Amp-In-A-Box | $125

Kaeru. Japanese for “frog”. You probably guessed that though.

Still inspired by big British amps, this new overdrive picks up where the Citrine left off, and then goes even further. The amp that inspired this circuit has been used on everything from blues and 70s rock, to noise and drone metal.

It’s big, it’s loud, it’s heavy, it’s the 1974 Orange OR120 aka the Graphic Mk II.

The Kaeru features a lightly filtered, asymmetric clipping arrangement for the most “amp like” saturation and a wide range of drive and distortion tones. The Drive control can go from lightly boosted to a fuzzy distortion at the extreme. Run the Kaeru on 18 volts for extra headroom and more low end.

The overdrive by itself sounds great, but the equalizer is the true magic here. This style of EQ is usually found in Hi-Fi systems and has amazing tone shaping possibilities. Bright, dark, punched in, scooped out… almost anything is possible. The EQ controls also interact with the drive circuit and can change the texture of the distortion quite a bit. Centered is flat, down is less, up is more. It can’t get any easier than that.

CONTROLS

• V: Master Volume

• D - Drive: LEFT for gentle. RIGHT for heavy.

• B - Bass: LEFT for thin. RIGHT for thick.

• T - Treble: LEFT for dark. RIGHT for bright.

True Bypass | 2.1mm center-negative 9-18v DC | No Batteries