# Mxr micro amp or E-H Lpb-1??



## FrankyFarGone (Dec 8, 2008)

Wich one of these pedal gives real bite....

I heard that the Linear power boost(LPB-1) may get mushy at high volume?
I olso know that the mxr micro is very popular.

Mabye someone has played them both and can tell me about it.

Thanks

Can you smellllll what the Rock is cooking! 9kkhhd


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## soldierscry (Jan 20, 2008)

I tried both , and both are great but I ended up going for the SCP by catalinbread. This pedal is amazing. I just use it and my 5e3 and its's heavenly.

check it out.

http://www.catalinbread.com/SuperChiliPicoso.html


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I honestly don't understand why there even needs to be more than one so-called "clean booster" out there on the market. If they are designed right (i.e., good high input impedance, no loss of bandwidth) , then the only thing different about them should be the overall amount of maximum gain they can provide, the residual noise they add, and the battery life. Other than that, one's as good as another. The Micro-amp is fine, the LPB-1 is fine, the SHO is fine, they're all fine.

In some instances, people may want to use a booster in a way that can make the "imperfections" of one model have added value. For example, if one wishes to use a booster to push an amp into overdrive, then it often pays to have less treble in the boosted signal than in the raw guitar signal, simply because asking an amp to produce harmonics of harmonics can get real ugly, especially if your speakers can reproduce those. That's why pedals like the Klon Centaur takes steps to shave off treble as the gain is increased. before I was familiar with the Klon, I whipped up a design that attempted to do the same thing: as gain goes up, treble is reined in.

At this point, the Micro-amp and LPB-1 are essentially identical devices with respect to usability, footprint, etc. The Micro-amp can probably be improved by replacing the stock TL061 op-amp with a TL071 or other (the 61 trades off added hiss for longer battery life), but that's about it. Both have more than sufficient headroom to take whatever guitar signal you throw at it comfortably.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I've got a vintage LPB-2 that sounds great, and the Nano LPB1 they're making now is an exact copy from what I understand (it should be, the circuit is dead simple), so I can only assume it's a gooder too.


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## FrankyFarGone (Dec 8, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I honestly don't understand why there even needs to be more than one so-called "clean booster" out there on the market. If they are designed right (i.e., good high input impedance, no loss of bandwidth) , then the only thing different about them should be the overall amount of maximum gain they can provide, the residual noise they add, and the battery life. Other than that, one's as good as another. The Micro-amp is fine, the LPB-1 is fine, the SHO is fine, they're all fine.
> 
> In some instances, people may want to use a booster in a way that can make the "imperfections" of one model have added value. For example, if one wishes to use a booster to push an amp into overdrive, then it often pays to have less treble in the boosted signal than in the raw guitar signal, simply because asking an amp to produce harmonics of harmonics can get real ugly, especially if your speakers can reproduce those. That's why pedals like the Klon Centaur takes steps to shave off treble as the gain is increased. before I was familiar with the Klon, I whipped up a design that attempted to do the same thing: as gain goes up, treble is reined in.
> 
> At this point, the Micro-amp and LPB-1 are essentially identical devices with respect to usability, footprint, etc. The Micro-amp can probably be improved by replacing the stock TL061 op-amp with a TL071 or other (the 61 trades off added hiss for longer battery life), but that's about it. Both have more than sufficient headroom to take whatever guitar signal you throw at it comfortably.


Thanks...i probally go with LPB-1,since i can have it for 40 buck.
I am welling to use this to give more edge..or bite to my so called solos...n not to get a earlier braking point on my Silvertones.


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## FrankyFarGone (Dec 8, 2008)

soldierscry said:


> I tried both , and both are great but I ended up going for the SCP by catalinbread. This pedal is amazing. I just use it and my 5e3 and its's heavenly.
> 
> check it out.
> 
> http://www.catalinbread.com/SuperChiliPicoso.html


Yeah! I heard good things about this pedal,a few pepole i know are using it...they all say the same thing about the picoso ''Mucho Caiente''!
But for me is a bit to expensive....I was looking for something under 100$
....I guess the Picoso is one hot pepper that i cant afford


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## ukee (Dec 18, 2008)

The micro amp works very well for the money, the Super Chili Picoso adds sparkle and chime, it's in another league. I've had both.


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## famouspogs (Jun 9, 2006)

I liked using the LPB with a blues junior. Just got a lot more of what the amp already was. Really nice.


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## keithb7 (Dec 28, 2006)

*LBP-1 Vs BYOC Confidence Booster*

I have an LPB-1 and recently just built the confidence booster from BYOC. The confidence booster is free with your first kit order. The LBP-1 is very good, and so is the BYOC booster. They are different sounding. I think the BYOC is a little warmer sounding than the LBP-1. The LBP-1 seems slightly harsher and can go over-the-top. When I say over-the-top I mean this because I normally use the boost in front of the nano muff OD from EHX. When used in combination like this, the LBP-1 can break up and drive the signal beyond OD and at times sound mushed right out. Not sure how to describe it. Almost blahhh. Just OTT I guess. The BYOC is very very nice in front of the nano muff when played with my USA stock strat into a 15W Traynor amp. Although both react very well to volume knob changes on the guitar, the BYOC is better here. Turning the volume knob with the BYOC is perfect and linear. With the LBP-1 turning the guitar knob down from 10 does clean the sound up, but there seems to be an abrupt drop at around 8 on the dial. Both are excellent but I think the BYOC is my preferred choice.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I'm looking at the schematic for an LPB-1 and a BYOC-CB, and basically, the BYOC circuit *is* an LPB-1 with an op-amp front end to provide better input impedance. So, where you are hearing the difference from, I don't know. I'm not saying you don't hear a difference. Rather, when you have circuits this simple, the normal 5% tolerance in resistors, 10-20% in capacitors, and batch to batch variation in transistors, can lead to variation across pedals. In other words, another LPB-1 and/or another BYOC-CB might sound different. It happens.


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## Buzz (May 15, 2008)

My old MXR micro amp is really great. It can even get some distortion into the mix. My old LB-1 is in parts, anyone want to put it back together?


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## FrankyFarGone (Dec 8, 2008)

Well i got my Nano LPB-1,couple days ago...i have pay for it 40$
It really not that bad..i use it in front of a big muff pi..n does really give bite..
But as is of using it to turn on amp into earli OD...well i just dont use this way
so i wont be able to tell


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Just got a note from RG Keen this morning, and he mentioned a couple of new pedals to me that Visual Sound was unveiling at the recent NAMM. One of them is called the Truetone, and is a real clean booster. It uses an onboard voltage multiplier so that you can feed it a 9V supply, but it behaves as if the supply voltage is much higher. This gives it substantially greater clean headroom. RG noted that he detected some amps "trembling in fear". And true to suggestions I've made here and elsewhere, the unit comes with a treble cut control, so that when you DO apply boost that results in extracting dirt from the amp, you can pre-shape that dirt by trimming the top end off the boosted signal.

No idea on release date, but worth checking out.


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## FrankyFarGone (Dec 8, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Just got a note from RG Keen this morning, and he mentioned a couple of new pedals to me that Visual Sound was unveiling at the recent NAMM. One of them is called the Truetone, and is a real clean booster. It uses an onboard voltage multiplier so that you can feed it a 9V supply, but it behaves as if the supply voltage is much higher. This gives it substantially greater clean headroom. RG noted that he detected some amps "trembling in fear". And true to suggestions I've made here and elsewhere, the unit comes with a treble cut control, so that when you DO apply boost that results in extracting dirt from the amp, you can pre-shape that dirt by trimming the top end off the boosted signal.
> 
> No idea on release date, but worth checking out.


Yeah a Hi-cut knob..i tried one lately n diffinitely lookin for this on my new Boost/Distortion device


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> Just got a note from RG Keen this morning, and he mentioned a couple of new pedals to me that Visual Sound was unveiling at the recent NAMM. One of them is called the Truetone, and is a real clean booster. It uses an onboard voltage multiplier so that you can feed it a 9V supply, but it behaves as if the supply voltage is much higher. This gives it substantially greater clean headroom. RG noted that he detected some amps "trembling in fear". And true to suggestions I've made here and elsewhere, the unit comes with a treble cut control, so that when you DO apply boost that results in extracting dirt from the amp, you can pre-shape that dirt by trimming the top end off the boosted signal.
> 
> No idea on release date, but worth checking out.


That sounds like an pretty decent pedal, I'll definitely check it out. The only thing is I _can't stand_ the Visual Sound pedal shapes. They just irk me, but not for any sensible reason.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Yeah. Even though RG and I have been best buds since 1991, and the VS pedals are largely his doing, I'm not that "keen" on the visual aesthetics of them myself. I don't like the look of the original "home plate"-shaped double units look, and I don't like the look of the newer series. On the other hand, for as long as I've known him, RG has always been about practicality, rather than appearance. So, the "tombstone" at the back end of the newer pedals allows them to stick a bunch of stuff where it needs to be, as well as protect knob settings from the wrath of feet. If you check out the Workhorse series of amps that he designed for VS, you'll see this odd-looking dispersion device in front of the speaker that looks like a hub cap. Ugly as sin IMHO, but it does what it does quite well, apparently.

The other side of the chassis coin is that, when you use a custom-shaped chassis that would be difficult to replicate without considerable investment, the risks of counterfeit knockoffs is decreased. Consider the chassis for the Klon Centaur, Roger Mayer's pedals, or even the humble Danelectro. People may try to emulate the insides, but they cannot pass off a copy as an original in the absence of a comparable chassis. About a decade back, Zachary Vex (Z-Vex) had fewer products on the market, and the Super Hard-On was one of his principle products (along with the Fuzz Factory). Because it was packaged in a Hammond 1590B box with hand-painted graphics, and because it wasn't widely distributed or shown from all angles in full page glossy ads (so people couldn't really detect that the graphics weren't spot on), it was dead easy to produce counterfeit copies of, and sure enough, Zach found them circulating in Japan. While he hasn't switched from the chassis type, he has opted for lower-cost and more identifying chassis decoration. I can't think of a single practical advantage to Roger Mayer's "spaceship" boxes, but I'll bet you HE doesn't get cheap Japanese or Taiwanese knockoffs circulating.


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## billygoat (Jun 26, 2008)

Do yourself a favour. Forget about those two pedals and get a bargeconcepts (www.bargeconcepts.com) db-3.

2 separate boosts in one pedal that can be combined for three levels of clean boost. Excellent quality parts, amazing build quality. 

I have no affiliation with the company, just that one of their boosters has been the only thing in my rig that hasn't changed in the last 3-4 years


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