So short answer (not something I do often, I like talking about pedals
): it will be my own direction. Long answer: I'm not looking to clone the Noble. It is a really nice preamp and I like what he did with it, but there's no reason I can't create something just as good without copying Noble.
Also, because variety is the spice of life, I plan on doing a couple different DI designs. I'll have at least one that's just a single tube, and the goal will be to make an exceptional sounding tube DI as compact and affordable as possible. I love the Noble, and there are a number of excellent tube DI's out there, but they are expensive. Tube DI shouldn't just be a thing reserved for professionals, doctors, and lawyers. Now I wouldn't be able to sell it for $100 as I would lose money on it (good DI transformers are expensive), but I expect to be able to get a simple tube DI for around $200.
I'm also planning to do a more complicated version with multiple tubes and more controls, and that will be my "Noble competitor," but that will still be a lot less than the Noble.
I will go on record as saying I don't think the Noble is overrated or overpriced. I believe I talked about this before. Noble uses excellent quality components, everything is meticulously built by hand by someone that obviously has skill and experience. The workmanship is exceptional, and I think between the quality of the design, the quality of the parts, and the quality of the workmanship, Noble preamps have a fair pricetag.
So how can I do things so much cheaper? I'm also a one-man "boutique" shop, but my goal has always been to be "budget boutique." That's why I use circuit boards instead of turretboards or point-to-point wiring, that's why I use SMD components instead of more 'mojo' components and solder them en masse in a reflow oven instead of soldering every component by hand, that's why I design things above all to be easy and fast to assemble. I've seen some pedal circuit boards that look like works of art, whereas mine are more utilitarian. I appreciate everything else, but my goal is to get a great circuit and build it with great components, but to make it cheap.
As for original designs vs clones, I like to think of it like a band. I watched a documentary years ago about Van Halen, and I recall they largely started doing covers, then they would slip originals here and there into their set, and start to phase covers out and originals in, until they were no longer doing covers. You get people to listen to your originals by first doing a good job with covers.
If I started out doing original preamp designs, no one would care, I would be just another guy making just another pedal in his garage. So how do I get people's attention? For bassists I do an Alembic clone, that's what really got me in the door. Before I did Particle Accelerator nobody knew who I was. I followed that up with an Ampeg B15 (or B25, as we've discussed) preamp for good measure, to make sure I really had the bassists' attention. Now I'm trying to get guitarists' attention, so how do I do it? Not with original guitar preamp designs, but with a Mesa preamp, a JCM800 preamp, and a Kingsley clone.
If I had released the Space Heater before the Particle Accelerator, it would have gone nowhere. But because I did circuits everybody knows first and did them pretty well and at a decent price, I was able to slide in an original design at a decent price and now people really like it (which still puts a smile on my face every time I hear someone talk about it).
I don't think I'll ever stop doing versions of classic circuits; if someone likes something, it's because it sounds good, and it makes sense for me to make things that sound good. But as time goes on and I get more of this "business" thing figured out I want to start bringing in more and more original designs. I don't need to be the Van Halen of the pedal world, but I feel a lot more proud of a successful pedal when I know that it came straight from my brain, not someone else's.
Man, I talk a lot
