A Far More Sophisticated Distortion+ Variant - Cloning the Cornish SS-3

With the Dimetrodon Distortion version of the MXR Distortion+ circuit just about ready to be sprung onto an unexpecting world, I wanted to explore other variations of the circuit to see if there was a "Dimetrodon Distortion 2" waiting in the wings. Given I can make several varieties of the original circuit in the Dimetrodon Distortion design, I had to go further afield to find something that was substantially different - and which couldn't simply be built on the existing board. Once again, AionFX comes to the rescue with their Soma project. The Soma clones the Cornish SS-3, which is based on the venerable MXR Distortion+ with the addition of high and low tone controls, a Cornish buffer, and many other Pete Cornish tweaks along the way. 

As with all Cornish pedals, the SS-3 is far more complex than the vintage pedal it was based on. A lot of the additional components comprise the buffer circuit, but many also come from the additions of high and low cut tone controls. I used my standard, modern parts sources for this build. All metal film resistors (1% tolerance from Yageo and KOA Speer). Mostly WIMA and Kemet film capacitors with Nichicon electrolytic capacitors. The diodes are 1N34A that I sourced locally. I'm using sockets for my op-amps for this build .

Wiring for the pedal also follow the my normal procedures at this point with a star ground on the input jack and all connections to the jacks wrapped in heat shrink tubing. I'm using ribbon cable to attach the 3PDT daughter board to the main board as I've found this is quicker than cutting and stripping anywhere from four to six small lengths of hookup wire.

I'd ordered this enclosure several weeks ago, and it follows the "Pete Cornish" inspired theme I was using on many pedals at that time. This one, of course, is copyright free as I'm not using the same name for the pedal and the fonts are either free or licensed (including the dimetrodon icons!). If I end up making more of these, I'll work with my wife to design a suitable enclosure more in keeping with the original Dimetrodon Distortion. In terms of the sound, it feels a lot more refined, for lack of a better word, than the original. The dual tone controls allow you to really dial it in where you want it. I need to experiment more with it, but it feels like it will fill a slightly different niche on my board than the original MXR Distortion+ variants, which isn't a bad thing at all!