![]() It is also a way to be completely honest with your customers.ĭIY enthusiasts are not your usual guitar pedal customersĪctually, people making pedals themselves usually do not buy that much pedals: they prefer to make it themselves! (at least I do) So publishing your circuits is also a way to give back what you took from other manufacturers. You are also very honest with them and they know that you are not selling the 9999th Tubescreamer-with-a-different-name clone. Mostly the opposite: people love to know where your inspiration came from so they can also get an idea of what your pedal sounds like. My Black Hole pedal is heavily inspired by the preamp section of the Sunn Model T circuit. Most circuits are also inspired by public schematics Most guitar pedals circuits are indeed inspired by other pedal or amps circuits. So if people want to do it, they can! Moreover, it is fairly easy to trace a circuit schematic, especially if you use through-hole parts and an analogue circuit. So there are almost no restrictions on retro-engineering and producing an existing guitar pedal. Finally, even if you have a patent, it is very difficult to use it because trials are generally long and very costly. Most patents today are more about the shape and/or mechanical features of a new guitar pedal system. Moreover, to patent a circuit you must prove its novelty and uniqueness, which is almost never the case for guitar pedasl! There are some American patents about guitar pedals (ex: BK Butler Tube Driver), but they have a limited time validity. The boutique pedal market has a glut of great sounding gain pedals and the right one for you is out there.There is almost no possible patenting on guitar effects circuits because they are so simple. Most of the tube based OD pedals running at high plate voltages are using cascading gain stages and should respond well to the volume knob. Usually those are the pedals that don’t feature diode clipping. I have found that some overdrives respond better than others to the volume trick. It’s also why I usually use the volume knob on my guitar to get cleaner tones, rather than turning a pedal on mid-song. This is why I shy away from high gain pedals. More gain but without a drastic change in the EQ. ![]() Most guitarists use the word “transparent” to describe this. I want my overdrive to sound like my clean tone, but slightly more distorted. I usually don’t like to change my sound drastically when I stomp on a pedal. There are different philosophies of tone out there. A good quality solid state boost or overdrive might be the way to go. If, on the other hand, you already play through a tube amp and get at least some of your gain from its preamp stage, these expensive tube overdrives might not be the best way to spend your cash. You can get plenty of tubey gain and overdrive and then send that sound on to your amp. ![]() If you are playing through a solid state amp or a very clean amp, some of these tube based pedals may be a good bet. Maxon also makes some great new tube based OD/Distortion pedals. The Blackstar HT-DRIVE and the new version of the Ibanez Tube King, as well as the Surprise Sound Lab Rock Block. There are some products out there that run at higher plate voltages. The tube pedal is often just a marketing gimmick because pedal manufacturers know that if they drop a tube in there, we are all going to go ga-ga and buy the shiny new tube box. With tube overdrive pedals, it’s important to understand that most of them run the tubes at a much lower plate voltage than they are designed for. If you have the amp set to where it’s just on the edge of breaking up, almost any good boost pedal will send you into a nice, organic sounding overdrive. You’ve got to start with a good tone from the guitar and amp. The first thing to understand about overdrive is that it’s not just the pedal that matters. There are, however, an increasing number of overdrive and distortion pedals using vacuum tubes in the signal path. ![]() Most of the OD pedals out there are solid state devices that use clipping diodes or cascading gain through multiple transistor stages. From the Klon Centaur to the Tube Screamer to the Maxon TOD-9 and all of the clones and reissues, there are hundreds of options for the guitar player who wants to explore the wonderful world of overdrive. ![]()
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