Sanyo’s KBC-9V3U Pedal Juice is housed in a sleek, white plastic box reminiscent of an Apple computer peripheral and comes with a handy nylon carrying case. This relatively diminutive power supply has the same dimensions—2.5" x 4.7" x 1.7"—as those of a standard effects pedal, so it’ll fit neatly into an open slot on a pedalboard. Weighing in at a mere .9 pounds, the box adds inconsequential weight to a rig, and it’s waterproof and shock resistant to boot.
Unlike the other units in this roundup, the Pedal Juice is rechargeable. With its lithium-ion battery technology, it can be fully powered in 3.5 hours and deliver up to 50 hours of continuously clean power for a 10 mA effects pedal, up to 27 for a 100 mA pedal, and around five hours for the 500 mA current draw typical of a large multi-effect unit. An LED on the top of the box indicates the battery’s power level—a green light shows that the battery power is above 60 percent; orange, between 30 percent and 60 percent; and red, less than 30 percent.
Containing just two 9V DC output jacks, the Pedal Juice is the least flexible of the three power supplies reviewed here. If you want to power more than two pedals, you’ll have to daisy-chain them together with cables (not included), making sure not to plug pedals with opposite polarity into the Pedal Juice. (A polarization cable is included with the unit.) For users with just a handful of pedals, or a single pedal and multi-effects processor, the Pedal Juice is perfect— especially in situations where you’re a considerable distance from an electrical outlet.
After charging the Pedal Juice, which actually only took about 2.5 hours, I auditioned it using my Frantone overdrive and Boss digital delay, connecting the pedals to the power supply with the included cables. With its single on/off button, the power supply was su-per-easy to use. It provided clean power without any humming and coloring of my guitar tone, and the charge remained in the green for a full weekend of playing.
Buy if...
you’ve got only a couple or a few pedals to power.
Skip if...
your pedals are numerous and your power requirements are more complex.
Rating...
Street $150 - Sanyo - us.sanyo.com |
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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
