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The Thorn is a collaboration between Lichtlaerm Audio and post-metal powerhouse Amenra - an attempt to distill the unmistakable voice of Lennart Bossu into a form that can live on any stage, in any rig, anywhere in the world.

A bit of history: for years, Lennart’s sound has been defined by an old and rare Providence Stampede SDT-1 - discovered through recordings from Kurt Ballou’s God City Studios (famed for its use on early Converge records and beyond). That one battered unit became his weapon of choice across Oathbreaker, Amenra, Predatory Void and Living Gate, shaping not only his voice but an entire Belgian scene orbiting around Amenra and its members.

The original SDT-1 has a singular, organic roar - but also some inconvenient baggage: a massive enclosure, direct wall-voltage power, a fixed boost, and a few other quirks. Later Providence revisions solved some of those problems, but at the expense of its unique sonic fingerprint.

Lichtlaerm Audio set out to reverse-engineer Lennart’s exact unit and reimagine it for the modern stage. The result: a faithful recreation with a few critical evolutions. They added a 1 kHz mid control for surgical presence-shaping. They made the footswitchable boost adjustable. They kept the soul of his exact unit in the SDT-1 mode, but added an SDT-2 mode for the more compressed, saturated tones Lennart leans on in Living Gate. And, true to their nature, they couldn’t resist adding a third, proprietary voicing - laerm - more open, louder, and more direct than any Stampede ever was.

They kept the EQ bypass that was present on the original unit but got lost in later revisions: lifting the tone stack completely from the circuit for an even more immediate connection between guitar and amp. In Lennart’s own setup, the Thorn feeds straight into an Ampeg V4 with EQ bypassed, turning it into an extension of the amp’s own voice rather than an overlay.

With the Thorn, you hold not only the sound of Amenra, Oathbreaker and countless others but a distortion that stands on its own: direct, transparent, and articulate, yet massive and organic. It’s a voice you won’t find anywhere else.

Features:

• Lichtlaerm Audio Smart Relay technology
• Lennart Bossu signature distortion
• the sound of Amenra, Oathbreaker, Living Gate, etc.
• direct, transparent yet huge and organic sound
• bypassable 3-band active EQ
• footswitchable boost
• SDT-1, SDT-2 and proprietary laerm modes
• high headroom design with charge pump
• standard 9V center-negative power

Gate is a definite must-have in every pedalboard. Perfectly gets rid of noise and all kinds of hum.

It does not affect the sound of the instrument. It does not color or degrade the bandwidth.

By the way… did you know signal gating is the inverse of compression? The Gate raises dynamics!

FUNCTIONS

THRESHOLD

Signal level below which gating occurs. Most often it should be set around the middle of the scale.

INPUT / OUTPUT

Gating circuit input / output. The gate should be connected after devices generating noise (drives, compressors, preamps, etc.), but before delay / reverb effects.

KEY INPUT

It significantly improves the gating effectiveness. This input should be connected directly to the guitar. Thanks to this solution, the gate works perfectly when switching between amplifier channels, as well as when switching any other effects.

KEY THRU

This socket is connected directly to KEY INPUT. It lets you connect the gate to the rest of the system more easily.

KEY GND / GND LIFT

It allows you cut the ground loop if present in the system. Classic “Ground Lift”. Disconnects the ground between the two gate circuits. Most often it should be set to the “down” position.

Lifetime warranty.

I’m so sure you will love it, that I’ve put my own signature on it!

Specs:

Power requirements – 9V DC center-negative

Current Draw – 25mA max.

Total dimensions – 72x117x47 [mm] / 2.83×4.60×1.85 [“]

The Original Sessionette:75 Guitar Amp Sound

• FlexiDrive™ Distortion
• PAFtone™ Humbucker Emulation
• Super-T™ Classic EQ

Features:

• Drive Depth Control
• 2 Gain Channels Selector Switch: Heavy / Crunch
• PAF / Norm Selector Switch
• Treble, Middle and Bass Controls
• Output Level Control
• 9-30V DC Power Input (AutoSense™ Circuitry accepts both negative and positive polarity)
• Active status LED
• Hi-Z Instrument Input
• Made in England