San Francisco, CA (February 22, 2013) -- Joe Satriani recently posted info about his new album, Unstoppable Momentum, the new members of his touring band, and the upcoming tour on his Facebook page:
Now that the asteroid has safely passed us by I feel it's time to break my cyberspace-silence and let you all know what I've been up to these last few months.
After returning home from the last of three incredible G3 tours (see soon to be posted "ZZ's fly-on-the-wall/tour movies"), I got down to writing music for a new solo record. A very prolific and cathartic two months followed resulting in a bundle of new music I was very excited to get recorded.
With 16 of the songs selected for the project, all heading in different directions and touching on a variety of musical influences, I realized I needed to assemble a new studio band. The idea was to crank up the energy level of the sessions, and allow for more individual expression of the material, from each player.
I pulled into Skywalker Sound with Mike Keneally on keyboards, Chris Chaney on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums. The chemistry between these awesome players was fantastic, and we blazed through all the tracks with everyone laying down amazing performances.
On Valentine's Day I finally finished all the overdubs, reviewed the tracks with engineer/producer Mike Fraser and started loading out of the studio, elated!
Now it's on to Vancouver, BC, to mix. The new record will be called "Unstoppable Momentum" and should see a release date of May 7th. I'm not sure how many songs will make it to the final sequence as I still have a lot of work ahead of me in that department.
As you can see from the tour page we are gearing up to bring the new music on tour starting in mid-May and continuing through 2013. My touring band will consist of Mike Keneally on keys and guitar, Bryan Beller on bass, and Marco Minnemann on drums. I'm so excited about tearing it up on stage with this new band! See you out there on tour...
Joe
For more information:
Joe Satriani
Revv G3 Purple Channel Preamp/Overdrive/Distortion Pedal - Anniversary Edition
The Revv G3 revolutionized high gain pedals in 2018 with its tube-like response & tight, clear high gain tones. Suddenly the same boutique tones used by metal artists & producers worldwide were available to anyone in a compact pedal. Now the G3 returns with a new V2 circuit revision that raises the bar again.
If 3 Were 6
With six times the controls found on the 1 and 2 versions (if you discount the original’s on/off slider switch,) the LPB-3’s control complement offers pre-gain, boost, mid freq, bass, treble, and mid knobs, with a center detent on the latter three so you can find the midpoint easily. A mini-toggle labeled “max” selects between 20 dB and 33 dB of maximum gain, and another labeled “Q” flips the resonance of the mid EQ between high and low. Obviously, this represents a significant expansion of the LPB’s capabilities.
More than just a booster with a passive tone, the LPB-3 boasts a genuine active EQ stage plus parametric midrange section, comprising the two knobs with shaded legends, mid freq and mid level. The gain stages have also been reimagined to include a pre-gain stage before the EQ, which enables up to 20 dB of input gain. The boost stage that follows the EQ is essentially a level control with gain to allow for up to 33 dB of gain through the LPB-3 when the “max” mini toggle is set to 33dB
A slider switch accessible inside the pedal selects between buffered or true bypass for the hard-latch footswitch. An AC adapter is included, which supplies 200mA of DC at 9.6 volts to the center-negative power input, and EHX specifies that nothing supplying less than 120mA or more than 12 volts should be used. There’s no space for an internal battery.
Power-Boosted
The LPB-3 reveals boatloads of range that betters many linear boosts on the market. There’s lots of tone-shaping power here. Uncolored boost is available when you want it, and the preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.
“The preamp gain knob colors and fattens your signal as you crank it up—even before you tap into the massive flexibility in the EQ stage.”
I found the two mid controls work best when used judiciously, and my guitars and amps preferred subtle changes pretty close to the midpoint on each. However, there are still tremendous variations in your mid boost (or scoop, for that matter) within just 15 or 20 percent range in either direction from the center detent. Pushing the boost and pre-gain too far, particularly with the 33 dB setting engaged, can lead to some harsh sounds, but they are easy to avoid and might even be desirable for some users that like to work at more creative extremes.
The Verdict
The new LPB-3 has much, much more range than its predecessors, providing flexible preamp, boost, and overdrive sounds that can be reshaped in significant ways via the powerful EQ. It gives precise tone-tuning flexibility to sticklers that like to match a guitar and amp to a song in a very precise way, but also opens up more radical paths for experimentalists. That it does all this at a $129 price is beyond reasonable.
Electro-Harmonix Lpb-3 Linear Power Booster & Eq Effect Pedal Silver And Blue
