Meet the updated Airblaster—bass overdrive.
A few words about the new product. The new Airblaster is essentially unchanged from the first version, with the exception of a new housing, an improved power supply circuit, and higher-quality components inside, which have reduced the noise floor. The sound remains the same. You can watch a short review in this video: /p/CVvRo34jJ_f/
Sometimes the enclosures are ready faster than everything else.
For the Airblaster, the housings are already here, but the PCBs will take some time — the pedals won’t be ready for at least a couple of months.
The bass preamp is taking the longest, but it’s finally getting close to the finish line. I’m waiting for the enclosure of the final prototype, and after that I plan to start the first production run and record a short demo along the way.
Finally, I’ve assembled the prototype in its full form! The previous version was just a mess of separate boards, a ton of wires, and a lot of “duct tape.” Now everything is integrated into a single unit, and I’ve done some fine-tuning: balanced signal levels across different modes and slightly adjusted the frequency response where needed. I’m leaning toward releasing the preamp in this configuration.
However, I have an idea to improve the internal routing. I want to make it so that if there’s no jack plugged into the AUX input, the signal after the overdrive/saturation stage can mix with the clean signal via the MIX control and then go to the equalizer. But if a jack is plugged into the AUX input, the signal would pass through the entire processing chain (overdrive/saturation → equalizer) and only then mix with the AUX input via the MIX knob. At first glance, this seems simple, but the implementation will take time and careful planning.
I’ll try to record a video soon to show how the prototype works in action.
Meet the new Squeezer!
This is a reissue of the compressor of the same name, which was produced from 2020 to 2022. And it was this pedal, which turned out to be very successful, that kick-started the development of JEK. In 2022, production of the pedal ceased due to changed supply chains as well as a backlog of ideas for improving the pedal. Then it was replaced by a second version of the compressor, a kind of Squeezer on maximal. Besides the added options - such as external sidechain support, THRU output, manual attack and release settings - there was a complete internal revision. The sound became cleaner, the little things became more thoughtful. For example, protection against using unsuitable power supplies was added, and compression indication became more informative due to smooth transition between colors.
But the good old first Squeezer never thought of leaving for good. Now it is back - updated and improved. Schematically it is very close to the first version, but it has been improved in small details taking into account the experience gained in recent years.
