Pharaoh Amplifiers Sweet Cheetah 2

Not easy to get a good sound. Very noisy. No manual, sheet, nothing but the crappy pedal itself. Tone, Drive, Volume.

I used this with a mid-1960's tube amp as well as a Fender Princeton Chorus. Fender Jeff Beck Strat w/noiseless pickups and Fender Strat Plus with Lace Sensors. Is very noisy even on low settings. Has a fair amount of drive but gets noiser as the drive is increased. It has alot of bass and has a very raspy sound that makes it virtually unusable for my setup. Not at all warm or smooth. I much prefer the overdrive pedals made by Russell Goudie at GoudieFX.

Worked the few times I used it. Would use a backup cuz I sure wouldn't use this piece-o-crap. The workmanship seemed OK but this thing was so noisy it would be useless live except maybe as a booster.

The fellow I dealt with emailed me once but other than that he never bothered to let me know when the pedal was shipped or how. No tracking number or anything even after I requested how he was going to ship. It arrived OK but he doesn't seem to worry about letting the customer know what is going on. No followup to see how I liked it or if there were any problems. At least he did write once...

I play rock and pop. Have been playing more than 20 years. Fair amount of studio and live work. This pedal is a turd. Yes, folks, it truly sucks. Looks good even though mine did not have the furry trim around the pedal but looks can be deceiving. The sound is the main thing and this sounds horrible plus it is so noisy it is worthless for recording. Frying burgers anyone??? If you want a great sounding pedal with great customer service then go to www.goudiefx.com and deal with a true master pedal builder Russell Goudie. He will treat you right. It took me several months to unload the Sweet Cheetah and I finally did it on ebay. Was beginning to think I couldn't give this piece-o-crap away. I would never buy anything from Pharaoh again.

Simple to operate as a Tubescreamer.

BUT the tone knob works - on many of the Boss and Ibanez pedals and their knockoffs, it seems I have to roll the tone nearly all the way off. You can set the tone on the Cheetah at 12 o'clock and it's all there.

Cleans up great rolling back the volume knob...

This is an awesome sounding pedal. Not sure why it's not listed on his site, but this is probably the best high gain pedal I've heard.

There are plenty of options for medium gain Tube Screamer/Boost pedals out there, but for higher gain crunch to thick solo sounds, they seem hard to come by. I'd say the Tonebone Classic, V-Stack Tweedy and the Fulltone Dist Pro come close but IMO the Cheetah 2 is much better.

I've also used the Roger Mayer Vodoo 1, Ibanez Sonic Distortion, Sobbat DriveBreakers 1 and 2, among others and they are okay...

BUT the Cheetah is different - I wouldn't change a thing about it. Even though there is high gain present the notes are clear and not too compressed or squashy.

It can definitely do classic overdrive - Zeppelin, Clapton, Jeff Beck - to the current modern rock thing.

I used it the other night through a Savage 50-watt Plexi type amp and the Cheetah sounded huge and was a joy to play through - whuch prompted me to write this review.

I've also used it on tour with Divided By 13 and Bad Cat amps. Typical guitars - Les Pauls, Strats, Teles...

I bought two, and they are both very well constructed - no problems after nearly a year of road abuse.

Matt was very cool to deal with, I hope he continues making the Cheetah 2, because like I said there just aren't that many great high-gain options.

Easily the best high gain pedal I've heard. pedalgeek.com carries Pharaoh pedals.

I would sell the others and replace it in a heartbeat.

Killer distortion tones. This has 3 knobs: set the tone high, volume around 12:00 gain anywhere from 7 to 3 oclock, warm to raging tones...too cool! A great companion to a keeley modded rat II, barber direct drive or keeley modded ts-9.

Killer disotrtion tones, tons of gain, cuts well and has a lot of volume. Great job!

The inside is simple, there are very few components, but the board and soldering are first class. This guy knows what he is doing.

Responds to emails quickly, very helpful, very polite. Class act.

I play classic rock. this pedal fits right in. Whether using a les paul or a strat, this pedal gives realistic a warm boost all the way to over the top sustain and distortion. Great design!!

pedal is simple to use. 3 knobs, gain, volume and tone. the tone knob works more like a high cut than a standard tone knob. clockwise seems to be where the natural drive of the pedal is... as you turn the knob counter-clockwise it rolls of the highs. this is especially useful if you're using the bridge pickup on a strat and it's too bright. i didnt know what to expect from this pedal, i had never heard one before, nor have i heard anyone talk about one... i was pleasantly surprised by the tones i got from the pedal. easy to get from just breaking up to cranked tube amp tones... but more about that later...

again, like i said above, i didnt know what to expect from this pedal. it was marketed as a distortion pedal.. but i dont think that that title gives it justice. it's capable of more than just distortion. i used various strat style guitars and a les paul through a Belov amp. with the strat's i got some really killer tube tones out of the pedal... i cant say that it sounds like other distortions,,, to me it sounds more like a cross between a ballsy overdrive and a fuzz. i really dig that sound. i opened up the pedal and noticed that it had the jrc4558 chip in it. same as the 808 style pedals. however, it has much more gain than any tube screamer. it takes the overdrive into the fuzz territories.. but the fuzz/distortion never gets brittle or buzzsaw like... it's always smooth. maybe thats partly due to the chip that's used.. but that is the highlight of this pedal. it stays smooth even in the highest gain settings. with true bypass switching, it doesnt affect my tone when it's switched off. i keep the tone knob set pretty high cuz i like my tone to cut through.. but using the tone/high roll off.. you can conjure up some EJ tones with it. pedal sounds great.

pedal is build solid. it's in a larger box than your typical mxr style box.. but just as sturdy. the wiring inside is clean and very well done. only think i worry about is the cheetah fur.. yes it has cheetah patterned fur around the outside edge of the pedal.. looks so wild.. everyone stops to ask what this pedal is.... i just hope the fur doesnt fall off... gives it a cool vibe.

matt farrow is awesome. answers emails speedily and helped me out with all my questions. very cool guy. i'm sure i wont have any problems with customer support.

i placed this pedal on my pedalboard where it shares the spotlight with a budda wah, landgraff Dynamic Overdrive, roger mayer voodoo-1, fulltone supa-trem, sweet sound ultra-vibe, dls chorus/vib, and boss dd-5. the pedal works well with all the above mentioned pedals as well as with strat and les paul guitar and multiple amps. the switch isnt noisy, the tone isnt ratty, and the led is bright... i cant complain about anything on the pedal. this pedal is serial #9.. i'm thinking about getting another one.. haha.