“The Juice system is an innovative and versatile approach to how players power their boards,” says Chris Van Tassel. The Juice Bar is a 2000mA power supply with line in fuse allowing huge amounts of safe power to your board. “Mostmusician’s rigs typically draw 1,000mA or less and that typically includes a large draw digital pedal like a StrymonTimeline so you’ll have plenty of bandwidth with the Juice" Chris continues “For players looking for real versatility theJuice Bar has it all. First, it can be powered with a standard wall wart supply, USBC 5v device charger like an iPhone base or if you have a power bank like those for charging phones you can even go wireless with it. We tested this on a large board and it powered the entire night and was still on in the morning! You can power the Juice Bar with anything from 9V to 24V as long as they do not exceed a maximum of 2 amps (2,000 mA) and a negative tip polarity. The filtered power is quiet and you can easily see your mA draw with the built-in mA tester. The Juice Bar and Juice Jointare expandable within the 2 amp limit so you can power even the largest boards”.
Juice Bar Features:
- 9, 9v Outputs
- 1, 12v Output
- 1, 18v Output
- 2, USB Outputs
- mA tester to ensure your are drawing proper power for your board
- Can be powered by any wall wart style power supply (negative tip 9v), cell phone battery bank to create a wireless system, or USBC (5v mobile device charger)
- For more output needs connect a Juice Joint to the output of a Juice Bar to expand outputs (9v to add more 9v, 12v to add more 12v, and 18v to add more 18v)
Juice Power Supply Features:
- 2000ma switching Power Supply
- Line in Fuse
Juice is available now for $29, Juice Bar for $259 and Juice Joint for $99 via select dealers.
For more information, please visit rockettpedals.com.
Juice System
J. Rockett Audio Designs Juice Bundle
Juice, Juice Bar, Cable Bundle
For many of us, our first pedal was the Distortion +. I have fond memories of stomping on mine—which I bought used at Cambridge Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for about $20—in my early stage days at Boston-area clubs like the Rat and the Middle East. When I tapped the switch, my Twin Reverb grew hair. (I was looking for a Big Brother and the Holding Company vibe.) And when I gamed up to the Twin and a Marshall plexi with a 4x12, running parallel, the extra gain pushing the Super Lead was fil-thee. What I loved, I later came to realize when I had more distortion device experience under my belt, is how—regardless of the settings—the essential sonic qualities of both of those amps remained intact … mostly.
At minimum, the distortion dial lays out about 3.5 dB of gain, and maxed there’s roughly 46.5 dB.
I still own my Distortion +, and it even did time on my pedalboard last year, alongside an ’80s RAT, when I was looking for my inner Ron Asheton and hoping not to buy a bunch more fuzzes. (I failed!)
My Distortion + is from 1979. But the device first emerged from the MXR shop in 1974. It is very simple—which appealed to me in my beginner days and, honestly, still does—inside and out. It has an output and distortion control, and, under the hood, a single op-amp and a pair of germanium diodes. That setup is key to its old-school sound, which also delivers some juicy compression. Crank up the distortion and the D + also boosts treble a bit, to preserve some punch. Gain ain’t shabby, either. At minimum, the distortion dial lays out about 3.5 dB of gain, and maxed there’s roughly 46.5 dB, according to the folks at Catalinbread, who extol the Distortion +’s virtues on their website.
There are filthier pedals, and boxes with a lot more headroom—since this is a hard clipping device—but this humble stomp gets the job done on a budget. And because of its low price and simple innards, it appeals to pedal modders, who have an easy menu of options to alter the compression, add more bass, provide better control gain, put the diodes in parallel, add a tone control, and other tricks. Brian Wampler’s PG article “MXR Distortion Plus Mods,” from 2008, provides details.
Here’s a look at the crusty exoskeleton and simple innards of Ted’s well-worn 1979 MXR Distortion +.
Perhaps the best-known Distortion + user is Randy Rhoads, who set the output dial to 10 and the distortion level at 4, reportedly, during the Blizzard of Ozz era, minting the riffs for “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley.” Other prominent devotees include Jerry Garcia (who fanboyed the device in the late ’70s), Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü, Dave Murray of Iron Maiden, the Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Even Slash was known to use this proletarian pedal in the early days of GNR. So, take that, boutique pedal snobs! The MXR Distortion + is good stuff, indeed.