Triton Mk. IIPreamp Drive

From the vendor

An adaptation of the classic Marshall amplifiers from the 1960s. It uses cascaded mu-amp stages in place of tubes for amp-like tone in a small box.

The Triton Preamp Drive Mk. II is an adaptation of the Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret Mk. II, the second version of their pedal emulation of Marshall amplifiers. It was originally released in 2011 and was traced by Aion FX in 2020.

The DLS Mk. II is a fair amount different from both the Mk. I and the Mk. III. It didn’t get as much attention on its own, probably partially due to the confusing tone stack labeled “Fullness” and “Presence” rather than the more familiar Bass and Treble

In 2013, it was replaced by the Dirty Little Secret Mk. III, a full redesign which is still in production today. A PCB for this version is available from Aion FX as the Triton Mk. III. The original version of the Dirty Little Secret is also available as the Horizon.

The Dirty Little Secret used 2N5457 JFETs, which are no longer available in through-hole format. Extra pads have been provided if you want to use surface-mount JFETs (part number MMBF5457), which are still in production and perform identically to those used in Catalinbread pedals. Aion FX also offers pre-soldered MMBF5457s on adapter boards if you find surface-mount parts intimidating. See project documentation for more details.

The Triton Mk. II is compatible with the 18V Voltage Doubler / Bypass module if you want to run the circuit at 18V without an external adapter. The higher voltage provides increased volume and clarity.

Note: This project uses a type of capacitor that has been temporarily discontinued by WIMA. Please see our news article about the issue and the substitution spreadsheet for project-specific recommendations. The build document has not yet been updated to reflect this.