The AJG Devices Hysteris is an unconventional overdrive/distortion pedal that rejects traditional diode clipping in favor of a dual-branch architecture operating in parallel: op-amp saturation and hysteretic switching. By combining standard drive with unconventional circuit behavior, it generates deeply interactive, highly playable gain textures.
- Op-Amp Branch (Gain): Dictates overall drive and input level. Lower settings keep the signal relatively clean, while higher settings push the op-amp from warm overdrive into aggressive distortion.
- Hysteretic Branch (Hysteresis, bottom knob): Controls the stability of the switching path. Lower settings produce glitchy, gated, and mangled artifacts; turning it clockwise stabilizes the switching for a cleaner, predictable distortion profile.
- Parallel Mixing (Blend): Rotates from pure op-amp saturation counterclockwise to mixing in the hysteretic path clockwise, moving the pedal toward dense, fuzz-like tones. Because the op-amp feeds directly into the hysteretic stage before blending, low-gain clean signals can be blended with heavily mangled glitch textures, or high-gain settings can combine two harmonically distinct distortion profiles.
- EQ & Output (Tone & Level): The Tone control operates as a low-pass filter, rolling off high frequencies as turned clockwise, while Level conventionally manages output volume.
Hysteris bridges the gap between traditional distortion, chaotic gated fuzz, and broken-amp textures into a cohesive, highly creative gain engine.
