Clip 1: Bridge pickup with effect bypassed first, then with both drive and boost circuits engaged and the following Glacial Zenith settings: EQ toggle set to pre-drive, high at max, mid at 3 o’clock, low at 1 o’clock, boost at max (and set to pre-drive), and volume and drive at max, with the shape toggle set to the right (for less clipping and a more crystalline sound).
Clip 2: Neck pickup with Glacial Zenith bypassed first (but MXR Reverb on), then with Glacial Zenith drive engaged and EQ toggle set to pre-drive, high at 9 o’clock, mid at noon, low at 1:30, volume at max, drive at minimum, and shape toggle set to the left (for a more clipped sound), then with boost also engaged at max and set to pre-drive.
Clip 3: Bridge and neck pickups with Glacial Zenith bypassed first (but MXR Reverb on), then with both drive and boost circuits engaged and the following Glacial Zenith settings: EQ toggle set to post-drive, high at 10 o’clock, mid at minimum, low at 1 o’clock, boost at 1 o’clock (and set to post-drive), volume at max, and drive at 10 o’clock, with the shape toggle set to the left (for a more clipped sound).
RatingsPros:Fantastic array of tones for guitar, baritone, or bass—from warm and gushy to sparkling to bristling, singing high gain. Cons: Knobs easily bumped to unintended positions when adjusting crowded control panel. Street: $189 Adventure Audio Glacial Zenith II adventurepedals.com | Tones:  Ease of Use:  Build/Design: Value: |
It’s somewhat surprising that, in 2019, so many dirt boxes still shortchange your ability to tweak the guitar’s primary frequency range—the mids—often either forcing dependence on a single tone control, or splitting mid precision between treble and bass knobs. Luckily, Adventure Audio’s Glacial Zenith II is part of a slowly growing set serving up a healthy range of segmented control over all three bands—not to mention handy routing options for placing the EQ and/or the independently footswitchable boost circuit before or after the drive section. A shape toggle also lets you voice the dirt side to be crisply articulate, or smoother, with a somewhat amp-like sag when you dig in.
Even better, the GZII’s EQ knobs are wonderfully voiced: There’s a very versatile aural range to play in, yet even maxed treble and mid settings don’t sound harsh. (Pushing bass past 3 or 4 o’clock got a little tubby with my baritone 6-string’s dual guitar-and-bass-amp setup, but a more thumping bass amp would likely love the extra subs.) Most impressively, the various switching options allowed a single guitar (my 28"-scale, B-tuned Squier) to make a plethora of stops between Sonic Youth-style indie jangle and seething metal sounds that still allowed the unique character of the Wide Range-style pickups to shine through.
Test gear: Eastwood Sidejack Baritone DLX and baritone Squier/Warmoth “Jazzblaster” (both with Curtis Novak Jazzmaster Widerange pickups), MXR Reverb, Jaguar HC50 and Fender Rumble 200 amps
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
