SYN-2 sag control

I own a Fryette GP/DI and recently picked up a SYN-2. I noticed that the Sag control of the Synergy unit does not behave like the Dynamics control on the Fryette, which is where I assumed it came from. The Fryette Dynamics control is a much more subtle and natural sounding effect (no obvious pumping), while the Synergy Sag control has an unusably long attack and released time, as if the volume is turned down too slowly after the attack, and stays down under sustained playing, until I completely stop. I end up with loud initial attacks followed by slow fades. This is with the Sag knob between 10-12 o’clock. Anyone else share this experience?

The SAG control is set up to mimic the amp loosing power (SAG) under high power with heavier pick attack transients. You will find it is directly related to how loud the preamp volume is. The louder the volume is turned up, the more sensitive the sag control is.

Older vintage Amps like the older Marshall’s did not have robust power supplies and the high voltage supply would sag down during loud volume and heavy pick attack. This led to a warmer fatter and added some compression to the sound.

The SAG control is geared more to clean tones and classic crunch tones, to warm and fatten them up.

For example if you have a lower gain sound that is just a tad too harsh, the sag control can warm and fatten it up.

For modern high gain tones, you don’t want it active as you already have tons of compression and gain, so it should be left off.

It should be set so that the led is only occasionally peaking at heavy pick attack.

Thanks for the reply. You mentioned that the SYN-2 sag control is affected by the channel volume. After playing some more, I have confirmed that this is the case.

This is the main difference in the behavior of the Synergy Sag control and the Fryette GP/DI Dynamics control, which tracks the guitar input directly, allowing greater control of the effect by how hard you dig in, or by using the guitar volume.

The way Synergy has chosen to implement this control makes it nearly useless to me. Not a deal breaker, as it sounds fantastic without it.

I noticed on the syn 1 that the sag control seemed to work better , I’m wondering if my new syn 2 is defective as the light never blinks even when I’m hitting a low g and digging in pretty good . On the syn 1 I could feel my tone fatten up and the added warmth to the tone .

I don't know why but some modules trigger the SAG much more than others. Intense gain seems to react more than cleaner but hard to say. I love it just slightly on for most stuff but if you want really sharp attack response you'll want it down.