The new Electric Lamb pedal is a spin-off the award-winning Electric Sheep overdrive. It can be qualified as an ‘edge overdrive’ which means that the pedal can be set on an ‘edge’ position where dynamics of your guitar playing will determine the amount of overdrive.

On this setting, playing lightly will keep a chosen clean tone and hitting the strings with more force will allow the natural tube-like overdrive to be expressed.

On stage, this setting is really useful as, once the pedal is set on your required ‘edge’ position, you do not need to come back on the controls, letting you select the type of tone you need only with your fingers and playing dynamics.

2-Full adaptivity

Thanks to its complete controls, the Electric Lamb will suit any guitar, amp or guitar-amp combo or pick-up combination. Its FAT control is particulary useful to beef-up a trebly pick-up or at the opposite, thin a low-end humbucker. Therefore, the ‘edge’ function will always be available for any kind of electric guitar.

3-Going farther

At both side of the gain spectrum, the Electric Lamb can be used as a fully effective clean boost, still with fatness at hand, or as a high-gain overdrive thanks to its PRE control which add more gain just as a preamp control on a tube amp.

All these settings can be achieved with natural premium tonal qualities that can compete with any high-end boost or overdrive pedal thanks to the original circuit derived from the Electric Sheep.

4-Not a clone

Unlike most of today pedals on the market, the Electric Lamb circuit is not a clone of ANY existing pedal and as been developed after years of listening and experimenting on overdrive pedal circuitry.

Even our Silent true-bypass switching is a proprietary design of Jacques pedals.

The post Electric Lamb appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

Designed to combine in the best way modulation and distortion, the BÊTE NOIRE © recreates plexi tube amp natural distortion with a complete array of controls, and features an inboard vintage analog Phasing effect ideally mixable or used separately.

A newly engineered circuit tailors The BÊTE NOIRE © amp-like distortion, giving phasing modulation perfect room size to breathe.

– European quality construction
– New plexi distortion circuit
– « Brown » switch mode
– « Variac » gain control
– Built-in analog phasing
– Effects can be used separately or mixed to perfection
– New « Chomp » bass attack control
– Acclaimed Silent True Bypass switch
– 9v standard operation

Plexi distortion, Variac gain and Brown tone

Arguably, the best distortion tone ever achieved for an electric guitar is a cranked-up plexi Marshall amp. The magic that occurs when all UK Mullard EL34 tubes and Partridge transformers go into distortion realm is hard to replicate, even for Marshall themselves.

Being a vintage amp collector, I have carefully listen to these marvelous amps, from original JTM45 to its majesty plexi JMP 100w for all details and responses to guitar playing, leading me to the BETE NOIRE circuit which, to my point of earing, nails this tone and most importantly, mimes the response to your playing an original plexi will have.

I have also carefully read and try what famous owners of these amps have done, and retained the best three features:

1-VARIAC : this control not only rise the gain but at the same time provides the current sag preventing the distortion high spikes for a smoother tone

2-BROWN : Still , most high gain tones need more EQ smoothing to reproduce the famous organic feel of a raging yet controled vintage plexi amp. The BROWN switch was painstakingly taylored to obtain the whole subtleties of this legendary sound.

3-CHOMP : Part of this legendary tone is of course the original 1960 cabinet with greenback Celestion speakers. Therefore the bass managing was a constant research for this pedal, leading us to this built-from-scratch tone control which allows a perfect tuning of the low band frequencies.

Lush analog phasing

There again , my nasty collector’s habits served my purpose. As one of my fave effects since the ’70s, I have collected and played every single vintage phase effects of the classic era. But not all these mesmerizing units would complement well a plexi distortion. The best marriage advice was a battered script logo MXR phase 90 so we built our phasing circuit around this tone, beautiful when used alone and perfectly matching our plexi distortion.

Silent True Bypass

Of course the BETE NOIRE features our acclaimed silent true bypass switching system based of Hall effect , in order to get the best of both stombox systems.

Appendix

The Beast of Gévaudan
Terrorizing Kingdom of France in the 18th century

In 1765, King Louis XV sent two professional wolf-hunters, Jean Charles Marc Antoine Vaumesle d’Enneval and his son Jean-François as well as First captain Duhamel of the Clermont-Ferrand Dragoons and his troops in Le Gévaudan to catch or kill a calf-size beast with monster teeth and tail that alledgedly committed 210 attacks on human beings, killing 113 and injuring 98, most of them with their throats torn out.
On September 20th, 1765, Antoine eventually killed a large wolf identified as the culprit by attack survivors who recognised the scars on its body. The animal was stuffed and sent to Versailles but it did not stop the attacks.
In 1767, a local huntsman, Jean Chastel, shot another beast with a large caliber bullet and chevrotines combination, self-made with silver and eventually marked the end of the attacks.
Of this scary beast story we kept the expression « Bête Noire » and even exported it.

The post Bête Noire appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

1 – THE NO-COMPRESSOR-MAN’S COMPRESSOR
Should I use a compressor ? How many times this question comes around, after reading that Mr.Famous uses one.
For those afraid of ‘pumping ‘ drawbacks, the FAT BURNER has been developed from its famous ancestors, and therefore offers the best natural feeling ever with this kind effect. But natural does not mean wimpy in my book:
the FAT BURNER is capable of very high compression ratio to obtain heavenly sustained tones.

.

2 – FROM STADIUMS TO TV COUCH REHEARSALS
The professional use of the FAT BURNER will soon becomes essential for you. Dare take it off your pedalboard.
So I found a reason for it : the FAT BURNER can be used as a headphone practice amp . Simply plug your fave headphone into the PHONE outlet, and enjoy its rich natural tone with or without compression .
In case of headphone use, the FAT BURNER is switched on by plugging your guitar in.Use the footswitch to turn in/off the compression/sustain and the PHONE volume to adjust to your ears.
While always present on rack units, headphone outputs on analog pedals are quite rare.
That is why I thought it was a good idea. But I had something else in mind …

3 – HEADROOM (don’t do that !!!)
OK, Don’t plug your amp to the PHONE out. Don’t do that !
Now that you did –I knew you will– you are inflicting your fave amp a 10 times boost right in its front.
But thanks to the compressor part of the FAT BURNER, the point of overdrive is pushed forward.
In other words, your amp has NEVER been so LOUD .
Take a ’52 TV front Fender deluxe like mine and a ’65 black face Fender deluxe. Basically you’ve got the same power amp section –if you except the negative feedback loop–. All the rest is preamp differences.
As the ’65 has TONS more of headroom –clean volume before entering overdrive– I have always considered possible to give an amp more headroom from the OUTSIDE… and only a combination of powerful boost AND compression could give this result.
We worked hard on this, and now there is evidence: with the FAT BURNER , you amp sounds like 50% more watts.
— while your amp can take this safely, watch your speakers!
And of course , when overdrive becomes unavoidable, the FAT BURNER booster does it in style, a la JACQUES, thanks to its special harmonic clippers.

4 – AMP SPLITTER
If you own more than one amp, there is another reason why you should purchase the BURNER: thanks to its separated AMP/PHONE circuits and outputs , the BURNER makes the PERFECT signal splitter with OR without compression .
– No leakage between the 2 signals means no ground hum
– Amps balance always at your finger, thanks the PHONE volume control
– No signal loss , even for the AMP output thanks to its 100% transparent beefy buffer
So why pay top dollars for sophisticated signal splitters when you can have the same quality PLUS unlimited gain AND marvelous compression ?
Arguably the secret of the stars, you now can enjoy multiple amps rigs like in those examples :
SUSTAIN FOR DAYS + BIG BODY
with heavy compression : PHONE out to a nice clean amp and AMP out to a raging overdriven monster
CLIFFS OF DOVER
without compression : PHONE out to a maxed blackface and AMP out to a maxed plexi
PRISTINE SURF MONSTER
with low compression : PHONE out to a VOX Supreme or any BIG tranny amp and AMP out to a silverface twin
etc…

5 – VIDEO DEMO

The post Fatburner appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

-Best possible circuit geometry

-Selected High-Quality components only

The Gleen Gould movie: Glenn Gould and a man, certainly a musicologue, are in a black and white studio. Glenn Gould is at the piano, and starts playing with incredible maestria. The other man, striked by such artistic technique, just says: -« Meistersinger ? »
Glenn Gould turns his head toward the man, and seems to notice his presence for the first time. While going on playing in an inexorable beauty, he just answers:
-« What else? »

The MEISTERSINGER is an hommage to the best analog chorus made in the past .
First the TC electronic chorus/flanger , from which the Meister took its inspiration for super-silent operation AND great, pure and professionnal chorusing, while offering a wider frequency range signal than its scandinavian ancester. Then Boss/Roland of course, which sort of invented it, granted us with such wonderful effect as, CE1, CE2, Dimension D, Dimension C and my favorite ever, included in this obscure SH09 string keyboard I already covered on my site. CORON too, with its incredibly cheap looking plastic wonder and last but not least the great EH Small Clone.

Troy Van Leeuwen and his Meistersinger

But the MEISTERSINGER is not a model: it is a true ANALOG delay chips chorus , like they were. It is no imitation, but the real thing. You can count on the fingers of Django Reinhardt the other real analog chorus on the market today.
The reasons why analog chorus , or any analog time based effect, sounds better than digital are numerous, But the main one to me is that the detuned tone produced to be mixed with the original, is not exactly the same than the original .
Just like would be another guitarist playing along with you :

French guitarist Jean-Louis Aubert pedalboard during Les Insus tour

1 – THE INVISIBLE COMPANION
Chorus was invented to make believe you are not alone. It mimes two musician playing the same thing at the same time, thus enriching tone like in a choir. Most digital chorus tends, in this process, to kill punch and dynamics, an even more obvious defect with electric guitar. The model processors are plagued with this same problem, because of the same difficulty for digital encoding to transmit the dynamics of your playing in real time.

 2 – THE DROP ZONE
It is quite strange nobody ever evokes this simple strategy. When you manipulate hand-tweakable chorus effects ( like the old MXR rack or ADA pitchtraq) you notice a very obvious matter: c horus effect sounds twice better with a negative detune than a positive one. The reason could be a deeper body of the resulting mix or a more complicated comb hamronics effect. Anyway this option was chosen for the MEISTERSINGER, which fears no one for the best chorus tone ever. No kidding.

GNO‘s Chris Godin : « The Meister is so good I can eat it. »3 – VIDEO DEMO

The post Meistersinger appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

Introduction
There is a big difference between classical and rock music. I once asked a pro classical pianist friend of mine, Helene, to play the 19th Goldberg variatio for me. She never played it before, and could not remember it. So, she just grabbed the score, put in on her piano, and within 3 minutes, she could play it in a wonderful way for my greatest pleasure.
What if I have asked for « Foxy Lady » ?.
When it comes to modern music, no matter how good you are at reading scores,
you’ll go nowhere without a complete knowledge in tone.
You can play Bach on any instrument but in case of rock music, tone is part of the music itself.

The MERCER BOX 2 contains all my knowledge in distortion tone and will transmit it via its outstanding controls.
Featuring the widest distortion tonal range ever achieved, from CLEAN to the HIGHEST GAIN, and performing the BEST CLEAN-UP of all time, the MB2 will change your perception of guitar tone forever.

1 – The tone of distortion
I handcraft distortions, and have been doing this very peculiar electronic experimentation since 1973.
When I came to mass production, my idea was to benefit from the comfort of high-tech manufacturing while keeping the handcraft tone.
In the case of the Mercer Box 2, never before has a stompbox benefited from the best of both worlds.
Using discrete components for tone and hightech components for non-tone, we merged my best handmade designs into a coherent electronic device.
Its tone is based on my best handmade Mercer Box which emulates the heavenly union between perfect fuzz pedals and raging plexi 100watters.
The resulting complex interaction, known as the best guitar tones ever heard by human ears is now available in a modern compact stompbox.
If you think this is exaggerated, you should have seen the look in Steve Morse’s eyes when he played it… and Steve even asked me to autograph the MercerBox2 #1 for him.

2 – Controls
You could expect an unusual concept like the Mercer Box to act differently.
Of course, every Mercer Box potentiometer has its own tropism, a goal where it aims.
HATE introduces an immense low rage, while lack of LOVE takes off the harmonics and gain.
BLOOD brings intense life and FUZZ brings in distortion with no limits.

LOVE & FUZZ , The two gain controls of the Mercer Box work as pushing on the brakes and the gas at the same time : that ‘heel toe’ method transfers the distortion weight for different tones.

But none of these parameters act alone : they all depend one from the others.

« I am not a number..I’m a free man ! »

4 – The Mercer Clean Tone
The Mercer Box is one of the rare high-gain distortion pedal to offer a clean tone, not to say the only one.
Directly inherited from my handmade Mercer, it is a stronger, warmer, yet clear tone,
when compared to by-passed tone.
Very reminiscent of the best tube amps and so addictive, you could let the Mercer on all the time.
Or buy a second Mercer Box for distortion.

The eyes of vision : PHILIP K.DICK (1928-1982)

• *It is worth noting that the Mercer Box first appeared in Philip K.Dick 1964 short story ‘The little black box’.

The post Mercer Box appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

INTRODUCTION
You have been looking for that famous vintage overdrive for years, and when you find it, its price is out of this world. So you go for the reissue just to find, well, it sounds like a reissue.
So what’s the solution, while you know most pro guitarists will only rely on its flattering tone to enhance their guitar riffs ?
Here is the OVERTUBE, a perfect recreation of this overdrive, with, of course a JACQUES bonus : the cascade.

1 – The world most famous overdrive
There will always be a wish to obtain the original specs, in order to recreate the exact tone of our fave records and riffs.
I can understand this because I often feel this way (don’t forget I own 4 originals !).
So, like a sci-fi movie, I have been working on a clone for more than a year now and there it is : the SAME tone with exactly the same controls and control action than on a original vintage TS !!!

2 – Cascade !
Let’s face it : Like SRV himself, you need TWO !!!
But no sweat : you will not have to buy 2 OVERTUBE. I have included a cliver circuitry that is completely equivalent to two OVERTUBE linked in serial, exactly as on the SRV set up.
Just turn the CASC. switch on and get that compressed high-gain overdrive that will transform you solo in melting iron magic.

3 – Video demos

The post Overtube appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.

Chapter 1 : Classic Wah
Thanks to its dedicated dome controller , the TRINITY can be used as a wah-wah pedal.
As unusual as it may seems —-the JACQUES TRINITY controller is made in a former military hardware factory—– anyone who have tried it feels immediately at ease with its utterly precise control over one of the most uncanny wah tone of all time.
Try one and you will ask yourself why in this world bulky rocker pedals have been the classic choice for wah.
The unique TRINITY wah tone is more vowel-like, more human than any other wah pedal,
and makes heads turn whenever you start playing it.
You can of course adjust the Q factor with the MANUAL knob to come back to classic wah tone, making the TRINITY an incredible wah pedal if only it was its sole function, but ……

Chapter 2 : Stuck Wah
Due to its nature itself, there is nothing easier to get a stuck wah tone on the trinity. Furthermore, control on these favored guitar tone has never been so wide, from throaty ‘Money for nothing’ to squealing hard rock tones.
You need it . So why bother unstable drifting rocker pedal or expensive rack : the TRINITY will give you this famous tone stock without spending another dollar. And yes : Stock stuck wah.

Chapter 3 : Filter Wah

One of the most coveted effect of guitardom is the envelope filter.
The TRINITY offers an incredible rendition of this beloved tone, with a more complete range of controls than the competition…
The best thing about the TRINITY filter is that it’s still a really dramatic effect while being usable in any setting. I wanted the whole to be pro-proof, and that you could get GREAT filter tone on the first second with the pedal.
Simply adjust the sensitivity control to your guitar and playing tech and you’ll get your first brush with royal sibling enveloppe filter from France !

Chapter 4 : Auto Wah
The TRINTY gets an inboard full functions autowah, with rate and depth controls.
More than automatic wah, this effect is sent up to the boundaries with flanger and phasing , thanks to its incredible depth and musicality. Furthermore, the controler is still useful here, as it now slowly bypass this dramatic effects. You should try this.

Chapter 5 : In Betweens
As a pure analog device, the TRINITY can anywhere between two settings, allowing literally hundreds of possible tones. I think this demo from my GREAT demoer Jean-Christophe PANZA will give already an idea of this panorama.

Avi Bortnick rhythm guitarist of John Scofield and his beloved trinity.Chapter 6 : Video demo

The post Trinity appeared first on Jacques Stompboxes.