Welp, I did a double take when I saw that my last blog post was pushing a year ago. It’s time for a big-picture update and some info on new releases. This is a long one because there is a LOT to discuss.
With the manufacturing tweaks which came into effect at the start this year, the Longsword and Model feT are stable and in regular rotation with no changes planned. We still have some Longswords in stock and we will have a fresh batch of Model feTs in time for Black Friday. As long as you keep buying them we will keep making them, and for that we are grateful.
Now for new things. We have four more releases coming before the end of the year. Some of these have existed in one form or another for over two years now and it feels great to finally have them ready. I like being open about the development process - it’s one of the perks of being such a small company. But a potential downside is how long it can take to get something just right while also juggling a day job/wedding planning/etc. I constantly learn as I go and am always striving to improve, which sometimes means it takes me a few iterations to get something where I want it—especially when I am designing original circuits where no prior reference exists. At any rate, these are all worth the wait and I appreciate you being along for the ride.
Without further ado, here’s the new stuff:
Kerria Lacca (September 24)
This is our new collab with Electrofoods Pedals, featuring their Lil Pig (an absolutely destructive percolator variant) stacked into our Surveyor circuit for two channels of noise rock bliss. One might call it Dude Incredible 2: Electric Dudealoo (thanks to ultimate homie Brian from Smallsound/Bigsound for that). A demo video from our friend Ian (aka Collector/Emitter) is coming out in a couple weeks.
Surveyor (September 30)
The better half of the Dude Incredible, aka the IVP Tube Voice circuit, now distilled into a 4-knob drive. All the clang, grind, and blown out solid state saturation you can ask for - now in a more compact package with soft switching. If you want to recreate the vibe of the Dude Incredible you can feed the Surveyor with a Dirge Even Anguish, Land Devices HP-2, or Champion Leccy Divvy - all percolator variants that stay true to the original while offering some useful tweaks. And if you miss out on the Kerria Lacca, there’s always the Lil Pig! We have a demo from Noise Generator right around the corner.
Halberd (October 24)
The Halberd began as the preamp from Sending, but I must emphasize that it has evolved into something quite a bit different. The best way I can describe the flavor is if Neil Young played guitar for Drive Like Jehu. The Halberd is an obsessively tweaked transistor overdrive with a super clean 24V boost converter power supply for tons of dynamic range. My favorite part about it is the pre-gain bass control, which can allow for clangy or blown-out tones depending on your pickups and playing style. It truly was an exercise in manic over-engineering, but one that sounds just right. I can’t wait to get some demos out.
Hypersleep (Now coming Late January! (Formerly November 29))
An all-electronic analog reverb. What does this mean? The core of the Hypersleep is the rare MN3011 BBD. Compared to a traditional BBD with a single delayed output, the MN3011 has six delayed outputs that are staggered apart. This is a primitive way to emulate room reflections, and has a unique and haunting sound. A finely tuned exponential LFO turns the Hypersleep into a warped room sound or even a multi-tap chorus/vibrato.
The rest?
As for our other models which haven’t been in production in a bit (Dagger, Beholder, etc), we plan to restock most of them next year. And some of you have been wondering - what about Sending? I have said it elsewhere, but V2 is confirmed to be in the works. It will be some time before it crystalizes completely but I am excited about the overall direction of the updates. In a strange turn of events, all of my circuit tweaks that morphed the Sending preamp into the Halberd are not going to be practical (I literally doubled the number of transistors, and there’s NOS Germanium in there now) so the preamp is getting a facelift while still retaining that smooth and slightly fuzzy console-like character. Many other updates are planned and I will let you all know about them as they develop. For Sending V1 owners: we will be doing a firmware upgrade which is free for all original owners (and very inexpensive for everyone else) which will improve the tamp tempo performance and add an Easter Egg mode too. More on that in a couple months.
In closing -
I’m having a great time over here. If you have any questions, my email inbox is always open. Thanks everyone!
Cheers,
John