The guitar pedal industry is oversaturated, right? There are so many brands out there offering quality effects pedals and competing for your hard earned dollars that it can actually be overwhelming. Some companies leverage their marketing and artist endorsements, while others garner our attention by pushing the envelope - putting as much spin as they can on the same old circuit styles we've been playing through for decades. Yes, things have improved - circuits are quieter, more reliable, more flexible, and more diverse. But despite the great accomplishments we've all enjoyed as a product of this circuit renaissance via the boutique pedal industry, today some of us are left wanting for something really different - really new. Where can effects pedals go from here?

The truth is there are only a handful of circuit styles that people wish to apply to their guitar signal, and only so many discrete components that can be applied in their construction (tubes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc.). There are measurable sonic differences between different makes of tubes, and transistors—and some would argue capacitors (but let's not go there)—but resistors are resistors, and diodes are diodes. Additionally, it's no secret that many guitarists are stubborn traditionalists who have specific ideas on what sounds "right" - it can be difficult to innovate when you have to also balance tradition.

Yesterday I heard a circuit that showed me that analogue circuitry is not at a standstill; and we can have our cake and eat it too - the traditional guitar tonal characteristics we love and the benefits of cutting edge technology!

Ryan Clarke of Dr. Scientist Sounds has created The Heisenberg Molecular Overdrive. Dr Scientist is a long running and world renowned boutique effects pedal manufacturer founded in Sherwood Park, Alberta (now located in Summerland, British Columbia). The Heisneberg Molecular Overdrive is essentially three overdrive circuits in one pedal, but the cool part is that instead of using traditional silicone diodes to handle waveform clipping, the Heisenberg uses molecular junctions (one for each overdrive circuit). It's the first consumer available product to contain these innovative molecular junctions.

Molecular junctions do the job of a diode, but do it very differently. They are very precise devices made in a laboratory that operate at the atomic level, and were developed by the National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) in the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) at the University of Alberta. Traditional components we are used to simply manage an electric signal flowing through your device - but now we are talking nanotechnology and quantum physics, man! If your mind isn't blown yet, just let that sink in - you're riffing through a scientific breakthrough.

So you probably want to know 'how does it sound?' One word: smooth. Smooth, another one of those over-used tone words like "fat" or "warm" - I know, but it's accurate. The tonal characteristics are surprisingly smooth, yet extremely articulate and intelligible - to the point where it's actually puzzling, because typically there is a trade off: you can have smooth and muddy, or intelligible and harsh. Not both. Admittedly, the untrained ear might not be able to hear the characteristics that molecular junctions bring to the guitar signal, but if you're a tone snob, you're going to be surprised and impressed. It's not going to sound like your traditional analogue circuits, but it's going to have the characteristics you love from them. You're going to find dirt tones (it can do overdrive, distortion, and fuzz styles of guitar distortion) that you've been looking for, and some that you never knew you were missing.

The most exciting aspect of this advancement is that unlike traditional diodes which have predefined characteristics, the molecular junctions can be "tuned" during construction to sound a specific way. They can be designed to sound mellow or aggressive, and even accentuate or diminish specific frequencies. This opens big, new doors for different tonal options with the selection of one single component. In the future we can have circuits that can accurately emulate the overdriven sounds from our favourite analogue pedals and amps just by changing a selector switch between different molecular devices that are still technically analogue, and without digital limitations.

The bottom line: if you thought you've finally heard it all, and think you have all the effects pedals you could ever want, I'm afraid you might be wrong. Many thanks to our fantastic scientists, Dr. Scientist, and all the other envelope pushers out there who don't stop innovating. Get ready; new circuits and new sounds are still coming your way.

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