Dinosaural Cogmeister

The Dinosaural Cogmeister is a single analog guitar pedal that combines a boost, an overdrive and a second boost in one enclosure. Dinosaural describes it as a "single guitar booster/overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal," built from three compatible gain sections arranged in a fixed series pattern: Push, Drive and Solo, named from left to right across the front panel¹. Each section has its own true/hard-wire bypass footswitch and LED, so you can run any one, any two, or all three at once¹.

The idea is gain staging. GuitarPlayer's reviewer described it as "three independent yet highly chainable and gain-stageable boost and overdrive circuits," letting you stack the sections to move from a clean push to a full drive sound without swapping pedals². Delicious Audio called it the flagship drive pedal designed by Dan Coggins, the engineer best known for the now rare and sought-after Lovetone pedals³.

Three gain sections in one pedal: Push, Drive and Solo

The three sections do different jobs, and the order matters because they are wired in a fixed series¹.

• Push is an input treble booster. Guitar World's Trevor Curwen described it as "a late-60s-style single silicon transistor treble booster that basically excites the upper midrange" and is designed to push anything after it⁵.
• Drive is the heart of the pedal, a transistor-based overdrive circuit that is actually a refined version of the Dinosaural Tube Bender⁵.
• Solo is an output midrange booster³. It is a two-knob section using Zener diode clipping, and it sits last in the signal chain⁵.

Because the sections are independent, you can leave Drive off and use Push and Solo as a clean boost pair, or run all three for the full stacked sound. Delicious Audio noted that the three circuits "were tweaked to perfectly integrate each other," providing three gain stages that can be mixed and matched to deliver a variety of tones, dynamics and levels³.

Guitar World's review was positive about the concept: "The Cogmeister is an excellent pedal. While there are plenty of dual-drive pedals around, to put three gain sections in one pedal is inspired," with the reviewer finding the sections slot together brilliantly⁵. GuitarPlayer's Dave Hunter went further on the sound: "It's simply one of the most seamless, natural and organic-sounding solid-state overdrive pedals I've ever played"².

The controls and footswitches

Each section has its own control set, and each has its own true-bypass footswitch with an indicator LED¹².

The Drive section's three-way Shift switch selects between a slight mid scoop, a bigger lower-mid scoop, or flat mids². Guitar World characterized the three positions by feel: a flat setting with a full midrange reminiscent of a 1960s-vintage Marshall, a midrange scoop with a distinct Fender amp flavor, and a smaller scoop that sits between the two⁵.

One practical note from GuitarPlayer: "The foot switches on the Push and Solo channels might be a little close to the knobs for some big-toed players"². Worth knowing if you stomp with the front of your foot.

Power: 9V DC, 16mA

The Cogmeister runs on a standard 9-Volts DC (12-Volts max) center-negative dc barrel external connection, or on a regular internal 9-Volt battery¹. Current draw is 16mA¹, low enough that a battery is a realistic option and any isolated supply will run it without strain. ThorpyFX's product page for the pedal lists the same power spec: 9-Volts DC (12-Volts max), center-negative dc barrel external connection¹.

From the Tube Bender to the Cogmeister

The Tube Bender was a silicon transistor overdrive designed by Dan Coggins of Dinosaural, who was formerly of Lovetone⁶. The circuit was similar in character to a silicon Tone Bender, and grew out of a design Coggins did for Guitar and Bass Magazine⁷. The original pedal had a two-way switch⁸.

The Tube Bender later turned into the OPA-101⁸. The OPA-101 Overdriven Preamp was developed as an updated version of the Tube Bender: an op-amp input gain stage and output buffer replaced the Tube Bender's discrete stages, while the middle two-transistor clipping stage was kept the same⁹.

The Cogmeister carries the lineage forward as an analog pedal¹. Its Push section is a late-60s-style single silicon transistor treble booster that excites the upper midrange and is designed to push anything after it in the signal chain, while the two-knob Solo section, using Zener diode clipping, is last in the chain⁵.

The Tube Bender's circuit has continued to evolve since: the old Tube Bender's two-way switch was superseded along the way as the design turned into the OPA-101⁸.

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