The Slightly Technical ToneX captures are tone models of gear from my personal collection. These amplifiers and pedals are not commercially available and are either original designs, designs inspired by famous units, or uniquely modified pieces of equipment. Each piece of gear was crafted with carefully selected components, meticulously measured, and calibrated to achieve the desired tonal qualities.

This is one of those classic, underrated, and misunderstood circuits that I find to be really cool. The MXR Distortion+ and the DOD 250 Overdrive are very similar circuits, with some debate over which came first—the chicken or the egg. The circuit I created is based on an Aion FX PCB with some minor tweaks, a carefully selected IC, and special Germanium transistors.

With the switches on the pedal, I can switch between D+ and 250 modes, which is exactly what I captured. This pedal is often misunderstood and expected to sound great into a clean amp, but I’d suggest using this circuit as a boost pedal for already distorted amps. It works especially well with single-coil pickups.

This collection includes six different Tone Models. As this pedal essentially has two main modes—the D+ and the 250—the captures were made at various gain levels in both modes, giving you plenty to choose from. The D+ mode features its characteristic Germanium diodes clipping symmetrically, while the 250 mode offers asymmetric clipping with carefully chosen Silicon diodes, providing a similar yet distinct flavor.