JSA Effects Hot Toddy

My absolute favourite low gain, discrete op amp, transparent overdrive

To customers in the USA; please note that the postage price INCLUDES the additional tariffs, so once the pedal is posted, there will be nothing else to pay

Look, if you're reading this, you already know what a transparent overdrive is; you already know how awesome they are; you've no doubt seen, heard, and tried countless different 'transparent overdrives. So why build another? Because this is more than just another clone - this is transparent overdrive at its boutique best.

Built around two discrete op amps, the "Hot Toddy" produces beautifully clear and full low gain drive sounds that maintain your guitars natural tone and, equally as important, your playing dynamics & feel. The passive two band EQ is incredibly powerful, yet beautifully smooth, allowing you to really carve the tone to perfection. It also works extremely well for both guitar and bass! The gain ranges from crystal clean boost through touch sensitive edge-of-breakup, to a harmonically rich medium gain drive

"What is a discrete op amp?" You know those black microchip things you see in a lot of guitar pedals? Those are called Intergrated Circuits (IC) and under the black plastic hood are complete, often large and complex circuits, made up of microscopic components. One of those circuits is the Operational Amplifier (Op Amp) and in the 80s the fine folks at Boss figured out how to build a stripped down op amp using three full size transistors. The resulting sounds were more open, less compressed, and responded better to playing dynamics. They're at the core of the highly revered Boss Bluesdriver BD2 and a few other boss pedals

All the usual JSA standards apply - pedalboard friendly, hand painted 1590BS enclosure (the same small footprint as a regular 1590b – EHX nano size – but slightly taller than a 125b – EQD/Walrus Audio size) with comfortable fitting top mounted jacks, high quality components, true bypass footswitching, hand built from scratch by one man and his cat in the heart of the UK. However, because of my love of this circuit, and because the prototype had sat on my board unchanged for over a year (a first for me) I finally took the plunge and got a PCB made. This means it can be built faster, and in larger quantities at once, thus reducing the build cost; a saving that I have passed on to you at this new lower price! These are normally built one at a time to order, although I always try and have at least one ready to go; the turn around time is usually a week (which isn't too bad for a totally hand built pedal)

Look, im not crazy; I know the "Hot Toddy" doesn't have the same hype and prestige as some of the other transparent overdrives on the market, but somewhere, on some builders bench, is the single best transparent overdrive ever made; so clear, so smooth, so dynamic, that you'll never need another transparent overdrive ever again. Somewhere that pedal exists; why can't it be this one?