VOX has announced two new additions to its Cooltron series of effects pedals — the Over The Top Boost and the Snake Charmer Compressor. The new stompboxes use a 12AU7 (ECC82) preamp tube to deliver the type of tone that was previously unattainable from a battery-powered unit. The Cooltron technology provides true tube sonic performance at a very low voltage and at a reduced heater current, allowing for battery-powered operation.
The Over The Top Boost incorporates the top boost channel of a VOX AC30 into a stompbox for use as a booster pedal to drive the input of an amp, or for overdrive from the pedal itself. The treble control offers a variety of tone shaping possibilities — from cutting attack to smooth and liquid — while the bass control can be used to add low-end girth or warm, round smoothness. A cut control can add or remove higher frequencies at the turn of a knob, and varying the overall gain of the pedal takes guitarists from bluesy and mellow to fat and saturated. The standard/custom switch is used to make the EQ very interactive in Standard mode (as found in a traditional AC30), or have it behave less interactively (as in the AC30 Hand Wired and AC30 Custom Classic) in custom mode.
The Snake Charmer Compressor’s tube compression circuitry provides smoothing tone control for evening out peaks and spikes, while maintaining overall gain consistency. A high/low switch lets guitarists choose between two overall levels of ratio. Gain reduction controls include attack and release. A Gain Reduction Indicator gives the user visual cues of the results of their settings. The Snake Charmer also features a high-end emphasis control for fine-tuning the amount of compression applied to the top end of the guitar signal. |
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