MAGIC TONE ENHANCER

EFFECT: boost/drive

Like a mini amp in your chain.  Witch finger is a unique gain device that excels at riding the edge of overdrive.  

INSPIRATION:  We wanted a boost that could transition gracefully from clean to dirty tones.  The resulting op amp-based gain circuit is the engine in the Witch Finger series..

CIRCUITRY:    A nonlinear amplifier.  Volume increases logarithmically, starting from just over unity to about 10db before soft-clipping drive starts for another 5db of boost.  Symmetrical diode clipping is finely layered in until the end of the knob rotation, where light overdrive appears exponentially- it reaches a breaking point and drive dominates.  There is simultaneous control of gain and diode clipping using a dual potentiometer.  It's still a 1-knobber, but that 1 knob is doing 2 things!

SOUND:  Heft & dimensionality.  With the knob all the way to the left, the Witch Finger can be used as a line driver to maintain signal chain integrity.  Try it at the front or end of your signal chain for a tone sweetener.  The left side of the control knob is clean gain- here the clipping section is inactive.  The cleaner boost is useful to drive the frontend of an amp or stacked into another dirt pedal.  From about 1 o'clock onward, the soft clipping is engaged and provides subtle amounts of grit and character as you dig into strings.  Towards the very end of the knob rotation,  overdrive increases rapidly, as the clipping section is fully unleashed.  Note:  Don’t put this device in front of an old school fuzz, like a fuzz face, or you may lose the cleanup effect.

VERSION NOTES:  This is the 2nd graphics iteration for the witch finger series, with a purple fingernail replacing the red featured in the first run.  The circuit was featured in our 1st boost pedal, the now discontinued nvmbr gain. 

WITCH FINGER?:  Remember those plastic witch fingers that make an appearance around Halloween?  The Davies knob reminds us of a witch's fingernail... and it sounds scary good too!

HOT TIP:  Want the fingernail to line up to your sweet spot?  Set the knob where you prefer, loosen the knob screw and move it to overlap with the fingernail, then retighten!

Austere design, esoteric nomenclature.