Expandora Pedals Vintage Reissue Overdrive Distortion Fuzz

The Expandora Pedals Vintage Reissue Overdrive Distortion Fuzz is a fresh recreation of the vintage round Expandora, a unique, Japanese-made boutique multi-distortion pedal from the mid-1990s. One pedal covers four drive types, all faithful to the original circuit design¹. If you have never met the original, it was a silver disc-shaped unit that packed a wide range of gain sounds into one enclosure, selected through DIP switches that were internal at first and external later, letting the pedal sound like a distortion, an overdrive, or a fuzz².

What it does

The circuit is faithful to the original pedal design, including the four modes, but this version is not a straight copy. Enhancements have been made to the original schematic for improved headroom, and there are tweaks to create a thicker, less buzzy tone¹. Pedal of the Day's reviewer was struck by how much the small enclosure holds:

The four modes give the pedal its range:

Two practical changes set this reissue apart from the vintage round units:

• The mode switches sit right on the face of the pedal for easy access, where earlier Expandoras hid them inside or on the back.
• The pedal offers a choice of socketed chip sets, with the LM308N or LM308AN National Semiconductor (Vintage NOS) chip listed as an option¹.

Related versions

A related reissue from the same camp is the Expandora Squared, a squared version of the circuit in a compact orange enclosure². Where the Vintage Reissue keeps the round silver-disc look of the original with face-mounted mode switches, the Squared takes the same idea into a small box.

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