800 Preamp/Distortion

The 800 Preamp/Distortion is a nod to the legendary first OP-AMP distortion and overdrive designs of the 70’s, such as the DOD 250 and the MXR Distortion Plus. Though these designs have often been replicated and cloned, the 800 Distortion takes the fundamentals and creates its own path and sonic tone.

The pre-amplification filtering provides a deep and modern tone, with fuller mids, booming bass, and glasslike treble, before the amplification stage of a classic 741 op amp smashes the sound against a wall of selectable clipping diodes. The first option is a pair of modern silicon diodes in hard clipping mode (8.0% , enough buzz for the heaviest user) and gives deep and chunky distortion that can border on fuzz tones, and harkens back to the grunge sound of the early nineties. The second set is a pair of LED diodes (0.01%, for the abstaining or sober-minded) which provides a softer clipping and a much higher clipping threshold, thus providing a mid-rich and warm boosted signal that leads to jangly overdrives and clean tones reminiscent of mid 70’s and classic tube overdrive vibes.

The 800 Distortion v2 features an internal DIP switch that will toggle the output treble filter on or off. This mostly affects the soft clipping mode which has a mid heavy treble rolloff, and can be very useful if your guitar’s pickups are particularly dark, and you wish to inject some higher frequencies into your chain.

The 800 Distortion has a very high output, and on its lowest distortion setting can provide a beautifully coloured character as a “always on” light clipping signal boost on a pedal board, or as a temporary level boost for guitar solos that need to stand above the mix.