The Rush guitarist partners with Mojotone on the new Lerxst By-Tor—a compact, pedalboard-friendly overdrive designed to offer all of the power of its inspiration, the Lerxst OMEGA amp head.
Back in 2012, for Rush's Clockwork Angles recording and touring cycle, Alex Lifeson partnered with Mojotone to develop a custom-built tube amp head that had all of the sonic characteristics that Lifeson has grown to love over the four-plus decades of his career. Years later, Mojotone debuted a limited run of 100 of the "Lerxst OMEGA" amp heads that have since been sold out.
Now, Lifeson and Mojotone are working together on a larger scale. The two-channel OMEGA head is coming to full production along with a slew of matchIng cabinets as well as a smaller head/combo option called the CHI. But that's not all. Today, we're focused on the new Lerxst By-Tor Drive pedal.
"BY-TOR is a British-voiced amp in a box pedal designed to capture the sound of the 50-watt LERXST OMEGA in pedal form." -- Michael McWhorter, Founder of Mojotone
The Lexrst By-Tor is a compact, pedalboard-friendly version of the OMEGA that promises to replicate the head's same intensity and growl that the tube amp is known for. The By-Tor is capable of jumping from light and crunchy drive sounds to tube-like overdriven chaos with the touch of a few controls. Its drive section features typical controls: drive (for setting the amount of desired distortion), tone (for adjusting top-end sparkle and treble), and level (for adjusting output).