different settings. It is quite different. However, I'm not sure I prefer any of the lighter tones to the loud ones I can get with it. It does have a street-clearing, heavy quality to it that I do really enjoy.

OVERALL OPINION

While I think this is a pretty solid pedal overall, and it has a decent amount of variety, I wouldn't trade my Muff for it. It's certainly got a unique sound, which I'm always for, but I'm not sure that I would make it a cornerstone of my setup. I think that finding one nowadays is going to be difficult, however, I would say that if you can find it cheap, it might be worth getting. It does get really good tones. Recommended, but not highly.