Durham Electronics Sex Drive

A full on potted module effect. Not just a dap of epoxy here or there, not just scratching off device numbers, this is old school full circuit potting. Nice!

It is truly clean boost. With all knobs fully CW, "compression" set to OFF, and a clean sine input, my THD meter doesn't budge all the way up to the supply limit.

"Compression" seems to be a euphemism for diode clipping, but I cannot peek into the circuit to verify. "Soft" may introduce one diode, and "hard" may introduce two back-to-back. Just my guess. I do not detect any kind of real compression while using it.

Tone control is odd. Gives a noticeable boost at full CW, then seems largely inactive after. Using a sweep generator and scope, the control gives a pretty wideband adjustment, almost like a vernier adjustment of the gain control. Although I can see cut and boost throughout the knobs travel, it is difficult to audibly perceive until the last jump at full CW.

Would love to see the schematic someday, Durham Electronics!

This pedal just had a bum footswitch that was cutting out intermittently. Fortunately, the switch is not included in the potting, so replacing it was no problem.