SoloDallas moves the Schaffer Replica Storm’s jacks to the top
The $249 revision keeps the analog limiter, harmonic clipping, boost and line-buffer circuit while making the enclosure easier to place on crowded boards.
· Edited by Peter Luha
Credit: SoloDallas (via source)
SoloDallas has revised the Schaffer Replica Storm with top-mounted Neutrik jacks, answering a practical pedalboard request without changing the circuit built around its recreation of the Schaffer-Vega Diversity System. The updated version was announced on November 4 and is in stock at $249, the same street price reported for the previous layout.
The Storm remains a 100-percent analog combination of limiter, harmonic-clipping drive, expanded EQ, clean boost and line buffer. Its Gain control adds clipping and a low-mid emphasis, Boost provides up to 31 dB of clean level from an LM308-flavored stage, and Limiter adjusts the amplitude threshold and response. SoloDallas specifies true bypass, 9–12 V center-negative power at 200 mA and a USA-made enclosure measuring 4.69 by 2.52 by 1.57 inches.
The source circuit was reverse-engineered from the 1974 Schaffer-Vega wireless system associated with players including Angus Young, David Gilmour and Eddie Van Halen. The Storm condenses that preamp, compression and EQ behavior into a conventional stompbox rather than attempting to reproduce the wireless transmission section itself.
Top jacks are a small physical change, but an unusually consequential one on a board: they allow adjacent pedals to sit closer together and keep audio cables out of side-access space. Existing Storm owners do not gain a new sound, while new buyers get the established circuit in a layout that is easier to integrate with modern compact pedalboards.
Credit: YouTube
Why it matters
This is a focused usability revision to an established niche circuit, preserving the sound while removing one of the common spatial penalties of side-mounted connections.
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