11 Gauge says:
Just to elaborate on this, the B+ in a tube amp starts out as AC voltage that is stepped up at the power transformer, sometimes as high as 500V+.
It then gets rectified, but there is still something called "ripple" in the quasi-DC voltage. So then it takes a trip through various filter capacitors, which "even out" the ripple.
The voltage is then decreased thru the "B+ rail." The highest voltages are intended for the power tube plates. They typically get dropped a little bit for the power tube screens.
...There are then subsequent (usually smaller) filter capacitors, and "B+ dropping" resistors as the power progresses to the earlier gain stages.
So the next stop just prior to the power tubes is the phase inverter, which will have a lower B+. Then is the stage prior to the tone stack (in most instances of hotrodded/high gain amps), which has a lower B+ than the phase inverter.
...IF it is a higher gain setup with multi stages, the "third stage" typically has a higher B+ than the gain stages before and after it. So this requires a different "tap" to the B+. The Ecstasy is no different from other high gain beasts.
By the time you get down to the first two stages in a high gain amp, the B+ is typically dropped to a rather low voltage. I've seen as low as ~100VDC, for something like the Bad Cat Hot Cat 30, IIRC. That is really low. Most of the Mesas/Soldanos/etc. tend to keep it at around 160VDC or so, and I'd think the Bogners wouldn't be much different.
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So - converting this over to the world of solid state audio typically means voltages that are never higher than 40VDC or so. Hence the 50VDC rating for many standard application capacitors. Anyway, I think the Ecstasy pedals use a charge pump to push things up to about 27VDC max, which I would think would be carefully crafted at very different "B+" voltages to mimic the gain characteristics thru the pedal circuit. Reason being that not only will lower voltages distort more, but depending on the rest of the gain stage bias, it will affect other parameters like treble content, and how asymmetrical the clipping might be. In something like Mesa/Soldano/Peavey/etc. amps, the standard cathode bias resistor is 1.8K w/a 1uF bypass cap - it makes things more asymmetrical than the old Marshall value of 2.7K/.68uF, or the Fender cathode bias resistor value of 1.5K (although those bypass caps tend to be way too big for high gain stuff @ 22uF).
So not only is Bogner most likely tweaking the voltage in, but he's twiddling with the voltage to ground.
...If you were to compare that to many jFET/amp sim pedals that exist right now, many simply run on 9VDC or 18VDC with the same B+ in, and the same biasing to ground. All of these pedals will typically have to be consistent sounding to a point where they can be produced in very high numbers. The Bogner pedals possibly have a different process that is more manual and time consuming.
Two issues with jFET's are variations in transconductance and gain, so they require some finesse to work with unless they are sorted to be ultra-consistent. Since Bogner has worked with a similar issue with tubes varying in a similar fashion, he is probably well versed in how to deal with these issues.
