PCB's have arrived and are being populated. Artwork is at the screen makers. Boxes are being powder coated. The latter is quite busy so an ETA is sometime next week for the boxes. If all goes as planned, about another 7-10 days and the Jet Drives will be ready to ship.

Stay tuned!

The metal fabricators are finished with the boxes and they will be going to the powder coaters Monday. Artwork is ready and the countdown to completion begins.

Stay tuned!

I did the final tweaks this past weekend and ordered the PCBs for the Jet Drive (that is the name of the new double pedal). The enclosures are being fabricated as well. It caused quite a bit of anguish and frustration designing this one! Originally, I was going to have two identical circuits but started experimenting and wound up with the channels being unique to each other but working together amazingly well. I also wanted either channel to be able to be the "drive" channel or the "driven" channel. Let me explain that a bit. The channels are hardwired as far as which one feeds which (channel 1 feeds channel 2). Because of the way the channels were designed, there is no problem with using either one as the "stacked" channel. In other words, you can "drive" channel 1 with channel 2 or vice versa without mud or weird interactions.
I am going to try and produce a great video of the pedal when I get the production models ready. For this video I am going to use a separate audio recorder instead of just using the video camera. The quality should be very nice.



Stay tuned!

Well, as is always the case, I leave no stone unturned. Every time I think I have finalized a design new ideas pop into mind (usually in the middle of the night) and the design starts down another path.
I am getting a little ahead of myself so let me give you some details of the pedal itself.
The design is just killer. I had continued to fine tune it and built a couple prototypes. Let me just say now that this is the most amp-like pedal I have designed. Period! One person who checked it out said it was really no pedal at all...he was just hearing more amp. Things got really interesting when I tried stacking the new design with a Red. It sounded great. Honestly, a lot of people continue to email me asking for a double Red. I agree that stacking two Reds is a great combination but if I were to do a simple double pedal, two Red is the easy way out.

Back to the new pedal stacked with the Red: wonderful tonal options and a very wide range of overall gain/saturation options. THEN, I tried stacking two of the new pedals. Game over! Amazing flexibility and was a match made in heaven! Seriously, I didn't think it could get any better! But, it did today! I tried something a little weird and it led down a path that paid off sonically in a big way! I will get into specifics soon as well as provide some clips.

So, the new pedal will be a double pedal. The box will be the same height and depth as a single pedal (4-3/8"H) and will be the same dimension wide (4-3/8). The same in/out, dc-in configuration as all my other pedals. It will have two foot switches and six knobs. I am at the pre-production verification stage right now; prototype boxes and circuit boards will be in hand this week.

Stay tuned!

I have been working on a low gain pedal now for a couple of years. I am finally satisfied with the design and the production of this pedal should be under way shortly.

The big problem with low gain designs.............
For me, a low gain design should be able to emulate that seductive edge-of-breakup tones found on only the very best amplifiers. Those tones are responsible for some of the juiciest, fat lines played by the big boys. you know it when you hear it and it is gorgeous. Let me back up a bit and explain some of the problems with trying to achieve that tone and feel with a pedal. Even though it is relatively easy to back the gain off a pedal, it is in the area of dynamics headroom and compression that the gremlins come out to play. At higher gain settings compressed, harmonically rich tones are part and parcel of a singing lead tone. In other words, these are the areas that the "sweetness" comes out. When you back the gain control way back, you can develop the grit or edge you want but the sweetness usually disappears. The tone gets hard and the amp doesn't sound sweet at all. Also, digging in with pick attack only seems to make it even more strident rather than getting juicier. It turns out to be very a complicated problem to overcome. What I have come up is a pedal I believe overcomes these problems.

It (I haven't named it yet) operates quite a bit differently than my other pedals. There are three controls: Volume, Gain and a third control that combines the fuctions of tone, texture and feel. I am not sure what to label this control yet but once you hear what it does, I think you'll be impressed! This control was fine tuned over time to affect only the region of the midrange that really defines the tone and feel of the instrument and input of the player. The pedal can provide a very transparent boost at the lowest gain settings and when used to kick the front end of a good amp will not only bump up the volume but do so without the sterility of many so called clean boosts. As the gain is increased the sweetness really becomes apparent. Rhythm tones are the first thing that I think are noticed. Play some classic rock rhythms and you'll hear it immediately! Again, this is a low gain pedal so cranking the gain to max doesn't turn it into a monster rather it becomes a polished, refined gem.

Here is what might be the coolest thing of all.
When I started getting close to what I felt I wanted the pedal to achieve tonally, I started putting it in front of other pedals. I wanted this to be the perfect pedal for stacking. All I can say is wow! Put this pedal in front of the Gain Stage Red and you will simply not believe what it does! This is as close to overdrive nirvana as I have ever experienced. I have also tried it in front of other overdrive pedals and the results have been equally impressive. I have--and continue to receive--countless requests from Gain Stage Red users who love the pedal but want "more" from it. This pedal is the answer--period!
I will provide more details and sound clips as soon as possible.

Stay tuned!

For those who didn't know, Brad is no rookie in the Boutique gear world. He started Bedrock amps back in the 80's - one of the first boutique amp companies. Along the way he built some great amps and hung out with some legendary artists - Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, SRV, Ronnie Earle, to name just a few.
Some artists who owned Bedrocks include: Aerosmith, Slash, Nuno Bettencourt, Johnny Winter, Earl Slick, Web Wilder, Smashed Gladys.

Brad Whitford and Joe Perry from Aerosmith were Bedrock's biggest endorsers and used the amps on tour and in the studio.
Here are some photos from the good 'ole days! (Click the images to view in full size)

  

Recently, we spent a little time with Nicky Moroch and wow! What a great player!
You might not be familiar with him but you have probably heard his work. Check out his discography at http://nickymoroch.com.
We're happy to say that Nicky went home with a Gain Stage Green!

Here is a short video clip that Billy Norris just sent us. In case you don't know, Billy is a monster bass player who just happens to be a monster guitar player as well. On this clip, he is just tearing it up using a Gain Stage Red. Billy is a busy guy and is currently out on tour (playing guitar) with Gavin DeGrew on Piano.
Watch Video

Here is another clip of Billy with the Red.
Watch Video

Several Gain Stage Green owners have emailed recently to let me know that they have been using the Green at lower gain settings and achieving really good results. One user said he had been trying to get that elusive "edge of breakup tone" that artists like Scott Henderson and Michael landau seem to use a lot--truly inspired playing and tones from these guitar masters. Setting the Green's gain in the 10-11 O'clock range gets you into that territory. The pedal has a lot of touch sensitivity with this setting. The dynamics can really be controlled by simply digging in or backing off the strings. Using a Strat, I usually will have the Green's tone set somewhere between 12 and 2 O'clock depending on the amp. With a little delay, I hear those Landau tones coming on strong!

I just thought I would talk a minute about how an amps preamp gain structure plays into how a pedal will respond. Case in point: I designed the Purple specifically trying to mimic a classic Marshall plexi gain structure when playing through a classic Fender style amplifier (this includes the vintage reissue modes such as the Deluxe Reverb). Those Fender amps typically have a much tighter and cleanish gain to them at volume settings up to about 5-7 especially with vintage output single coils. The Purple takes all of this into account and mildly compensates for these inherent qualities. If you take a Purple that has been dialed in for say, a classic Angus Young or Ritchie Blackmore tone using a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue and then take Purple with those settings and plug into a Marshall 50 Watt Plexi Reissue, you will notice immediately that the pedal has noticeably more overdrive. This is a result of how the preamps of the respective amps are designed. There certainly is no right or wrong combinations b but it is very interesting how different amps can have as much effect on a Pedal's overall performance as any other link in the chain. If I am using a Purple (with either single coils or humbuckers) into a Fender, I pretty much always have the gain on the Pedal all the way up. I still have control from the guitar's volume control and can roll it back for clean tones. If I am plugged into a Marshall or something modern like a Matchless, I usually find myself setting the Purple's gain around 1-3 O'clock. Again, no "right" or "wrong" settings, just be aware of how an amp's preamp gain will affect what is put in front of it.

I mentioned in the previous entry about how an amp's preamp gain can really affect what is in front of it. For those that have and use vacuum tube amps primarily, there is a very easy and inexpensive way to change the character of your amp with one simple tube swap. This is my personal preference and again, there is no "right" or "wrong" here. If an amp is too hot (overloads and saturates too quickly) I will try swapping out the first preamp tube (commonly known as V1 in a lot of amps such as vintage style Marshalls) that utilize a 12AX7 (ECC83) with a 12AY7. Personally, I think this tube has an amazing tonally quality--very round and lush. Don't let the relatively low gain rating put you off! This is a great tube and it can really even out an amp that is growling a bit too much. It will also really let whatever guitar is being used reveal more of it's natural tonal qualities. I really like this tube in lower wattage Fender amps to increase the clean headroom available.