Controls (identical for each side)
- Volume – Controls the output volume
- Tone – Controls the tone
- Drive – Controls the amount of drive
- Treble (Internal trimpot) – Adjusts the amount of treble content
- DIP1 (Internal dipswitch) – Enable/disable soft clipping (overdrive)
- DIP2 (Internal dipswitch) – Enable/disable hard clipping (distortion)
Specifications
- Designed for a 125B enclosure with top-mounted jacks
brianthornock (verified owner) –
Of course it works beautifully, of course the layout is pure art. These are things that are common to all projects here. They are incredibly well though out. My one wish is that there would be a little extra info on projects that use obsolete parts or where there may be some ambiguity (for example, indications of GSD for SOT23 FETS on other projects). Other than that, pedalpcb.com is the best in the biz.
Popnfreshbass (verified owner) –
Another great board. All of the tone in a neat little 125B package!
I used the 1n914 and 1n4001 diodes as they were more readily available. I would go with these unless you’re a total cork sniffer, at which point just buy a real KOT. I would advise to socket R3 and R20 so you can see if you like the high gain or low gain resistors better. I thought I would like the high but actually prefer the low. Careful when you order the 1uf film caps. Wima brand are to big for the board! Ended up using a JB brand cap instead.
mattdrago (verified owner) –
First off I wanna say that I HIGHLY recommend getting OPA2134 op-amps for this build, or an equivalent high-performance op-amp. I thought the specs between this and the NE5532AP were close enough to be indistinguishable, but for this pedal it seems to really make a difference. I used BA282 Silicon diodes as a substitute for the elusive MA856 diode, it’s nearly identical and I highly doubt anyone could hear the difference between the two. Also I recommend going with the high-gain option on both sides because you can always dial your gain knob back if you want more of a clean boost, plus the high gain option lets you still have plenty of headroom to get more distortion if needed. Tried the low-gain option out for both sides, didn’t like it as much.
I currently have an Analogman KoT on my pedalboard that I got after YEARS of being on the waiting list, and I absolutely love it but was curious how this clone would compare to the original. I did a thorough side-by-side comparison of this clone and my original KoT, dialed in the knobs and internal trim pots so that both pedals had the exact same settings, and honestly I gotta say it was ALMOST PERFECTLY IDENTICAL TO THE REAL THING. The ONLY difference I could hear was that the Paragon Mini had just slightly less low-end frequencies than the Analogman Kot. I only compared them by ear though, and this one difference was so slight that it might have just been my imagination. The fact that it’s an almost perfect recreation of the original and also in a 125B enclosure makes this one of the best pedals you can make on this website, by far. Get off that damn waitlist and build this clone instead!