The Blackout Edition
The Blackout Edition of the Grey Matter features the same 250 style circuit preamp/distortion sound you've been looking for as the standard edition. The difference is this one comes in a texture black powder coated enclosure, black gloss ink, matte finished knobs, and hand painted knob indicators!
The Pedal v2
The v1 of the Grey Mater took 2 years of meticulous design based on the vintage grey version, ‘77 DOD250 preamp (hence the name) including many improvements for stability and tone and added edge control for hard clipping saturation.
The v2 continues improvements with click-less true bypass switching, Fresnel LED lenses, better matched LED brightness, The v2 also now utilized hand matched NOS Germanium diodes with lower volume drop than the v1. The Ge diodes model and forward voltage are now written inside (for those fellow pedal nerds out there.)
2 Drives In 1 Enclosure v2
There are two individual circuits in there. Run ‘em individual or stacked! The footswitches are close enough together so you could set one as a textured boost and the other as a light overdrive or med gain distortion and switch between them by stomping ONCE. Not to worry, they're far enough apart to easily stomp the switches individually as well.
Sense and Edge Control
There are two sense toggles with 3 positions each for a total of 6 senses. The switches set the hard clipping diodes placed after the gain section. I committed to two unique sets of diodes on each side.
v2 Update: The up positions are now bat41 on the blue side, Ge diode on the green side, and the bottom positions are now silicon diodes.
The toggle down position honors the original silicon diodes of the grey 250 while the toggle up position utilizes one of two of my favorite clipping personalities (the blue side equips Bat41 Schottky diodes and the green side has germanium diodes); both positions use symmetrical clipping for a balanced distortion. The middle position bypasses the hard clipping stage & edge control knob for simple folk who wanna just drive the LM741 op-amp naturally. The edge control acts to control diode saturation. Edge at 9oclock will produce first to second stage gain tones, while heavier tones result with the edge at 3oclock.
Components
As always, The GREY MATTER is 100% analog using respected components; Neutrik audio jacks, and the v2 now uses clickless relay footswitches. Perhaps the largest update for the v2 is the pedal now uses SMT (surface mount) technology for the tightest tolerances, while still using THD (through hole) hard clipping diodes and Op Amps where it counts the most. The GREY MATTER is handmade in Texas.