To coincide with this month’s smorgasbord of stompbox reviews, we look at options for efficiently powering your pedalboard.
WALRUS AUDIO
Aetos Clean Power Supply
This 8-output, isolated power supply has a custom-wound toroidal transformer for superior noise filtering and clean power.
Street: $169
walrusaudio.com
VOODOO LAB
Pedal Power 4x4
Featuring an internal thermometer that controls a silent cooling fan, the 4x4 can power up to four power-hungry digital effects and four standard battery-powered stompboxes.
Street: $189
voodoolab.com
PEDALTRAIN
Volto
This svelte, rechargeable lithium-ion battery-powered supply is a quiet and efficient alternative to AC-powered options. A pair of 9-volt outputs provides total power output of 2000 mA.
Street: $99.95
pedaltrain.com
MOOER
Micro Power
This tiny power supply features eight outputs, each with a status-indicator LED.
Street: $98
mooeraudio.com
DECIBEL ELEVEN
Hot Stone Deluxe Dual Voltage
This power supply boasts eight isolated outputs, a shielded toroidal transformer, selectable input voltage, a pair of high-current outputs, and a heavy-duty steel chassis.
Street: $179
decibel11.com
GATOR CASES
G-BUS-8-US
Housed in a heavy-duty aluminum enclosure, this multi-output power supply with resettable short-circuit protection can juice up to 11 pedals via eight 9-volt outputs and three 18-volt outputs.
Street: $94.99
gatorcases.com
ROCKTRON
Power Tap
This power supply’s space-saving chassis houses five power jacks switchable between 9 volts and 12 volts. Two jacks offer continuously variable power (from 4-volt to 9-volt), and there’s a single AC power jack.
Street: $189
rocktron.com
T-REX
Chameleon
This compact, rugged, and versatile power supply was built for players with many diverse pedals. It comes with all needed cables and offers four voltage options.
Street: $149
t-rex-effects.com
MXR
MC403 Power System
With high-performance toroidal transformers to ensure quiet operation and superior performance, this power supply offers 16 outputs. It can be used on a pedalboard or in a single rack-mount space.
Street: $249.99
jimdunlop.com
CARL MARTIN
Pro Power
Designed for the touring musician, this power supply features switchable AC input (110/230-volt) and eight isolated/regulated 9-volt/12-volt outputs, with extended power for outputs 7 and 8.
Street: $173
carlmartin.com
[Updated 3/2/22]
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Effects Bakery MECHA-PAN BAKERY Series MECHA-BAGEL OVERDRIVE
Konnichiwa, guitar lovers! 🎸✨
Are you ready to add some sweetness to your pedalboard? Let’s dive into the adorable world of the Effects Bakery Mecha-Pan Overdrive, part of the super kawaii Mecha-Pan Bakery Series!
🍩 Sweet Treats for Your Ears! 🍩
The Mecha-Pan Overdrive is like a delicious bagel for your guitar tone, but it’s been upgraded to a new level of cuteness and functionality!
Effects Bakery has taken their popular Bagel OverDrive and given it a magical makeover. Imagine your favorite overdrive sound but with more elegance and warmth – it’s like hugging a fluffy cat while playing your guitar!
Name: Edward Sarkis Balian
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan
Guitars: The Van Gogh Brothers, Vinnie and Theo
The Van Gogh Strat, aka “Vinnie,” built with a Canadian alder body and featuring a replica of the painter’s famous work.
Okay, I plead guilty to having owned over 150 electric guitars in the past 60 years. So, for kicks, with my experience by way of Fender, Gibson, Ricky, Gretsch, PRS, Guild, Teisco, and others, I decided to attempt to make my own axes from scratch. I found that this endeavor was synergistic—much like envisioning, composing, performing, and recording a song. With my long-time San Diego techie, Val Fabela, doing the assembly, I started carefully designing, engineering, and procuring all of the components.
Our winning guitar builder, Edward Sarkis Balian.
The Vincent van Gogh Stratocaster, aka “Vinnie,” was the initial project. Starting with a Canadian alder body, an artist in Italy (who wishes to remain anonymous) applied the Starry Night painting to the front, sides, and back. The heavily flamed, roasted maple neck has the typical 21 frets with a 25.5" scale, and sports yellow pearl-dot inlays. After careful consideration of my playing styles, I went with a configuration using Fender ’57/’62 Stratocaster pickups. I used an upgraded, noiseless, 5-position Switchcraft assembly for the switching circuit. Fender locking tuners, a custom-fitted bone nut, and a Kluson K2PTG 2-point whammy system and brass bridge complete the low-action setup. Overall gold hardware completes the look. Vinnie’s fighting weight is 7.1 pounds.
This is what stars look like from further in space, at least as far as this special build is concerned.
I was so happy with this Strat that I decided it needed a brother, so I started on a Tele. Logically, I named the Tele “Theo,” after Vincent van Gogh’s younger brother. Again, with a Starry Night body painted by the same artist, I coupled a Canadian alder body with a lightly roasted, flamed-maple Stratocaster neck. (Hey, if it was good enough for Jimi to experiment with a Strat neck on a Tele body, why not try it?) And, as expected, my techie Val did a brilliantjob of joining the neck to the body.
The Van Gogh Tele, aka “Theo,” built to similar specs as the Strat and also featuring a lightly roasted, flamed-maple Strat neck.
For pickups, I went with Fender’s vintage-correct ’64 Tele set. As for a harness, the super-quality Hoagland Custom 4-position switching is unique, in that it gives a 15 percent boost and a very killer tone in position 4! Fender locking tuners, a custom-cut bone nut, and a Gotoh GTC201 brass bridge completes its setup. Gold hardware complements the overall look. Strangely enough (or perhaps hereditary?), the Tele matches his Strat brother’s weight exactly, at 7.1 pounds.
It's not in a museum, the the Theo guitar is certainly a work of art.
But how do they sound? Magnificent!Throw in my trusty Keeley compressor, Fulltone OCD, and Fender or Mesa/Boogie tube amps, and the van Gogh boys both easily equal or surpass my White Penguin, White Falcon, PRS Custom 22, Lucille 345 stereo, 335, SG TV, Les Paul Standard, Esquire, or Joan Jett.
I’m hoping the real van Gogh brothers would have been proud of these two magical, musical namesakes.
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
