Although this pedal is advertised for its Supro style tone, it does much more to my ears. I often use it as a clean boost; it can make any amp come to life! But it also works great as an overdrive pedal unto itself which can emulate the sounds of a smaller amp breaking up much the way Zep did back in the day... and the bolt down the middle of the pedal looks way retro cool.
High quality build, cool retro look
Great tones, from a transparent clean boost to over the top distorted tones. Easy to dial in a sound
Bright LED
True bypass
Requires 9v power supply (no battery option available)
9V DC
1.6" H x 2.2" W x 4.8" L
JHS Superbolt V2
MSRP £195 (UK) $199 (US)
Jimmy Page in a box? Yes, please! Danny Gill reviews the JHS Superbolt version 2.
I first became aware of the JHS SuperBolt V2 pedal when I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going to be performing some Led Zeppelin songs. He immediately said ‘SuperBolt’; I tried it and I was hooked! Based on the original Supro Thunderbolt amplifier, the JHS SuperBolt V2 may be the closest thing to Jimmy Page in a box there is. This handbuilt, touch-sensitive overdrive/boost offers Supro like tones in a pedal and a whole lot more; from a clean transparent boost to sagging, over the top exploding small amp tones.
The controls are simply laid out: the drive works like the original amps volume knob; the higher you crank it, the more breakup you get. The volume knob functions as a master level controller and I was quite impressed at how much boost I could get out of the pedal; unity with the amp was around 3, while anything above halfway was almost too loud! The pedal really shines as a clean boost when turning the volume up, lowering the drive and adjusting the brightness of the tone knob to taste. You can hear for yourself in the video. I used a 30 watt valve amp set on the clean channel, plugged in a Tele with a humbucker and a single coil pickup, set the pedal for a clean boost and found the tone to be very inspiring. Chords were clear and crisp without being harsh; the pedal gave me the bite and string separation I like. Depending on how hard you pushed the drive you could get chiming Tom Petty style chord tones to singing Whole Lotta Love style leads.
There’s also a high/low mini-switch which will add an extra level of gain if you’re looking for some extreme ‘small amp exploding’ kinds of sounds. The mini-switch will turn the pedals large LED from blue to red and can be activated by hand. Or you can purchase a Red Remote which can be plugged in next to the input jack and activated by foot like a separate stomp box.
Although this pedal is advertised for its Supro style tone, it does much more to my ears. I often use it as a clean boost; it can make any amp come to life! But it also works great as an overdrive pedal unto itself which can emulate the sounds of a smaller amp breaking up much the way Zep did back in the day... and the bolt down the middle of the pedal looks way retro cool.
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