#lpb-1

For my lover/partner in crime, the marvelous, the astounding, the incredible If Lefric, I did this EHX LPB-1 clone for her bass. VHS enclosure of course and some lost components of previous projects. In order to make my clone, I read all the explanation of Coda Effect. A very great site, many informations, tutorials and more.

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Pour mon amoureuse, l’incroyable, la sublime, la marvelous If Lefric, j’ai bricolé ce clone de LPB-1 Electro-Harmonix pour les moments où elle joue de la basse. Boitier de VHS évidemment, et récup de pièces diverses à droite à gauche... Pour faire mon clone, je suis parti de tout ce que le blogueur de Coda Effect explique ici. C’est quand même un super site, plein d’infos, d’explications, de tutoriels. Parfait pour un débutant comme moi.

I have had to put my amp and cabinet building somewhat on hold while completing a few other projects around the house (learning the woodworking was becoming too time consuming for the time being), but I am going to try to squeeze a small electronics project in between things in the meantime. I've wanted to add a simple clean boost effect to my guitar setup for a while now, and the Electro-Harmonix Nano LPB-1 fits the bill nicely (for the curious, LPB stands for "Linear Power Booster"). While the $40 it would cost to buy one isn't unreasonable, I'd prefer the satisfaction of building one myself and the circuit is incredibly simple. Here's the diagram I'm working from.

As you can see the circuit doesn't require many parts to function, consisting of just five resistors, two capacitors, a transistor, and a pententiometer, but the diagram doesn't include any niceties like a footswitch so I'll be modifying the design to include some extra functionality. I want to make it so that it can run off of either a DC power adapter or a 9V battery, cut the power if nothing is plugged into the input jack, and make it footswitchable with an on/off LED indicator. Some online research online got me the following diagram that should take care of all of those things.

Old Forest are a trio of guys who are into drop D riffs and cartoons. Sasquatch Nation caught up with guitarist Tom right here on the internet and sorted out all his grammar so that people can read his answers. (Good luck with exams, punk.)

Sasquatch Nation: What's your live setup at the moment? Tom from Old Forest: I have a Boss DS1, a Big Muff, a Hotcake, Vox wah, Digitech effects processor for my flanger and stuff, and an LPB-1 boost SN: How's it working out for you? Anything you'd like to change?

TfOF: I wanna get a Proco Rat distortion pedal, i like the DS1 but i always wanna change stuff around and get new sounds otherwise it can get pretty boring. SN: I noticed you have a Hot Cake - I've never played one but people rave about them, but I don't usually associate them with the kind of heavy sludge rock stuff that Old Forest do. How have you been using it and what are your thoughts? TfOF:I got one because our friends Fanzine use one and i thought it sounded great. I know J Mascis and Thurston Moore use them too. They are really great. I stack it with the big muff and it just makes it really full and fat sounding adds a bit more beef

SN: I like that you have a wah, there's not enough of that around IMO - do you listen to Dead Meadow?

TfOF: I havent heard Dead Meadow before, but I Wikipedia searched Jason Simon and he is the nephew of the guy that created The Wire [No shit Sherlock - Sasquatch]. I can't remember why i got the wah, it was a christmas present. I borrowed a friend's crybaby before but I think the vox is better, it has a greater sweep. SN: Is it a challenge to get the heavy sounds you want, or does it come quite naturally?

TfOF: Not really, I play in drop D so it kind of just makes it alot heavier. I like playing in different tunings, I once even made my own tuning when i was drunk and wrote the best song since glycerine by Bush. SN: What's your favourite piece of gear, or something you can't live without?

TfOF: Probably the big muff, thats just one that I leave on all the time. without that it probably would sound pretty weak. SN: Are you a gear nerd?

TfOF: A bit, I go through phases where I will just watch pedal videos on youtube for hours or read about them on the internet, it annoys my girlfriend a lot [Sasquatch is married - Sasquatch knows]. I never had any money to buy them but I got a job and started buying new stuff. It's quite a weird addictive thing. I wanna try to make some of my own as well, I think that would be pretty cool having your own pedal that you have made, forged with hammer and fire. SN: What was your most recent acquisition? why did you get it?

TfOF: The Hotcake i think, just because alot of people I like used them and i heard they are awesome.

The Crowther Hot Cake - way cooler than a Tubescreamer.

SN: What are you on the lookout for at the moment?

A lot of people rave about the vintage LPB-1, but is this an accurate reissue? When I first plugged this in, the amount of high-end loss was almost unbearable, forcing it to stay off my board for good. Knowing that this pedal is just a simple boost with a low parts count, I knew there had to be some kind of mod out there to fix this problem. Here's a mod that makes this pedal actually true-bypass, and that keeps your signal nice and crisp without any high-end loss:

http://www.muzique.com/news/modding-the-eh-lpb-1-nano/

You can also change the LED to whichever color you prefer. You know, to make it more "personal" and to get rid of that boring red LED.

This mod wasn't really for the "beginner." There were a lot of tight spots to get into and the components were soldered to both sides of the PCB. Also, the conductor ribbon can easily be frayed, causing you to re-strip the entire thing and re-solder it, so be very careful!

Gut shot: 

http://distilleryimage10.s3.amazonaws.com/efd9c1ba479911e19896123138142014_7.jpg

Finished product: