Dynasty Distortion (BearfootFX Dyna Red)

MichaelW

Well-known member
Build Rating
5.00 star(s)
Well, I'm baaaaaack!

After a brutal 20 hr flight I've got some serious jet lag. Trying to stay awake long enough to make it till bedtime.

After a week long company event in Malaga, Spain and pretty much non-stop work, I needed to recalibrate my brain with some bench time.

I decided with my head only half here and half still in Spain, I'd build something easy. Just got this board with my last PPCB order.

Going back to my survey of the wonderful world of Bjorn Juhl, this is the BearfootFX Dyna Red Distortion. This is the earlier incarnation of the 3 knob version as opposed to the various 4 knob versions from BJFE and One Control.

While it's called a "distortion" pedal, (and it's an apt description), it really has a wide range of overdriven sounds and like most Juhl circuits you can back off the drive and/or your guitar volume and get some great low gain sounds as well. In fact, while it's got tons of gain and can do the high gain thing really well (think 5150), I find that it really excels at the lower gain settings with the vol rolled off on my Les Paul and also my LP Special.

There's a bit of overlap between the gain range of this pedal and the Mad Professor Sky Blue OD (Skylight Drive) and the gain structure sounds similar even though the Sky Blue uses a different clipping arrangement.

All the signature Juhl elements are there, very thick, rich gain with a lot of harmonic content. Dare I say "chewy" kind of gain. The other high gain Juhl pedal I recently built was the Graphite Distortion which I found underwhelming for me. The Dyna Red has a lot more of the Juhl character to me and I'm finding a lot of inspiring sounds with the gain knob between 7 and 9 o'clock. Above that, it gets into high gain territory and sounds really awesome but not something I find fits me real well. At the lower gain "overdrive" settings, it's a super articulate yet full of harmonic content.

There's a lot of rock and roll in this pedal from classic rock to EVH, which is pretty cool. You can tighten things up with a TS or Klon to add punch and cut or boost it with something like the Haunting Mids or Varioboost to sculpt the heavier sounds. But I found I really liked it a little "looser" on the lower gain settings.

Super versatile pedal and highly recommended build.

I built it stock with the CA3130EZ opamp and 2n5458 output buffer. Primary clipping is provided by a pair of 3mm red LED's supported by a pair of 1N4001's.
Had to teepee a couple of the oddball resistor values. I probably could have gotten away with something close, but I decided to get as close to the original design values as I could.

Build, as usual, went super smooth and it took longer to pull the parts and drill the enclosure that populating the board. Modest component count and as with most of @Robert 's pedals, very intuitive to build with his layouts.

Highly recommended build!

Tayda Red Sand enclosure...because...well...it's "Red" doncha know? :)
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I need to revisit this one. I remember liking it, but it wasn't quite scuzzy enough for me at the time, but I'm looking for something a bit more subdued than my Rats
 
Sweet build. I built this circuit a long time ago, but was having issue with it being thin. I think I had used 100n for C2 from another layout (I think there’s some debate about the original), which would definitely contribute. I think socketing or having a switch for C2 value could be interesting, 220n would hit that common 720hz bass cut. I might have to build one again
 
So you caught the red-eye back from Malaga, and that inspired a ready ruddy pedal...

I feel your jet-lag, having just gone around the globe (literally) in less than 80 days. I have not, however, started building anything...

You inspire me to try to build something (or finish an old have-baked project?).

(y) (y)
 
I think the most fascinating part was the ruins they excavated underneath the museum. I had no idea Malaga dated back to the Phoenicians!

That was amazing to see the Phoenician ruins then the Roman ruins, the the Ottoman ruins.
Man that mustve been amazing to experience. Im a history fanatic. Especially war history. Just love knowing how we came about! Is it ok that im a little envious :ROFLMAO:
 
I think the most fascinating part was the ruins they excavated underneath the museum. I had no idea Malaga dated back to the Phoenicians!

That was amazing to see the Phoenician ruins then the Roman ruins, the the Ottoman ruins.

Visiting archaeological dig sites is a favourite pastime for me and MrsOctpuss.

I've held a bit of a grudge against the Phoenicians since I was 16 and found out they basically invented the concept of insurance. Total jerks.
 
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