Patent ID: 8822802

Claim:
A guitar amplifier system, comprising: an audio input for an audio signal; a preamplifier coupled to the audio input; a tone control element coupled to the preamplifier and configured to control at least one of sound equalization, compression, distortion, chorus, or reverb; a power amplifier coupled to the tone control element; an audio output coupled to the power amplifier; and wherein at least one of the preamplifier and the power amplifier comprises at least one distortion multiplier circuit comprising: an audio signal multiplier configured to amplify an audio signal and output an amplified audio signal; a first voltage clamping circuit between a Vhigh preset level and a reference node coupled to an output of the audio signal multiplier, and a second voltage clamping circuit between the Vlow preset level and the reference node, wherein the Vhigh preset level and the Vlow preset level are set at different distances from a center voltage and asymmetrically distort the audio signal through asymmetrically limiting a gain of the audio signal above the Vhigh preset level and when compared with below the Vlow preset level; and a blocking element configured to block DC biases of the audio signal multiplier.