Runoffgroove Big Daddy

Continuing Grace Overdrive article at ROG: During the testing of this circuit design (meaning the Grace Overdrive), the thought occurred to try a Jfet gain stage before the 386, instead of the buffer. The impedance would still be high and the 386 would see more signal and clip harder. The result is a pleasing grind and responsive big amp-like distortion. The gain control functions in the same way, but the range is higher in gain. Pretty effective, considering that if you want to use a gain stage, you probably don't want the semi-clean settings of the buffered version.

So here's the Big Daddy. Basically, Grace with a gain stage instead of buffer at the input.

And a little clip with gain maxed: