Electro Harmonix Vintage LPB-1 Demo

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A very early version of the first pedal ever made by EHX - the Linear Power Booster. This little fella later became the EHX Screaming Trees/Screaming Bird treble booster with only a few minor changes made. Unlike that pedal though, the LPB-1 is a full-frequency boost - and one which EHX still make a version of today.

One interesting feature of this pedal is the ability to reduce the volume to zero - you could therefore use it as an 'underdrive' just as much as a boost. Running it in front of a cranked amplifier, the pedal could be kicked in to reduce the gain/volume for cleaner tones.

By itself, this pedal doesn't really have a 'sound' - it just cleanly boosts whatever signal is given to it. The resulting sound coming out of the speaker is very dependant on which amplifier you're using, what tubes are in it, how the amplifier breaks up, how much headroom you have available, etc etc. It's 'sound' purely comes from overdriving the preamp section of your amplifier.

Guitar is a Fender Tele with a Bare Knuckle Nantucket P90, through a Hughes & Kettner Puretone, recorded with a simple SM57.

[BSPtC]

Had one of these and not sure why but just remembered how much I liked it while watching another video.

[vmat]

Wow, i'd never seen one from this era. The ''amp' plug version one i bought late '73 was fairly plain. I miss it.

[Hallkardia]

Very nice video, just what I wanted to know and hear - thank you!

[tommyreed]

Got my dads put 9 volt and surprisely it worked and got a 67 traynor bass amp that’s looks and plays good

[MegaAX]

I used to have one of these I changed the transistor to a 2N 5088 or 5089 one was PNP the other npn not sure which one but it made a phenomenal difference. Super high gain transistor used in very high quality audio equipment it worked wonders. It was a "National Semiconductor" transistor. 🤯🤯🤯🇺🇸

[Hugh_Manitee]

Ran mine into a JMP 50 watt lead head w 4X12 cab. Very nice. I still have the LBP-1 Marshall was sold in the 1990s.
"YOU BIG DUMMY" Fred Sanford

[promospray]

screw is dancing down in the left corner

[mrkite]

Great demo, sounds glorious! It would be interesting to know your amp settings...I'm breadboarding a LPB-1 circuit right now, and I'm getting good results, but if\when you can, would you do me a favor? Would you check the voltages in your unit for me, please? If you don't know how to do it, it's very easy, you would need just a voltage meter...Let me know, thank you very much!

[aiden_macleod]

I was fortunate to own almost all of the original EHX pedals, but unfortunate enough to have them all stolen from me. At least I was able to use them once or twice before.

[stephanbriansoares]

This pedal sounds like a treble booster