Verdant hills and fog-enshrouded mountains: a soft-clipping overdrive.
This is one of the most common kinds of effects, yet unique in its own way.
It is not transparent - it adds some majesty to your tone no matter what. This is because it boosts the middle and some higher frequencies while softening the lows.
Unlike most of my other effects, this is not built with anything other than a guitar in mind.
In addition to the above video, I made a short album showcasing how it sounds.
Features
Altitude: volume; how high will you climb?
Peak: tone control; let all the brightness shine through the clouds, or roll them off to sound like hills in the distant fog.
Terrain: gain; take a gentle stroll through the park or get a bit more wild and go off the path.
hills: asymmetric silicon diodes (1N4148 and a Zener); higher headroom and more volume than mountains, yet with enough gain to break a sweat.
mountains: matching Schottky diodes (think germanium but not unobtainium); will need to raise the altitude a bit, more rugged than hills.
secret mode! Finesse the diode selector switch into the middle and it becomes a boost. The terrain control will not add gain, but volume - this can get pretty loud!