On Poland's Independence Day - Drunk Beaver pays homage to legacy Polish brands EXAR and PUE - with its New Affordable XR Series
This is part of a long term project for Vitalii, where he’s sourced and circuit-traced most of EXAR’s Legacy Series pedals, alongside the odd one from lesser known smaller Polish brand PUE.
In a move sort of mirroring Boss’s opening 1977 salvo of 3 Original Compact pedals of OD-1, PH-1 and SP-1 pedals, from Drunk Beaver for 2024 we have two classic EXAR circuit replications & enhancements, alongside an evolved take on the PUE Sustain Filter Fuzz.
- OD-1 Over Drive from EXAR Series 1 [OD-1 : 1989] - this is actually a modified TS808 rather than the Boss OD-1 it hints at
- SF-1 Sustain Filter from PUE [PUE Sustain Filter : early 80’s / ’84?] - a unique 2-knob Big Muff take with distinct output stage and EQ
- MM-1 Moon Metal from EXAR Series 3 [MM-03 : 2001] - a derivation of the Marshall ShredMaster circuit
The OD-1 is fairly vanilla here, while I personally find both the Sustain Filter Fuzz and Moon Metal Distortion high intriguing. The Sustain Filter is a very unusual and distinct sounding Big Muff Take - doesn’t really sound like on the varieties we are accustomed, and feels like the Moon Metal has been somewhat further honed from the previous THT parts Chernihiv Moon Metal (Pedal Drop #12).
As mentioned, All 3 original circuits were traced by Vitalii and schematics are freely available at FreeStompboxes.org, You can also see further details on those pedals - like the PUE Sustain Filter.
All XR Series Pedals are true bypass - EXAR had buffered ones. The graphics are inspired by the different EXAR pedals series (1-4). The Knobs are Cliff UK ones - that look closest to the ones used in EXAR Series 1 and 2.
The keener $90 pricing is based on reduced manual work - and extensive use of SMD components - with minimal wiring required. But Vitalii didn’t compromise on quality - where he’s using best quality brands for semiconductors (OpAmps, transistors, diodes), signal path caps are NP0/C0G mostly (better ceramic cap types - with less temperature drift and less possibility of noise / feedback). And bigger power supply filtering caps than used in the original circuits and average pedals currently on the market. All the pedals also have those cool rectangular LED’s - quite 80’s looking in many ways!
The EXAR OD-1 & MM-1 have 220uF capacitors while 100uF is common + additional 10uF closer to the OpAmps. From Vitalii’s tests - they are pretty low noise (except the noise they might amplify from the guitar).
There are several demos due, but not all will be out on the day of launch when this article goes live, several are definitely materialising later.
All 3 pedals featured here are available now from the Drunk Beaver Webstore for just $90 plus shipping. Vitalii has worked really hard including right through this weekend just past - in order to have lots of pedals ready for orders.
There is an intention to make more of these - but we need to see how well this opening trio performs, and then in the second batch we’re most likely to see a Phaser, Compressor, and a Delay - as EXAR had some very well known and well loved examples of those types.
Here follow the individual details on each of the trio, with the all-rounder demos at the base of this article!
UPDATE!
Readers should recall that I occasionally experience low output from certain pedals. There's 2 factors that impact this - obviously the makeup and structure of certain circuits - input buffers, bipolar junction transistors on outputs, capacitance and impedance. In fact sometimes it's a miracle that things mostly work as well as they do. Lots of pedals have concealed input and output buffers - and certain circuits of many stripes don't always get along with some of those components.
It's well known that certain pedals need to go at the front of the chain - anything that tracks pitch or has input sensitivities - which a lot of vintage circuits have. A recent example was the Andertons x ThorpyFX Six-Zero Fuzz-Trem - where the manual initially did not state any sensitivities. I guess it's a little like allergies - and some of these pedals are peanuts to others - in the allergy sense! So for the Six-Zero - I first placed that in the middle of my chain, and I was getting all kinds of weird voltage issues - with the fuzz continuously choking out. On contact with Thorpy - he clarified the record - that despite the circuit being fairly universal silicon components - there was however a vintage makeup to the circuit - which meant the pedal could not come after buffers - and it absolutely had to be at the front of the board!
With the recent trio of XR Series pedals - I of course placed them in the middle of the chain where Overdrives, Big Muffs and Distortions normally sit. But obviously there was some sort of 'allergy' that impacted those significantly - place them in different positions of the board, and the difference can be quite significant - at the front of the chain all of those output a decent amount of volume - Vialii measured the outputs between +11dB and +19dB - but place those in different positions in my chain and you get wildly different output levels. Wile only a handful of pedals are affected in this manner.
I feel it's a combination of sensitivity and compatibility - and some pedals are just more free-range than others - in terms of easily playing nice within any scenario - while others occasionally suffer tone suck. The JHS Bonsai for instance which has an EXAR OD-1 voicing in ir - is a lot less sensitive to placement. Perhaps we need a new standard - with labelling that indicates sensitivities and compatibilities. For the vast majority of people they will not encounter the same issues as I - it's one of the main reasons for using a Loop-Switcher - while that approach is not compatible with how rapidly I change and evolve the board - with around 10 pedals swapped out near enough every week.
So in short - when I say I need more volume in this instance - I could though just place all those pedals near the front of the chain - but of course that approach is not always practical too. The end results though are that the Boss SY-200 is temporarily off the board - even though it plays nicely with most everything - it still has buffers onboard which might impact on some downstream pedals. I still feel it's important for people to be aware where there are sensitivities - and which pedals are pretty much bulletproof in where you can deploy them in your signal chain. I should probably do a wider piece on all this!
XR OD-1 Over Drive (modded Ibanez TS808) - $90
Controls - Tone, Drive, Level.
The XR OD-1 is based on EXAR's TS-style circuit of the same name (from Series 1). It has a bit more low-end, a different tone taper pot, asymmetrical diodes clipping (Si Toshiba with higher than average forward voltage) and Rohm BA4558 in place of Matsushita/Panasonic AN4558 (not produced anymore, which was in most of the Exar units, while Vitalii's one came with a JRC4558 too).
Of course anyone who has the JHS Pedals Bonsai Multi-Screamer will be familiar with EXAR OD-1 - as that is the 6th 'XR' Voicing Option for that screamer. So if you have the Bonsai and wanted that original EXAR OD-1 Flavour - then this XR Series totally captures that!
This is the least interesting pedal of this trio for me - a decent Screamer for sure, with a little more low end in its profile, but somewhat lacking in range or volume for me - as you can see by my controls ending up with everything maxed / dimed. For my preferences it needs a little more gain and more volume.
XR SF-1 Sustain Filter Fuzz (modded Big Muff) - $90
Controls - Tone (Dark > Bright), Shift (Mids), Level, Sustain (Gain).
The XR SF-1 PUE-based Sustain Filter - has an added gain recovery stage and volume pot after its EQ. The EQ is extended with a new Mids control (Shift). And the circuit utilises a Low hFE BC series transistors similar to the original PUE unit - also with 1N4148 Si diodes.
The EQ of the SF-1 is very unusual - and you can reference profile graphs for Tone Sweep at Max, Shift at Min, and Shift at Mid positions.
This unique Big Muff take with unusual EQ - it the pick of this selection really. Sounds pretty unique within that larger Big Muff category - could still do with a little more volume, but is the texturally most interesting of the trio. The EQ takes a wee while getting used to, but delivers some very interesting results! This is my MVP from this release.
I tend to have this set with Tone @ 3 o'c, Shift fully CCW, Level @ Max, and Sustain @ 2 o'c.
XR MM-1 Moon Medal (modded Marshall Shred Master) - $90
Controls - Low, Mid, High, Level, Metal (Gain).
The XR MM-1 EXAR-based ShredMaster circuit - with different EQ (amp-alike Bass/Treble) and a Contour pot wired as a Mids control (reversed wiring), also Vitalii extended the Treble amount (both Marshall and EXAR versions feel like they cut too much in accordance with Vitalii's preferences. The circuit utilises 2 x TL072 OpAmps and the same Toshiba diodes in a hard-clipping position.
I really quite like this Moon Metal take too - I think I prefer it to the #12 Pedal Drop Chernihiv variety - delivers a nice chunky output. Where I have it set to Low, High, Level and Metal @ Max, and Mid @ 3 o'c. Like the other two feels a little underpowered. All 3 could do with a little more volume for me, and while this is a decent ShredMaster take - it can't compete with some of the newer metal circuits. This one's my second favourite here, and still pretty decent!
Further Demos
