There’s also a short album showcasing the sounds it can make here (each track has some additional information, too).

This can cover a lot of ground, from just tightening things up and adding some compression, to raunchy harmonic saturation. Low frequencies are attenuated to cut the flabbiness and allow the most guitar-y frequencies to shine (not recommended for bass for this reason).

• Controls:

  • ALTITUDE - how high will you climb? This controls volume (to really experience the mountains, you’ll need to go to a higher altitude)

  • PEAK - do some waveshaping - cut or boost higher frequencies

  • TERRAIN - how rocky is your trail? This controls gain.

  • hills - less saturation, more volume and brightness. Really shines on lower gain settings.

  • mountains - more saturation, less volume, less iciness. More for a higher gain sound but still quite a bit of clarity

• Power:

  • 9V DC (adapter not included)

• Details for nerds:

  • original circuit, but with some inspiration taken from some classic soft-clipper overdrives as well as some less well-known ones.

  • hills diodes: 1N4148 and 1N5230B; a standard silicon signal switching diode and a zener. The zener isn’t configured to do the zener thing, but it does make it clip a bit asymmetrically, which I find sounds smoother.

  • mountains diodes: two BAT41s, very similar to germanium (it is a Schottky, which is often what fake germanium diodes are) but still in general production. Will clip even at lower gain settings (this is both why it is quieter and why it is more distorted)

  • true bypass switching

  • hand-wired

  • handmade art transformed into digital UV print

Hand assembled in Sydney, Australia.