JPTR FX Katastrophe

[Fama]

The marketing describes it as a "highly modded British full stack - but with a more effective EQ section that will work on clean and dirty amps alike". Also includes an octave up circuit "identical to the one found in our Silvermachine" that can be blended in with the huge knob. Apparently also some internal trimmers.

The webpage https://jptrfx.com/products/jptr-fx-katastrophe-sludgefest-dominator-distorion-pre-amp has a lot of demos linked, but I definitely recommend the Oscillator Machines one, really love his demos:

Obviously not everyone's cup of tea genrewise, but it sounds really nice in this one demo. Sounds like garbage in one other demo. But such is the nature of Youtube demos.

 

[nate433]

+1 for more of any JPTR builds

 

[MGB]

+1... Good call on that one !

 

[Fama]

Rewatching the second demo on the product page, while I hate how the guitar parts sound (gives me the impression of someone saying on reddit "XYZ pedal sounds so awesome" and then that's actually their tone), the clean blend parts and the bass parts actually sound pretty nice.

 

[jesuscrisp]

Had one borrowed from a friend recently. All SMD so can't comment on the cap values, but it is basically a BE-OD clone with a green ringer blend in front. Topology matches up 100%, pretty sure (most) resistor values were the same and given how the Warlow is also a near-direct copy of the Op Amp Muff in terms of values, it wouldn't surprise me that this one is also fairly close if not identical for the most part. Clipping section was all the same with 2 pairs of LEDs and 4 silicon diodes too. Pot values were different, most notably the Low Cut, which at C5K is basically useless compared to the original BE-OD's Tight knob, and A500K (or 1M, not completely sure anymore) for a more low-gain friendly sweep. The internal trim pot is the BE-OD gain trim pot for the distortion side, the clean blend/bass boost or whatever circuitry to me seems pointless to be inside the pedal so I didn't bother checking the topology or what it actually does.

 

[Fama]

Had one borrowed from a friend recently. All SMD so can't comment on the cap values, but it is basically a BE-OD clone with a green ringer blend in front. Topology matches up 100%, pretty sure (most) resistor values were the same and given how the Warlow is also a near-direct copy of the Op Amp Muff in terms of values, it wouldn't surprise me that this one is also fairly close if not identical for the most part. Clipping section was all the same with 2 pairs of LEDs and 4 silicon diodes too. Pot values were different, most notably the Low Cut, which at C5K is basically useless compared to the original BE-OD's Tight knob, and A500K (or 1M, not completely sure anymore) for a more low-gain friendly sweep. The internal trim pot is the BE-OD gain trim pot for the distortion side, the clean blend/bass boost or whatever circuitry to me seems pointless to be inside the pedal so I didn't bother checking the topology or what it actually does.

Thanks for the info, it's a bit disappointing but not surprising since I gave the Jive saturator thread a quick read before posting. It also explains how the other two demo videos sound, because they sound like I think the BE-OD more or less sounds if you don't dial it in thick enough.

 

[jesuscrisp]

I suspect it's mostly the Tight knob being limited to the end of the range which gives this one the very stringy and clangy sound.

If you have a BE OD you can try to max out the tight pot to see if that sounds close to the Katastrophe.

 

[Fama]

I suspect it's mostly the Tight knob being limited to the end of the range which gives this one the very stringy and clangy sound.

If you have a BE OD you can try to max out the tight pot to see if that sounds close to the Katastrophe.

I don't think it's stringy or clangy at all in the Oscillator Devices demo though, but that's probably because the low cut is set to 0 there. I'll try out the BE-OD with that too at some point (well, I don't have one, but the QC has a model of it).