building dragonfly's vero DOD 250.. question.

[freak scene]

what is the value of R12



i have it all put together but its a no go so far, i am going to bust out the scope tonight.

[comfortably_numb]

So I built a self contained clipping circuit.  It is simply input to a 1k resister followed by two diodes (LED and Si for asymmetry) in anti-parallel to ground and output.  I also connected a dpdt switch for bypass. 

It works, but requires all of the clean boost my boss bd-2 (modified of course  ) can give it.  I'm curious as to why this circuit requires so much gain before it to distort even the slightest amount, while a circuit like the distortion+ distorts freely.  Isn't it just a clipping unit like mine, after a boost unit like I'm using the bd-2 in this case?  I would think that having the boost at max would distort the diodes unbearably, and yet I'm getting the slightest amount of grit.  This is actually a very pleasant sound, but logistically speaking is impractical, as the boost has to be maxed.

Any thoughts?