The Dreever - An original OD/Distortion design that nails 90's Alt Rock

[PuppyGirlBelly]

Hi folks, just want to share a pedal that a friend and I have been working on. Long story short, my friend was circuit bending a pedal and accidentally found a really cool dirt sound that we are both excited for. It's currently being revised to help reduce some issues that we found during testing, but in the meantime we recorded some demos with the prototype that we think really show off why we think it sounds so interesting. You can find the demos on Reddit in the link below;

Reddit - Dreever Demos

My friend and I came across a happy accident while they were circuit bending, and we believe that this is an original design for a really cool dirt box that happens to nail our favorite 90s alt-rock tones. It's currently being revised to eliminate some issues we found in the prototype. But before we have it ready for proper demos, I want to share some demos we recorded that sound incredible.

The special sauce is that there's a transformer used in a vital part of the circuit for smooth and incredibly touch sensitive amp-like clipping, and that's cascaded into switchable stage that uses blue LEDs for clipping. Resulting in a smooth, edge of breakup OD, with a loud and grindy distortion tone available at a moment's notice.

[sal paradise]

Love it!! Anything that looks or sounds like Weezer is always a winner with me. The Hendrix tone sounded awesome as well.

Erm, when can I buy one?

[PuppyGirlBelly]

Well, you might like the enclosure's mockup then, because it's definitely Weezer inspired



As for when you can buy one; that's actually something that we're in the process of doing. So we may be able to sell some within the next month, so we'll let you know Sal!

[JSett]

Cool idea.

I will just say that this steers very close to trading outside of the FS area, which is against the rules. One of the mods might pull you up on this.

[bipedal2]

Great demo -- nice work on this project! I imagine you played around with a few colors and combos of LEDs in that clipping stage?

Looking forward to updates.

[PuppyGirlBelly]

Cool idea.

I will just say that this steers very close to trading outside of the FS area, which is against the rules. One of the mods might pull you up on this.

Ah, fair, I'll keep mum on selling them in the future. Mostly wanted to share something I was excited about

Great demo -- nice work on this project! I imagine you played around with a few colors and combos of LEDs in that clipping stage?

Looking forward to updates.

We have a little bit! Seems like Blue and Clear LEDs give the least compression and distortion, which is why we went with them. But we also experimented with using a JFET in a gain stage, which gave it a beautifully british amp-like sound; and we plan on trying germanium diodes to see if it gives a cool fuzz sound too. Though our plans also involve putting a TMB tone stack in instead of the single-kob tone; this design seems pretty versatile so we're doubly excited to see where we can take it

[Unicorn Warrior]

Cool idea.

I will just say that this steers very close to trading outside of the FS area, which is against the rules. One of the mods might pull you up on this.

I wish we had a section where people could post their products and creations that is not specific to “for sale”. I’d personally love an open discussion sub section. Where we could hash things like this out. Lots of talented and innovative people on here

[marqueemoon]

Maybe it’s partially the recording, but there’s something weird happening in the Hendrix portion of the demo. It’s like there’s a gate on. When the pedal is switched off the dynamics of the playing come back.

That’s the sort of behavior I’d expect in, say, a MK1 Tone Bender, but it sounds out of place here.

[JSett]

Cool idea.

I will just say that this steers very close to trading outside of the FS area, which is against the rules. One of the mods might pull you up on this.

Ah, fair, I'll keep mum on selling them in the future. Mostly wanted to share something I was excited about

No, of course! We like to hear about these sorts of things too and I agree with Unicorn Warrior that it would be nice to have a space where this sort of thing can go that doesn't foul the rules.

Keep on posting in other conversations, get involved, soon enough you'll hit the count to get into the FS area and then it's home free.

FWIW, the pedal sounds great

[PuppyGirlBelly]

Maybe it’s partially the recording, but there’s something weird happening in the Hendrix portion of the demo. It’s like there’s a gate on. When the pedal is switched off the dynamics of the playing come back.

That’s the sort of behavior I’d expect in, say, a MK1 Tone Bender, but it sounds out of place here.

Ah, that's primarily due to me recording off of a phone combined with the guitar in the room It's nothing like that in person and it retains the dynamics for the most part, though the diodes do introduce some compression when they're engaged.

[marqueemoon]

Maybe it’s partially the recording, but there’s something weird happening in the Hendrix portion of the demo. It’s like there’s a gate on. When the pedal is switched off the dynamics of the playing come back.

That’s the sort of behavior I’d expect in, say, a MK1 Tone Bender, but it sounds out of place here.

Ah, that's primarily due to me recording off of a phone combined with the guitar in the room It's nothing like that in person and it retains the dynamics for the most part, though the diodes do introduce some compression when they're engaged.

Yeah, any dirt pedal is going to introduce some compression. Having the LEDs visible might be affecting my perception too. It gives the impression of there being a pretty hard knee, which might not actually be the case.

[Dr Tony Balls]

Cool idea.

I will just say that this steers very close to trading outside of the FS area, which is against the rules. One of the mods might pull you up on this.

I wish we had a section where people could post their products and creations that is not specific to “for sale”. I’d personally love an open discussion sub section. Where we could hash things like this out. Lots of talented and innovative people on here

I just do this in "what's on your workbench" but it's not the best. On some other forums i'm on builders jut have their own threads, kinda like the "cross guitars" one here and that maybe works? I dunno the rules on this forum are weird.