Active Gain Pedal Reviewed by Guitar Great Phil Brown
Everybody likes gain...more love, more cool, more influence, more life, more sound...
How about more tone? Welcome to the "Active Gain Pedal" world of Lee Jackson. All the companies over the last few years have opted to create pedals that bring the "authenticity" of grunge/blues and guitar hero status at the push of a button....ok....whoa!
Wait a minute partner! As a guitarist I was wondering when or if someone could/would build/design a stomp box that did not change your tone. At last.... someone did it...There's a REAL Transparency inherent in this Active Gain Pedal of Lee Jackson's that delivers EXACTLY what you play. 11 times out of 10 there's always a degradation of the original sound and despite the manufactures best PR with every pedal I have had in the past I still can hear my guitar tone change-and UNTIL now that just pissed me off to no end!....Not so with this creation.
There's the sound of the guitar coupled with the amplifier....But what if you already have "your sound"? It's sweet and you like it...What's the advantage of adding another loop into your sound chain? Simple...there's an added dimension often lost in "live" applications not too mention the studio. Whether you are a Fender/Gibson/Hamer/Martin/Taylor guitar god/goddess you will absolutely fall into big lust with this box. Simple controls and YES! One can plainly tell the distinct differences in the settings...When the light is off you have bypassed the circuit...& one can easily A/B what works for you. Activating the pedal (the light on) one has a Clean boost by turning the Master Volume all the way up and the Gain, (putting the clip switch in the middle "off" position) Exceptional ear candy for those who love a clean electric guitar sound....and for all you acoustic players-oh my gawd! Get ready to walk on water baby!) Now here’s the deal: 3 controls...
Clip Switch: The Clip Switch has 3 positions- (1[up]- [OFF middle]-2[down]). The clip switch allows the circuit to have 2 kinds of 'clip settings'- (1) setting one (up) has a slight but noticeable "clip or edge" to your sound whereas (2) has more "edge and compression". The "middle" switch can be used as a very clean BOOST when the switch is in the MIDDLE Position.
Gain: The Gain control goes from UNITY (the same level that is coming out of your instrument) to all the way Up (which is over 100x the signal!)....with no loss of original tone!
Master Volume: The Master volume is activated when the pedal is ON and it CONTROLS the overall volume of the pedal. By turning UP the GAIN and turning DOWN the MASTER you can achieve variable and quite noticeable amounts of clip/compression levels and you will also notice there is NO loss of tone. In fact the Gain Pedal does exactly that...it increases your gain. This is not a FUZZ/DISTORTION/GRUNGE box...it's an "ACTIVE GAIN PEDAL"...If you suspect you deserve 'more' gain and can live without the constant tone changes inherent in everybody else's pedals-go to www.leejackson.com order your customized pedal from Lee Jackson and fasten your seat belts...you are gonna dig this the mostest and never ever "wonder" again why your tone is so real, phat and alive...
Phil Brown
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