Official Skreddy Perestroika Page HERE

Marc Says:

I’m usually very liberal with my artistic license and rarely just “clone” something, since I’m usually going for a particular sound that I want as opposed to historical accuracy. Add to that the fact that during the 1970’s, Big Muffs were all over the place in how they sounded and what parts they were made with, and every old one I ever tried except one (the triangle knob that inspired the Mayonaise) could stand improvement in one way or another. This time I am not going so much for a particular sound in my head, but I’m making it sound like a proper era original. Because this particular era, the civil-war/tall-font green Russian, was actually fairly consistent and easy to nail down to just one sound. Some folks have said they are “woofy” but I haven’t found that to be the case at all. Very tight, in fact, but with a decent, round, but gentle bottom end. Lots of mid scoop but not super extreme (and you’ll get the Skreddy mid boost switch at any rate). And not tons of liquid sustain; in fact they have a “dry” feel to them.

Rounder, more grungy than the BC239; less aggressive gain structure (remember this version ignores the low frequencies when it distorts the signal), heavier scoop–mids don’t cut through as much as the BC239–except when you flip the mids switch; then it’ll have thicker, more cutting & singing mids (of course) than any original green Russian.

I always hated the green Russian sound. I thought it was a boring distortion. Okay, but I cloned it because of popular demand. My clone was a boring distortion. Just like the original. So before shipping any out, because I just COULDN’T STAND IT, I had to just slightly mod it to add a tiny bit more zing and sustain to it. I did the bare minimum, which still only represents only about a 10% change to the value of one capacitor.

If, when you get your Perestroika, you find you want it to sound hollow and sustainless, simply clip off the extra capacitor I added to the bottom side of the PCB. It’s that simple. But I only improved it, to my taste, just enough for it not to sound like ass but still have the same general nature as the original. It’ll be just as if you got one magic original that sounds better than most…. I do have to walk one word back that I said earlier: “boring.” The Perestroika wasn’t boring before I added the extra capacitor; it was actually interesting. Had a kind of subtle punchiness to the attack and a strange hollowness, neither of which is boring, per se. The word I think fits better might be “frustrating.” Because it didn’t have much sustain. All I wanted was just to add a MODICUM of sustain and creaminess so it would be good for something other than riffing and so when you solo with it the notes didn’t sound weak and decay quickly. So I goosed the distortion’s effect on the bass frequencies JUST ENOUGH to help those issues (a tiny bit creamier, zingier, and better sustain) but not so much that the clean-blend bass effect was not still there too. So like I said, this little mod should emulate an exceptionally nice-sounding original unit, since the mod’s value is still within a range you might realistically expect to find in an original by virtue of parts tolerances and variances.