Summer School Electronics and Supercool Pedals (collaboration) Smoking In The Boys Room

Smoking In The Boys Room is a dual distortion and chorus pedal built as a collaboration between two independent makers: Summer School Electronics, responsible for the DS-1-style distortion side, and Supercool Pedals, responsible for the analog chorus side, both housed in one compact enclosure¹. The pairing is deliberate. As Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson put it, "You get classic Kurt Cobain tones here - with that classic combination of DS-1 and Chorus"¹.

The distortion side is Summer School's take on the BOSS DS-1, described by Pedal of the Day as having "classic buzzsaw edge and a modernized mid-range snarl"². The chorus side is Supercool's Small Clone-style analog chorus, which the same reviewer called "organic and watery"². Each effect can be run independently or simultaneously, and the pedal runs on 9-volt operation with a standard DC input².

A DS-1-style distortion and analog chorus in one box

The concept is straightforward: put the two effects most associated with early 1990s grunge guitar into a single box, with each side built by the builder whose own pedal it is. Summer School Electronics handles the DS-1 Distortion take, and Supercool Pedals handles the chorus¹.

The DS-1 side draws on a circuit with a long history. The BOSS DS-1, the little orange compact pedal this side is modeled on, has been described by RockBoard's PedalPedia as offering "a compressed, British stack style distortion with an easy control layout - Distortion, Tone and Level"³. BOSS's own product pages describe its distinctive tone circuit, which lets you shape lows and highs with a surprising degree of control, and note that the pedal backs off to chiming clean tones when the guitar's volume is pulled back⁴. TONEHOME's circuit description of the original adds that the distortion stage is followed by a passive tone filter and volume control⁵. GuitarPlayer has called the DS-1 an ultra-classic distortion box "known for its warm, tube-like growl and excellent dynamics and punch"⁶.

The Smoking In The Boys Room's distortion side is not a straight copy, though. Pedal of the Day highlights a "revamped mid-rich tone circuit" on the distortion section, which addresses a common complaint about the stock DS-1's scooped midrange². The reviewer's overall verdict on that side: "the distortion takes the little orange box that everyone has had at one point in their life and makes it, well, better"².

The chorus side is Supercool Pedals' analog chorus in the Small Clone style, the Electro-Harmonix design most associated with Kurt Cobain's modulated clean parts. Pedal of the Day found that "the chorus section has a huge range of modulated awesomeness," with watery chorus and widely adjustable rate and depth².

The controls: distortion side, chorus side and order switch

Each side has its own control set and its own footswitch, so the two effects can be engaged independently or together².

The ORDER switch is the detail that sets this pedal apart from simply putting two pedals on a board. Pedal of the Day calls it "an all-important external order switch to determine the effect chain sequence"². With a distortion and a chorus, the sequence changes the character of the combined sound: running the chorus into a driven distortion folds the modulation into the saturated signal, while running the distortion into the chorus keeps the modulated clean-ish character of the chorus on top of the buzzsaw. The toggle selects Distortion First or Chorus First, so you can flip between the two approaches without repatching¹.

Both circuits use true mechanical bypass, which Pedal of the Day summed up as "no more BOSS buffer woes," a nod to the buffered bypass of the stock DS-1 this pedal reimagines².

Where it came from and what it costs

The Smoking In The Boys Room is a dual chorus and distortion pedal, running on 9-volt operation with a standard DC input². Its distortion side carries Level, Drive and Tone controls with its own Distortion footswitch¹.

Guitar Pedal X reported Batch 2 preorders at $280 through the Summer School Electronics webstore, and a UK price of £279 at dealer FX Pedal Planet¹. Karlsson's verdict on the collaboration: "It's a really cool collaboration though in a reasonably compact enclosure. It really excels at delivering those Nirvana tones"¹.

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