The BELLE STARR is the result of a several months-long collaboration with Drew Shirley from the band Switchfoot. 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, they incorporated a unique clipping circuit (the part of the circuit that distorts the signal) and features MOSFET transistors instead of traditional silicon diodes. When used in a clipping circuit, the MOSFET transistors produce a very smooth and amp-like overdrive.
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.