Aaron Sabourin runs Dominion Electric Effects Co., out of Ottawa, Ontario, as a one-man show, building effects using pricey, vintage parts when his day job permits him to. His Faceless Fuzz and Soul Power—inspired by the Fuzz Face and Hendrix’s screaming tone at Fillmore East circa 1970, respectively—are top-shelf recreations of common circuits that have been around for a long time. But it’s Sabourin’s commitment to using premium components in bomb-proof builds that make his pedals so coveted. His latest design, the Filmotone, strays a little further from the guitar-tone canon: It’s an effect pedal designed to approximate the sound and dynamic feel of a single-transistor preamp wrenched from the guts of a Bell & Howell Filmosound film projector.
As far as I can tell, there aren’t a ton of pedals on the market based on DIY amps made from old film projectors. Bell & Howell Filmosounds, with their hefty grab-and-go design, were designed to let owners screen films anywhere, with both image and sound thanks to an integrated tube amplifier. A few decades back, an Ontario amp technician, Bernie Raunig, began stripping the amplification sections, then modding and rehousing them. These low-wattage “projector amps” are still revered for their frankly undeniable mojo, and though there is not one particular manufacturer nor tone that defines the projector-amp sound (the projector amplifier amplifiers themselves evolved over time) the general tonal thumbprint tends to be transparent, warm, full, and very vintage.
Film Foundation
The Filmotone’s handsome dark-green sparkle finish, paired with its classy white font and detailing, is a lovely thing to behold. Sabourin’s pedals all follow a similarly sparse art direction, but the Filmotone might be the prettiest of the bunch.
The pedal’s two controls—a knob for boost and one for saturation—are fairly self-explanatory; boost handles your volume level, and saturation adds just that—and exactly that. It doesn’t really feel like the Filmotone adds dirt, or fuzz, or gain in the strict sense of those terms. Saturation feels like the only adequate descriptor for what it does—almost like liquid gorging and swelling a plank of wood, making it more massive. The only other control on the Filmotone is an internal switch that toggles between “full” and “tight.” The latter cuts some of the pedal’s bass presence when engaged, making the Filmotone a better, more focused fit in some high-gain applications.
Lights, Camera, Saturation!
With the boost knob at noon and saturation all the way counter-clockwise, Filmotone is an immediate signal fixer-upper. It widens and boldens your signal, and blunts sharp edges in your tone for a pleasing, lightly compressed, vintage feel. As you crank the saturation knob, you’re greeted with gentle, organic breakup, with chewy, thick low-end that evokes the output from many vintage, low-wattage tube combos that remain benchmarks for “good tone.” Reducing guitar volume cleans the signal up, but the Filmotone retains low-end authority in these situations. What it brings, essentially, is a feeling of balance and fullness that you might otherwise get only by turning a tube amp up really loud. That makes it a great choice for players who need something to enliven a low-volume stage, home, or practice setup. (Maybe for this reason, I preferred using the pedal with the internal switch set to “full.”)
Stacked against other preamp pedals in my arsenal, Filmotone didn’t get quite as nasty, which is fine, because as a clean and low-to-mid-gain tone-shaping tool, it’s exquisite. None of my other preamp stomps yielded sounds as wide-screen and three-dimensional as the Filmotone, and while these qualities were never more apparent than when it was the only effect engaged, having it upstream from my Fairfield Barbershop or a Fuzz Face clone, among others, demonstrated just how satisfying the Filmotone’s EQ profile is: It focuses extreme frequencies without losing the big picture.
There were times that I wished I could coax more dirt from the Filmotone’s saturation knob. By comparison, Walrus Audio’s Filmosound-inspired amp-in-a-box, the 385, takes players straight through to explosive, gooey distortion and fuzz. Dominion’s Filmotone doesn’t get that filthy, but that’s fine. As a clean boost/tone-sweetener, it’s truly top-tier.
The Verdict
Dominion’s Filmotone is a high-class preamp that stands apart from the pack. For a 2-knob pedal, its price tag is steep, but if exceptional sound, components, and build quality are important factors, you’ll want a ticket for the Filmotone.
