Inside | Diamond Pedals
Take A Trip Down Memory Lane With The Relaunch Of Diamond Pedals!
Shine up your guitar’s signal chain with the latest lineup of Diamond Pedals! The new Diamond Effects pedal lineup features the same original circuits that musicians have known and loved for decades, but now in a standard-size form factor, built for today’s musicians and for generations of guitarists to come!
Shine On, Diamond!
Originally begun as a hobby of PolyBlend Systems founder Mike Knappe, who holds multiple patents in the fields of signal processing algorithms and psychoacoustics, Diamond Pedals launched in 2003.
Bringing its founder’s formidable expertise to the effects table, within just a few years, Diamond rocked the guitar effects world with the debut of its Memory Lane—the world’s first all-analog tap-tempo delay—growing the brand’s reputation and cachet among guitarists, especially with early adopters like U2’s The Edge, Johnny Marr (The Smiths), and Ed O’Brien (Radiohead).
But, while Diamond had become a staple among professional musicians’ pedalboards over nearly two decades of Diamond pedal production, a global pandemic forced the closure of PolyBlend Systems.
And, just like that, Diamond favorites like the Memory Lane Jr. delay, J-Drive overdrive, and Compressor nearly came to be counted among defunct pedal brands of yesteryear—that is, until SolidGoldFX founder Greg Djerrahian heard the news and swooped in to help revive the Diamond pedals lineup and embarked on an exciting new venture with a pedal brand after his own heart!
To learn more about how the SolidGoldFX founder got involved w/ Diamond, and where he plans to go with the brand, read CME’s interview with Greg Djerrahian below!
CME: Before acquiring the brand, what was your experience w/ Diamond Pedals?
SGFX: My history with Diamond started when I was first starting to build the brand for SolidGoldFX. A buddy of mine had given me a Diamond J-Drive MKIII as a gift. That quickly became the standard of what I wanted to achieve, in terms of the quality of a pedal that I wanted to build.
CME: How did SolidGoldFX become involved w/ the Diamond relaunch?
SGFX: At the time, someone who worked for SolidGoldFX heard a rumor that Diamond was closing. This was during the pandemic when other businesses were closing down, and we couldn’t believe it. But, my next reaction was to say, “Let’s talk to somebody.” Because we can basically build everything here.
At SolidGoldFX we build everything ourselves. We have all of our equipment, from CNC machines to powder coating, UV printer, and PCB assembly machines—we are fully equipped. Not knowing the mechanics of their company, my initial reaction was to see if we could offer a contract manufacturing service. But, as we got a little bit deeper, the founder and the owner asked if we’d be interested in buying the intellectual property and keeping the Diamond legacy going.
It was an incredible opportunity for us—as well as for me, personally—going back to when I first started out having been inspired by that early Diamond J-Drive, to one day be buying the Diamond—it was beyond cool!
CME: What can fans of the original Diamond designs expect from the new generation?
SGFX: For the initial lineup, we’ve gone to the smaller footprint and essentially reworked all the original circuits; each new Diamond pedal has as much—if not more—functionality as the originals. It’s all the same Diamond DNA, where the core circuits haven’t changed but everything has received a modern update.
With the new pedal lineup, everything has top jacks, soft-touch switching, and a layout inspired by the Diamond Fireburst V2. We spent over a year and a half going through all of the pedals and schematics with a fine-toothed comb, scrutinized every part that has gone into production, and obsessed over every feature we’ve included.
CME: Who is the new series of Diamond pedals made for?
SGFX: With SolidGoldFX, our aim is to be more creative with what we design and build, and to push what you can do with the pedal without just making another fuzz. We want to push the boundaries a little bit more and get a little bit more colorful.
The goal with Diamond is to be just a little bit more restrained and give players exactly what they need. It’s a player’s pedal—it’s not necessarily as soundscape-ish, or ambient, or whatever it may be—just dialed in. In either case, our ultimate goal is to create pedals that stand out and inspire, and to build something we can be proud of.
Take a trip down Memory Lane when you shop the relaunched lineup of Diamond effects pedals! Call CME, chat us online or in the app, or come into Chicago Music Exchange to hear our Diamond pedals today!
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