Antique white dakaware knobs. 12 O'clock being neutral. I think it does the clean boost thing just as well and has a much wider gain structure than the Centaur. Suddenly, this box might be the one to take to the proverbial desert island. This thing is inspirational.
Nothing comes close.
It is a very good pedal, but not good enough to say it's better than the other ones in question. It's all opinion and minutiae. I think it's too trebly and harsh sounding. This is usually caused by impedance mismatches which can change the sonic balance of any effect. You could put one of these before the power-tube saturation pedal to blast the hell out of it, with no preamp distortion, if you want.