A couple of weeks ago, we took a look at a pedal from our friends at Celestial Effects, the Virgo Rock Overdrive, and found that it was a rocking little purple beast. Today’s featured pedal is the Virgo’s older, grown-up and more powerful brother, the Capricorn Rock Distortion. A versatile Boost/Overdrive/Distortion pedal, this creamy creation boasts two gain stages and broad spectrum of tones on tap.
Volume starts things off, controlling the Capricorn‘s overall output – with very little noise filtering in the circuit, your instrument’s entire signal is allowed to come through and shine beautifully. The first gain stage is transistor-based, similar to fuzz type pedals, and is adjusted via the Limit knob. The second gain stage is opamp-based, which results in higher gains as the intensity is increased, which is achieved using the Gain knob. Finally, a unique Edge control gives you a range of attack tones to work with, from smooth with lower gain up to biting, edgier and higher gain tones.
There’s a toggle switch present here as well, enabling you to select from a couple different clipping diode arrangements. Set to the left, you get two symmetrical silicon rectifier diodes, for a smoother and more compressed sound. To the right, the circuit goes into three asymmetrical MOSFETs, which yield a louder, heavier and gain-laden type of sound. Removing all the diodes can be done by setting the switch in the middle position, which gives you the loudest, openest and more vocal tone option of the three.
Using no buffers or inline tone circuits in its design, and running true bypass, the Capricorn Rock Distortion is built like a tank, using the best components available. Hand built and using CTS pots and Neutrik jacks, it will be sure to keep you rocking for years to come. We love the guys over at Celestial Effects – Joe, Dom and their crew have sent us more gear to review than almost anyone else, and they’re not done yet: stay tuned in the next few months for a couple more reviews, which we think will round out their entire lineup of pedals. Thanks so much, guys!
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