Demo of the Crazy Tube Circuits Blackface Stardust v2
https://www.crazytubecircuits.com/
My take:
The Blackface Stardust is Crazy Tube Circuits' take on the classic Blackface Fender overdrive sound. I personally usually tend to prefer Vox / Marshall / British tones, so this overdrive was very unique and different to my ears. It is definitely BRIGHT, especially with the tone anywhere past noon. I was also surprised at the amount of gain available. When I maxed it out, it went well into fuzz / broken speaker territory. A lot of my current drives just compress more and more and get super smooth when they max out. The Stardust just sort of gets wilder and wilder, which could work really well if you wanted to do a noise rock / chaotic solo thing.
My favorite setting ended up being Volume 12 o'clock, Tone 10 o'clock, and gain 9 o'clock. This gave me a nice chimey treble-y boost that I could see myself using as a poked-through rhythm sound for recording or live.
From the CTC website:
"Maxing out an American Blackface amp is truly an experience to remember. The harmonics and dynamic response are incomparable.
Blackface Stardust is designed to sound and respond exactly like that. A juicy overdrive with great note separation that cleans up to that sparkly sound that we all love and hear through countless recordings of the past. Set gain and tone and then control everything from your guitar. Sparkly clean to crunchy mean are all there."