Sunnaudio Helion R2D3 Guitar & Bass Preamp

Although it’s been a few years since we saw a pedal from Sunnaudio, their previous creations were always intriguing, and I couldn’t wait to check out what they’d been working on since 2021. The answer is the incredible Helion R2D3 Guitar & Bass Preamp, an options-laden powerhouse pedal that gives you ALL the options you could want in a preamp, for either instrument. With specific settings, dipswitches, pots and more, the R2D3 takes the preamp game up a level…or three…or ten…

The Helion R2D3 is a highly versatile bass-oriented preamp, ideal for various instruments. With its transparently rich tonal qualities and subtle over-driven sounds, it caters to bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar (with passive or active pickups), electric violin, cello, and other acoustic-electric instruments. Seamlessly integrating with other pedals, the Helion excels in a broad range of musical situations. The unit is set to low gain (internal diode dip switch) and tone set to less mids. (-) This works for bass and more subtle overdrive for both guitar and bass.

Multi-instrument Preamp Saturation with 5 Meg and 700K input impedance

Parametric EQ with adjustable frequency for Bass, Mid and Treble. Selectable tuned EQ or shelving mode for speaker SIM

Balanced XLR and 1/4” output. XLR has independent signal mode for console

Articulate saturation that smoothly sweeps from “clean” to “saturation” to “over-drive”

Adjustable Rabid™ for even more distortion/gain that tips into fuzz tones

“Focus” adjusts sub-harmonic frequencies to inject more low-end back into your signal. Super useful to contour your over-driven sounds

“Tone” for mid shaping the Drive

Insert TRS jack

Transformer-less, and quiet

Bypass or Mute mode for footswitch

Separately selectable signal points for XLR Output

External 9-12v DC, XLR phantom, and battery power

A favorite setting is low Drive setting with Rabid on and all the way up for some more subtle overdrive but still gets gritty or dirty when you dig in. Another overall note with the Helion is you have a Clean level adjustment vs Drive level on the top side where the trim pots and dip switches are. On the other trim pot you can also adjust how much clean is left in the Drive – B is for bass settings and G for guitar (electric) usually the ratio works great towards B, but if you want to use the Helion more like a distortion, you can adjust it more towards G and switch the internal dip switch to the full overdrive setting. You can try that with the Rabid engaged and off, and you can get some articulate gargle tones that way.

If you’re a fan of multiple knobs, switches, ins and outs, different routing options and all-around pedal fun, you’re really gonna love the Helion R2D3 Guitar & Bass Preamp. From the moment you take it out of the box, you can see all the work that went into making this sonic creation, and once you plug it in, you’ll hear that craftsmanship come shining through as well. Sunnaudio units are handmade in small batches, so be sure to head over to their website for more information and to snag one of these for yourself…but first, be sure to check out our demo below, where we put it through the paces with both Guitar and Bass, showcasing all this beauty can do…enjoy this one, cheers!!