The Belle Starr is the result of a several months-long collaboration with Drew Shirley from the band Switchfoot, who always runs super small, low-wattage amps, and runs them wide-open to get his signature overdriven sound. The Belle Starr was designed to recreate these tones. Not a high-gain overdrive, the Belle Starr is a low/mid gain overdrive circuit that has the smooth and natural breakup that is characteristic in smaller, non-negative feedback amps. To make the overdrive as natural-sounding and amp-like as possible, Jackson Audio incorporated a unique clipping circuit (the part of the circuit that distorts the signal) and features Mosfet transistors instead of traditional silicon diodes. The overdrive range on the Belle Starr is so evenly spread out across the range of the Gain control that it goes from absolutely clean to medium gain with no unusual jumps in the dynamic response. The Belle Starr can safely run from 9V-18V DC (center negative). Running it at 18V will give increased headroom and dynamic response. Do NOT exceed 18V! Controls - Volume Sets the overall level for the Belle Starr. With low Gain settings and high Volume settings, the Belle Starr acts like a very powerful boost complete with tone controls! - Gain Controls the gain of your tone and how overdriven the Belle Starr is. Running the Gain control low and all other controls at 12:00 will result in a transparent boost that is indistinguishable from your clean tone. Increasing the Gain control from there adds subtle overdrive and will take you from clean to a perfect emulation of a cranked small amp that is breaking up! - Body An extremely powerful active EQ, the Body control adjusts the low frequencies by giving a +/-15dB boost/cut to those frequencies. The Body control also features a center detent which makes it easier to get back to a neutral or flat response. - Tone A beautifully voiced passive tone control, the Tone control adjusts the treble frequencies much like the Cut control on a Vox amp. The Tone control also features a center detent which makes it easier to get back to a neutral or flat response.