how beautiful the transistor.

the transistor is such a lovely device. honestly, a world without transistors would be wildly... unfascinating. the transistor is responsible for many a things, beautiful and terrifying.

I spent a lot of time with this pedal and tuning it to how it should be, continuously opening the hood- modding, sending it through large amps, listening closely, retuning as needed. It has reached its final magnificent form.

This unit untilizes 5 germanium transistors for its sound.

the left side is a germanium boost cascaded into another germanium boost, for a very powerful, loud, and wide sounding preamp that can be used in a multitude of ways.

Use it as a clean boost, to slam an amplifier into fuzz, to thicken/louden the MK1, for a vintage, warm texture on any sound, however you see fit.

Refer to the knob graphic for the exact control layout

left side knobs (boost controls, top to bottom)

saturate- controls how much grain, and saturation there is to the boost. Essentially pushes the transistor into breakaup- dial it back for a much cleaner sound.

bias- works as a texture/secondary gain control.

gain- works by controlling how much of the 1st boost stage is sent into the second stage. not quite a volume control, but works more as the master gain control.

the freq toggle- on both sides, the outer toggle controls what frequencies are let into the circuit, thus determining what frequencies are amplified. On both sides, there is high freq emphasis, full freq emphasis, and fat- for everything and more.

while spending time with this pedal, I realized the boost side could really use a mod to allow the boost to get into grittier territory, as boost stages cascading into each other creates an almost amplifier shattering amount of volume.

That top toggle is a toggle that allows for 3 modes- open and loud, pure boost. Mild grit, and mild distortion. This lets you use the boost in 3 unique ways- from clean and high headroom, to a full on extra stage of saturation and grit.

the right side is an mk1 tonebender circuit, tuned to twilight liking. If you have been around, you know how much I rave about this to be my favorite fuzz circuit. 

It is a fuzz, but to me it feels like tubes being pushed into full saturation, in a rock n roll spirit kind of way. It just has this 70s marshall wall of amps roar to it that I can not fully emphasize in words. I am extremely passionate about this circuit.

It takes experience to build a proper one as well.

right side knobs (mk1, top to bottom)

attack- an interesting control. It is a fuzz/gain control but since it works more as a bias, it also controls texture simultaneously.

bias- this one controls the texture and nature of the 3rd transistor. A necessary knob to squeeze every flavor out of the germanium.

output- standard volume knob. this thing gets LOUD.

the middle toggle is a "more" switch for when you want to push the mk1 into total oblivion.

the freq toggle- on both sides, the outer toggle controls what frequencies are let into the circuit, thus determining what frequencies are amplified. On both sides, there is high freq emphasis, full freq emphasis, and fat- the thickest, deepest low end content.