Broughton Audio Locust Star - no talking

A rough demo of the Broughton Audio Locust Star distortion which somehow managed to be even longer than the last video. Luckily, I've had this pedal for much longer and have been able to narrow down the valuable demonstrations.

NOTE: This pedal gets pretty loud, and I didn't correct for this after filming to make sure this was communicated effectively. I might have clipped my preamp at some points...

The Locust Star is Josh Broughton's version of the LM308 RAT circuit, with several quality of life updates making this the best RAT I have ever seen or heard for bass. Volume and Gain work as expected; Low and High are active shelving filters (cut/boost), Range is a variable pre-drive mid bump which allows you to smooth out the response by turning it back, or retaining all the snarl of a RAT by keeping it maxed. Being pre-drive, the Range knob also affects the gain structure.

Clip has three settings: bottom is silicon clipping, for the traditional RAT sound. Top is LED clipping, which is tighter, less bloomy, and has more bite. Center takes the diodes out; in this mode any distortion generated is from the LM308 chips themselves (or the preamp of your interface, as you will soon find out)!

This is probably a good time to mention that the LS takes 9V-18V Boss standard power, and also doubles the incoming voltage. In the LM308 mode, when you feed it 18v, Josh says this pedal can easily boost your signal enough to get a power amp up to full volume, making this viable as a true preamp. I haven't tried this, but I believe him. He also said this pedal had enough low end to negate the need for a clean blend-- I had my doubts, but they were put to bed almost immediately.

Signal chain is MIM Fender Precision w/ La Bella flats, played fingerstyle, tone wide open - Locust Star - Scarlett 4i4. The only manipulation to the footage or audio is panning the audio a little bit to balance it out, and flipping the video (both due to my janky setup!).