Kitty Dripper

What it does

The board is PedalPCB's Face Melter. What makes it different from the usual op-amp dirt box is what is doing the clipping: two red LEDs sit back to back inside the feedback loop, where most pedals put a pair of silicon diodes. An LED needs roughly five times the voltage across it before it starts conducting, so the signal swings a lot further before anything cuts it off. That is why this one stays loud and stays open instead of compressing into a flat buzz.

There is a BS170 MOSFET stage in front of the clipping and another one behind it, and the two tone controls work at opposite ends of the circuit. Booty sits on the second MOSFET and decides how much low end survives. Sizzle is a treble control further along. Setting the two against each other is most of the range this pedal has, from a thick low growl to something thin and mean.

Moist is the little toggle in the middle. It swaps which resistor and capacitor pair is setting the gain, so one position is a broad push across everything and the other dumps far more gain into the top end on its own.

Hot pink, hand-lettered in purple marker, top-mounted jacks. One of a kind, like everything else here.

Demo

Demo filmed by Onion Madder on the actual unit.

Controls

Dirty

Gain. How hard the op-amp gets driven into the clipping LEDs, and it goes a long way before it runs out.

Load

Output volume, last in the chain after all the tone shaping.

Booty

The low end. It sets how much bass the second MOSFET stage passes, so it thickens or thins the whole pedal rather than just rolling off treble.

Sizzle

The top end. A treble control after the distortion, for taking the fizz off or leaning all the way into it.

Moist

A two-position toggle that swaps the gain structure. One side pushes the whole range evenly, the other puts most of the extra gain into the highs only.