American Thrash Maniac (3 Classic DOD pedal variations)
THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY OFFERED AS A PRE-ORDER ITEM, PLEASE READ THE INFO SECTION FOR DETAILS
With the American Thrash Maniac you've got a decision to make. Do you want chainsaw distortion? A thrash style distortion? Or a maniac high gain distortion?
In true DOD fashion, the American Metal, Thrash Master and Metal Maniac were all built using the same circuit board and are very similar to each other. The main difference between each of the 3 circuits is the EQ which used different component values to get different EQ curves. The basic circuit architecture of all 3 circuits is almost identical to the Boss HM-2. DOD was onto how great the HM-2 was before it was cool.
In keeping with the tradition of DOD, any of these three pedals can be built on the same circuit board.
Additional hard and soft clipping options have been added to give this pedal some variety when it comes to the way the distortion sounds and interacts with the EQ gyrators. As you will hear in the demo these clipping options make a big difference to the overall tone.
The bass knob is also an added feature when compared to the original Thrash Master and Metal Maniac which only had a presence knob. The American Metal originally did not have a bass knob either but was reissued in later years with a bass knob.
This pedal also doubles as a signal buffer. A Klon style buffered bypass was added to squash the oscillation feedback that happens with true bypass high gain pedals and also adds signal integrity to a signal chain.
The footswitch on the DOD pedals are notoriously unreliable, both for not always switching properly when engaged and also for failing. This version uses a modern footswitch that always switches when engaged and a low failure rate.
*Note* This pedal runs on a standard 9 Volt centre negative power supply which is not provided, for suggestions on power supplies see the info section.
Want to build an American Metal, Thrash Master or Metal Maniac yourself as a DIY project? PCB's are available here