# Mystery Meat (PRS Horsemeat)



## MichaelW (Nov 30, 2022)

Well to be totally honest, this whole PRS pedals thing has been a bit of a joke to me and I haven’t really taken it too seriously. I ordered the board and built it more for the novelty factor and curiosity than anything else. I didn’t even watch any demos of it until today after i had finished the pedal. (watched the Studio Rats review).

Imagine my surprise when I fired it up and found that it’s *freaking legit!*
Very very nice sounding overdrive. Definitely falls in the “transparent drive” camp and you can get some “Timmy-ish” sounds out of it but it goes well beyond that into much higher gain territory. 
It‘s also one of those drives that really does sound good at both ends of the spectrum, as a low gain drive, edge of break up kind of stuff to pretty high gain. I’d say the high side of medium gain.

It was reminding me of another overdrive I had recently built and took a minute to remember which one.
It was the EQD Talons (Chela Overdive). That drive also is one of few that really sound good throughout the whole gain range. There’s definitely some similarities between these two pedals although they use different clipping mechanisms. But same gain range and overall vibe. 

The Mystery Meat also can act like a Klon-style clean boost with the gain turned all the way off. 
But beyond that this is far from a Klon. I feel like it’s really not unique in its sound but an amalgamation of best features of a couple different popular drives. Which of course leads to its flexibility. I bit of a swiss army knife overdrive and I can see different players putting them to use in very different use cases. 

There’s the standard complement of vol,gain and tone knobs but there’s a fifth “Voice” control. 
Not completely sure what it does without a schematic but it sounds a bit like a presence control.

I‘m definitely digging this pedal and it’s probably going to live on my desk for a while as i figure out what all it can do. Color me impressed….good on Paul.

This is one of the last of my current batch of Tayda powder coated 125b enclosures. I plan to do mostly rattle can enclosures for a while. Yes, I realize the knobs don’t match but I’m back in the situation where I need to use up some odd knobs…..plus there’s a method to the color scheme madness…... (cream for level/gain, blue for treble/bass, and red for Voice.)

For the Ge diodes I used a 1N270 as called for, and the ITT Red bands in place of the 1N34a’s. They all measured very closely around 340 on my tester. (The ITT Red band diodes are my favorite 1n34a substitute. They sound great!)

There were some real oddball resistor values that i pretty much ignored and went with the next closest value I had. except for the 137kr which i teepeed with some 1/8 watt 68ks. 

Moderately busy build, but still went very smooth with no issues.


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## steviejr92 (Nov 30, 2022)

Loving the color combo on this!


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## RetiredUnit1 (Nov 30, 2022)

I'm glad they're not in stock, gives me time to finish some of these others, lol.  So I'm on the mysterymeat waiting list....


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## szukalski (Dec 1, 2022)

YAOOD (Yet Another Opamp Overdrive) 😂

But seriously, great build.. I really like the sound of the demos so nice to hear you can replicate it. 

Paul’s stuff has always been interesting for me. An evolution or refinement of existing stuff, with high quality. 

Keen to see the schematic on this to find out how they’re using all those opamps.


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

Lovely build and now I really want to see the schematic to know why it's using 4 TL072.  Also the more you post @MichaelW the more I'm sure we watch the same YouTube channels 🤣


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## Dan0h (Dec 1, 2022)

I had zero interest in this pedal until reading your post. Still not sure if I need/want another overdrive as I’ve already found my magic chain… but I might have to add this one to my build list. And, as always, super clean super in order build. I aspire to your level of patience.


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

szukalski said:


> YAOOD (Yet Another Opamp Overdrive) 😂
> 
> But seriously, great build.. I really like the sound of the demos so nice to hear you can replicate it.
> 
> ...


For sure it's an odd arrangement of clippers plus all those Opamp gain stages. 2x 1N34a, 1x 1N270, 1x 4148. So there's definitely a bit of the creaminess of the Ge's but not as much as you'd suspect. There's a hint more mid-range "thickness" than the Chela which uses only a single opamp plus LED clippers, but the Chela has a Mid control that sounds like a boost. They can both be dialed pretty close.

Just occurred to me that I need to compare it to the Powder Blue today as well (Kingtone Blues Power) which is a souped up gainier Timmy.
I think it might fall into that same gain range and overall vibe.


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

@MichaelW it's funny you should mention the Studio Rats I was watching this video last night and thinking I need one of these in my life 






I can pick one of these up for £500 in the UK!  😳 How could I possibly resist that!


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

SillyOctpuss said:


> @MichaelW it's funny you should mention the Studio Rats I was watching this video last night and thinking I need one of these in my life
> 
> 
> 
> ...


He is such a great player and generally no BS kind of reviewer. I like watching his reviews because his use case is really a lot closer to mine with home studio applications. I spent a lot of time watching his amp plugin reviews. It was based on his review that I tried the Friedman Dirty Shirley UAD plugin, what a great amp model!


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

SillyOctpuss said:


> @MichaelW it's funny you should mention the Studio Rats I was watching this video last night and thinking I need one of these in my life
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Damn it, now I want a Gold top DGT.......


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Damn it, now I want a Gold top DGT.......



Wait you mean you didn't want one before? 🤣

I'm all set for goldtop prs.  👍


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

SillyOctpuss said:


> Wait you mean you didn't want one before? 🤣
> 
> I'm all set for goldtop prs.  👍


It's always been a "simmering desire" but every once in a while it bubbles over......like every time @szukalski shows off his Gold Top PRS.......


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

Dan0h said:


> I had zero interest in this pedal until reading your post. Still not sure if I need/want another overdrive as I’ve already found my magic chain… but I might have to add this one to my build list. And, as always, super clean super in order build. I aspire to your level of patience.


I aspire to build as cleanly as my two biggest inspirations, @fig and @Guardians of the analog. I have a long way to go before getting that level of gnats ass perfect builds.


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> It's always been a "simmering desire" but every once in a while it bubbles over......like every time @szukalski shows off his Gold Top PRS.......



Solid colour 22 fret double cut prs are my favourite though with a trem obviously.  Unlike that stop tail loving pervert @szukalski


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

Ok, I just had to share this. @music6000 always likes to give me a "fuller vision" of what my builds *could* look like and he did this with his "photoshop magic" this morning. I think it looks AWESOME!


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## szukalski (Dec 1, 2022)

SillyOctpuss said:


> Solid colour 22 fret double cut prs are my favourite though with a trem obviously.  Unlike that stop tail loving pervert @szukalski


Trems are for strats and superstrats! Anything with a bit of girth and heft, needs to be solid.


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Anything with a bit of girth and heft, needs to be solid.


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## SillyOctpuss (Dec 1, 2022)

szukalski said:


> Trems are for strats and superstrats! Anything with a bit of girth and heft, needs to be solid.


Singlecut gibson/prs = Stoptail
Double cut Prs = Trem


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## Guardians of the analog (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> I aspire to build as cleanly as my two biggest inspirations, @fig and @Guardians of the analog. I have a long way to go before getting that level of gnats ass perfect builds.


As flattering as that is, I'm not anything great. I'm still learning and pushing for better. I'm just a big ass man baby putting comic book characters on pedals. You should be looking at @Paradox916 for inspiration 😤


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## Dan0h (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> I aspire to build as cleanly as my two biggest inspirations, @fig and @Guardians of the analog. I have a long way to go before getting that level of gnats ass perfect builds.


Very true. Chris is epic clean too. And fig is on another level all together. Lots of great inspiration around here. 👍🏼


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## Route14 (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Color me impressed….good on Paul.


"Everybody at your party. They don't look depressed. Everybody dressin' funny..." - a different Paul


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

Route14 said:


> "Everybody at your party. They don't look depressed. Everybody dressin' funny..." - a different Paul


"The walrus was Paul"


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## Route14 (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> "The walrus was Paul"


I told you about the walrus and me.


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

Route14 said:


> I told you about the walrus and me.


“I told you bout the fool on the hill…”


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## Paradox916 (Dec 1, 2022)

Guardians of the analog said:


> As flattering as that is, I'm not anything great. I'm still learning and pushing for better. I'm just a big ass man baby putting comic book characters on pedals. You should be looking at @Paradox916 for inspiration 😤






Oh no kemosahbee you the OG🤣


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## Guardians of the analog (Dec 1, 2022)

Paradox916 said:


> View attachment 37104
> 
> Oh no kemosahbee you the OG🤣


I don't care what everyone else says about you Rob, you're alright with me bud!


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## MichaelW (Dec 1, 2022)

Paradox916 said:


> View attachment 37104
> 
> Oh no kemosahbee you the OG🤣


Anyone that's been @Guardians of the analog "trained" all have top notch build quality for sure!


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## Guardians of the analog (Dec 1, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Anyone that's been @Guardians of the analog "trained" all have top notch build quality for sure!


There were a LOT of OSHA violations in the process 🤕


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