We’ve had a couple of pedals from Discomfort Designs come through the shop recently, and they just keep getting better. Today’s machine, the Black Tooth Doom Octave Distorter, sounds as mean as its name might suggest…and then some. Not for the weak, faint-of-heart or tender-eared, this crushing black beauty is all geared up to rip some speakers and melt some faces…
The Black Tooth is a high gain, hard-clipping distortion with a clangy analog octave up and a MOSFET booster, all raucously crammed into one tidy little box. The signal path goes Octave > Distortion > Boost, and the Octave Distortion and Booster can be used independently with their own respective footswitches. The distortion section is modeled after a certain iconic rodent distortion unit, supercharged for hard-clipping and high gain.
The original circuit uses a single pair of silicon diodes for a tight, compressed crunchiness; the Black Tooth adds two additional clipping options to better adapt to different rigs. The first position lifts the diodes from the circuit to allow for full, open, grinding Op Amp assault at maximum volume. The second position adds two silicon diodes and one LED in an asymmetrical clipping configuration. This delivers a slightly compressed and smooth crunch, similar to a valve amplifier. The third position is the stock double silicon diode configuration.
The Octave section is a classic ‘green’ style analog full-wave rectifier circuit built on Germanium diodes. Like all analog octave effects, it is monophonic and works best playing single notes above the twelfth fret while using the neck pickup. The Boost section is a simple MOSFET booster designed to blast the front end of a tube preamp. It is a 100% clean, high impedance boost that adds very little color. It has plenty of output to push your tubes into saturation.
Hand wired, one at a time, a stone’s throw from the depths of the ocean in Gloucester, MA, the lineup from Discomfort Designs continues to grow. After the Spectrum Overdrive and Glow Cloud Toxic Delay Device, we realize that this is no ordinary pedal company. Head over to their website for more info, and to grab a pedal or two for yourself. And be sure to check out our Black Tooth Doom Octave Distorter demo below and on YouTube!
And remember, MAXIMUM VOLUME YIELDS MAXIMUM RESULTS.
GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES, CONTEST INFO, SEE OUR LATEST DEMO VIDEOS AND MORE:
