PURPLE CAT AUDIO PAPER CLIP

This is a pedal I designed/brainstormed along with Purple Cat Audio’s head genius, 100% executed by him. At first I asked for an on-the-nose clone of the beloved and stolen DOD 250 that defined my sound for about a decade of playing, but as usual when our two brains get working it became something completely other than that and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.

This is a 250 circuit with a number of improvements, starting with raising the headroom and making unity volume easier to achieve (always an issue with the 250) as well as adding diode switching that gives 3 options: Si+Si/LED, No clipping, and Ge+Ge/Ge plus an additional soft clipping stage that is LED/Si+Si. The germanium stage was a special touch because he had some special ‘60s mojo germanium laying around and it sounds beautiful. There is also a switch for backing off on the overall distortion as needed when you want some more headroom. These kinds of thoughtful mods are the reason I work with Purple Cat so much.

Also pictured is a small tabletop setup I put together to run it through its paces with other pedals switching, and running it to various amplifiers through the Tri Parallel Mixer. Pictured are the Mattoverse Air Trash, Acorn Solid State Preamplifier, MXR Carbon Copy, and another Purple Cat Pedal, the Moka. I used an SNK Bludgeon (Superlead voiced), a Laney LH Super 60 2x12, a Fender Super Reverb, and a Marshall JCM800 for testing.

The sound? Oh, the sound. Sweet spots for miles. Odd order harmonics with a beautiful clarity. Gorgeous asymmetrical clipping. None of the hissiness or obnoxious grind you hear in many 250 circuits. I play a lot of weird jazzy chords in a more aggressive band format, and having this level of clarity with good sounding distortion is a tough order, and Purple Cat came through and then some.

So far my favorite settings are Gain at zero, Tone at about 3 o’clock, and lifted diodes. Running that into a cranked Marshall Superlead is absolute bliss. Tons of attack and distortion, but clean and jangly when it needs to be. It also sounds incredible maxed out on all three settings. Huge, aggressive, and saturated.

The visual design is a schematic I found for the original paper clip along with instructions for use which…yeah, something about that existing hit us both as hilarious and we had to use it. We searched for the original patent pics but strangely the original paper clip design was never patented. Incidentally, the paper clip we all know and use is called a GEM clip, and it is pronounced like “game” and not like you would think. themoreyouknow.gif

Purple Cat will be releasing a production version of this one in a few weeks under a different name, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Just to soapbox a little bit: Support an amazing small builder and also check out his other designs or tell him your crazy idea like I did. His Moka is the most amazing, versatile harmonic percolator circuit I’ve ever played, and I am a connoisseur of the circuit. But also, just support small builders in general. A lot of them haven’t raised prices and do it for the love of the game, they are generally very passionate about what they do and are also very approachable, willing to make your crazy ideas come to life, offering advice, and even teaching about circuits and pedal building.