Crazy Tube Circuits has unveiled the Super Conductor, a four-in-one boost pedal with a powerful array of electric guitar tone-shaping options that belies its compact, pedalboard-friendly format.
Inspired by Crazy Tube Circuits’ favourite “one-knob wonders”, the Super Conductor presents players with four analogue boost circuits, each with its own input/output impedance and internal voltage to give it a very different feel when you put it through your rig.
That, essentially, is what the Super Conductor is all about, squeezing every last bit of tone out of your guitar amp, giving it a little colour, or a kick up the backside to get more drive.
The names Crazy Tube Circuits has given these boost circuits should give you a clue as to how they sound – “ep”? Well, could that be shorthand for Echoplex? Why, sure, and it offers a JFET preamp gain stage based on an early ‘70s tape echo. In this mode, the Super Conductor activates that internal voltage boost to run at 24V DC.
The “rm” meanwhile should call to mind one of the most venerable one-knob effects of all, the Dallas Rangemaster, albeit with a parallel silicon transistor configuration to emulate the original NOS OC44 germanium transistors found in the original ‘60s units that were so popular with Tony Iommi, Rory Gallagher and Brian May.
The “ma” setting offers a clean and transparent op-amp boost, perfect for you are happy with the sound but need a little extra juice for a solo and need to work that amp harder, while the “mf” setting is a MOSFET circuit for massive clean boost.
“This interpretation doesn’t crackle but still retains the massive clean boost with pristine highs sonic identity of the circuit it was modelled after,” says Crazy Tube Circuits. Maximum output gain for the MOSFET is a healthy +26dB, while the “ma” can apply a hefty +31dB.
These circuits are presented via one over-sized dial for output volume, under which there is a smaller four-way rotary dial to set the mode. There is a white modifier button to select between OG mode and FAT modes, and a black modifier button that affects the “ma” and “mf” modes, internally boosting the power supply to 18V DC to give you more headroom and fidelity.
In the FAT mode, the Rangemaster-style boost acquires a little extra girth in the lower mids, and the “ep” setting offers an enhanced full-frequency boost with a considerably increased output.
In OG mode, the “ep” setting offers up to 17dB of gain, +22dB in FAT mode. The “ep” setting has +11dB of boost on tap in OG mode, and a relatively whopping +23dB in FAT.
The Super Conductor is available now, priced €189. See Crazy Tube Circuits for more details.
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