Dr Boogie Distortion

You want high gain? You got it.

The Dr Boogie is an emulation of the Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Solo head. ElectraTabs over at DIYStompBoxes did some fine FET fiddling to nail this beast of a box.

We decided to stick with the 1590BB format for this one. Being so high gain we've kept all the circuit board traces nice and spaced to avoid any noise issues, and it has certainly paid dividends.

The six pots mount to the PCB, giving you a nice sturdy mount in the enclosure. We've included pads so you can use either through-hole or SMT FETs, since TH are now getting harder to come by. The kits are currently supplied with through-hole parts. The original design uses J201 for all the transistors, but we've found using 2N5457 for a couple of them makes this an altogether more pleasant pedal to deal with.

Designed for vertical mount pots (round shafts) which are highly recommended, or you can wire up normal pots (with splined shafts) if you prefer. Pre-built option is only available with vertical mount.

The finished circuit requires some fairly precise trimmer adjustment to bias the FETs just right, so a multimeter is a must.

The kit is supplied with vertical-mount pots which have round shafts, so you'll need set-screw fitting knobs.

If you want the PCB without parts there's a link for that at the bottom of the page.

Partial kit: PCBs, all board-mounted components, pots.

Full kit: As above, plus footswitch and appropriate daughterboard/components for your selected bypass type (see Downloads section for details of those), jack sockets, DC socket, battery snap, hook-up wire, LED.

Enclosure (pre-drilled) is available as an option with full kits, and will not take a battery. Knobs are not included.

Builds are only available with full kits including enclosure and vertical-mount pots. Please choose appropriate knobs.

Inspired by: Dr Boogie

Difficulty: Semi-hard

PCB sizes: 80 x 34

Knobs required: 6

Enclosure: 1590BB

Direct-Connect compatible (4-way)

Check Specials for powder-coated enclosure availability.

Download the INSTRUCTION PDF