T'as raison, le commentaire :
Yes, it's almost an exact clone of the Hermida Zendrive. The differences are minimal if you can even call them differences.
Instead of the "Voice" control, the Jetter has the "Hard/Soft" switch which toggles between two static values of the exact same "Voice" circuit. The 100pF cap has been omitted from the feedback loop of the overdrive section. The Tone control is 100K linear, instead of 50K. A reverse polarity protection diode has been added... that's about it.
The opamp type is unknown - the numbers have been sanded off it. The MOSFETs have been sanded as well, but my Atlas DCA correctly identified them as N-Channel Enhancement Mode MOSFETs, which means they are likely the usual 2N7000/BS170 type. Two of the diodes are those same kind of little blue glass ones as Kerry described were in the Zendrive, and the other diode is a 1N60 or similar germanium (also like described as being in the Zendrive).
Yeah, the gates of the MOSFETs don't appear to be tied to either of the other legs... I have to doublecheck that to be sure.
Man, these things aren't built very well. Pretty much all the solder joints on the jack, pot, and switch lugs are cold and need to be re-soldered. It looks like they're not using nearly enough heat & time when soldering - I only had to re-heat a joint for a couple seconds at 400 degrees Celsius to get it reflowed and much better looking. Also, all the wires attached to these lugs are just tacked on without a strong mechanical connection.
Cold solder + tacked-on wires = Failed Equipment.
These guys really need to get their act together with that stuff... I mean c'mon, Boss pedals are built better than that! They obviously spend more money on the snazzy paint job than what's on the inside.
I think it sounds boring too. It only really seems to have any decent character at low gain settings. As the gain is turned up, it gets more and more generic sounding. With the gain all the way up, it sounds pretty much like any other opamp/diode clipping overdrive, and I was able to cop almost exactly the same sound with several other common pedals. With the gain set low, I guess it would be cool for boosting an already-overdriven amp, but the fact that there's already so many pedals out there that are good for that makes this thing seem redundant.
My bottom line: if you want a nice clear sounding boost for juicing an already hot amp - buy a Zendrive!
Les photos:
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