Electro-Harmonix LPB-1

One switch, one knob, one in and one out. If you can't understand this pedal, put it down and take up needlepoint.

I use this with an LTD EC-50 (with a bill lawrence xl in the bridge, and a 70's super distortion in the neck), Electro Harmonix Metal Muff, and a Marshall MG-100.
Guitar to LPB, to distortion, to amp.
Heavy-*** ****.
Adds a ton of gain, and seems to chunk up the bottom a lot.
Nice and ballsy.
Helps me with feedback, as well.
Only reason this gets a 5, is because it's REALLY noisy. It's also from the 70's, and was purchased for $0.25

There's not much to break, and only a few bucks worth of parts in it.
I'm adding it to my live setup.

EH have always been good on service, but there's nothing to service here.

One knob, one stomp switch. Easy peasy. This review is for the Nano version.

I use this to boost my OD pedals (I am using an MXR Distortion +, a DOD YJM308 and a Boss SD 1 Japan model).
This is not a totally clean boost, it adds some mids and gain at the same time, which is great for me, especially on the OD pedals that dont have a tone control.
I usually have my pedals set to minimum drive as a rhythm sound, and use the LPB-1 as a solo boost and to add more gain. It has more hair than Tom Selleck's mo!
One thing i dont like is using this in front of my amp (Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) as a boost between my guitar and amp (i.e. without any pedals on). This makes the amp sound farty, which is not my cup of tea..

Seems reliable. Hasnt failed on me yet.

Adds some gain, volume and some bite to my OD pedals. A simple pedal, but oh so useful. It always sits on my pedal board. I love it.

stomp it on. dial in your volume level. save for that sweet solo. 20 db ( if i remember right) of pure volume and the dial is nice and smooth and gradual.

I've played this thing through my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and now my current amp of Blue Jr. Vintage edition with the Jensen vintage speaker..also run this thing through a church PA system. Guitar used is a Epiphone Dot with the stock humbuckers. This thing is really sweet, especially through my tube amps, no coloration that i've noticed so far and i'm pretty particular and quiet as a mouse. With the amps i use it to push the tubes into distortion, sometimes sounds better than using my TS808 depending on the settings and definitely better than tinkering with the master volume and volume dials on my Blues Jr. For the church PA system the sound guys tend to make me quieter than they should :) so... set up all my other effects and play in the mix a bit and during a practice song i'll punch this guy on and set it to a level that i deem as decent and then turn it back off...save if to push on during service where they aren't paying enough attention to turn me down. Works like a charm everytime, there's no loud click or lurge in volume or change in anything, i'll just get a little louder between a few notes.

8 just because i'm not sure if it colors or drops tone at all, i haven't tested that to my satisfaction

Built like a flipping tank, this isn't on my board yet so it stays in my gig bag right now, no scratches or anything even though its just floating around in there. never failed for it to turn on or dial in my volume correctly.

never had to deal with em.

This pedal is great. no bells and whistles. but its doesnt need those things, i'd really reccomend this for fellow tube amp owners out there, sometimes you don't need a crazy distortion or overdrive, just turn your amp volume down a bit and use this guy to boost the signal and then you'll get that loverly tube overdrive

you dont know the word easy till youve gotten this pedal, this pedal is serious about doing its thing right away, just adjust the knob to the sound level you want.

great sound! this is my first -boost- pedal so i dont know how a bad one sounds or how a good one sounds but im very happy with this pedal in my rig. this pedal is great value to any pedal board, what it does is heighten the sound of your tone or maybe its heighten the tone of your sound. anyway goes well with any effect except maybe compressor...

only thing maybe that i can complain about is the fact that its size makes the on/off switch close to the boost control knob so maybe sometimes you accidently bump it.

i got the nano version going first into a barber tone press (which i may put last in chain) metal muff, guyatone td-x echo, holy grail, morely wah/volume, digitech whammy, verbzilla, boss dm3, mutron phasor, tremolo pulse, korg dt10.

fender telecaster and fender hotrod deville 212

i was looking at the mxr micro amp for a long time and thinking it was some sort of overdrive, so when i got this i was thinking a weak distortion box this will be is all. boy was i freaking wrong! its a tone boost more like... so anyway good price, good sound, good size, etc. 40 bucks 40 bucks

First of all: This is the Nano version, not the original little doodad that plugged directly into the amp. It still works the same way, one volume knob and an on-off switch.

Kicks MUCH booty into the front-end of an amp. Best used with non-master volume tube amplifiers. Any apparent noise will also be boosted, so, caveat emptor.

It looks much tougher than the old folded-metal units.

Never had to deal with them.

When I started playing (back in the late '60s), the LPB-1 was hands-down my all-time favorite box. I'm thrilled they're making them again, and they seem to work just as well as the originals. Tell you what . . . if you've ever seen the old black-and-white Band of Gypsies video, look real carefully at Jimi's Marshalls . . . they all have LPB-1s plugged into them. 'Nuff said.

Simple to use, 1 knob only.

I really like the umpf the LPB-1 adds to my set up. Right now I'm playing thru a Lone Star Strat, thru the effects loop with a Teese Wah,
Boss Graphic Eq, Boss Flanger, Boss Delay, the LPB-1, Marshall Reflector Reverb, and then Boss TU-2 tuner. The LPB-1 was to boost the Marshall pedal, which sucks volume when kicked in. I liked the LPB-1 so much, I leave it on all the time, so now I need another LPB to re-boost the Marshall when kicked on. I love the LPB-1. It's brought me 1 step closer to my tone quest fulfillment.

Don't know yet, it's a new product, but seems quite solid.

Never needed it yet, but their website is pretty limited.

I love it ! I'm gonna buy another, and if it was lost, I'd immediately replace it. At 39$, it's a great deal !

This review is referring to the "Nano" reissue of this pedal.

There's one knob and a footswitch. You turn the knob to set how much of a boost you want, this pedal is truly idiot proof.

I bought this pedal for one reason, and that was to use it as a boost for my USA Big Muff. I build my own tube amps, and I design them to be capable of all the distortion I need without a booster pedal. I do have a '65 Gibson Hawk that I tried this pedal with though and it did sound very good.

One thing you have to understand is that this is not a flat boost. It "fattens" up your sound a little bit. I keep the "sustain" knob on my Big Muff fairly low for rhythm and use this pedal in front of it when I need a little something extra for solos. It works very well for this. Another thing that's worth noting is that this pedal is indeed true bypass.

I play a solid maple 1980 Gibson 335-S which is typically tuned down to C standard these days, as well as a heavily modified strat copy. This pedal works well with both, and sounds pretty good with the low output pickups in my Strat. This pedal did not seem to add any noise to the sound. The previous reviewer's unit must have a ground issue.

It seems like a pretty robust pedal. I have not had it that long but I was impressed by the quality of the case, it seems sturdier than my Muff to be honest. I'd say it's probably going to last me a long time, and I would probably gig without a backup, although these are cheap enough that a backup might not hurt in any case.

Never had to deal with EHX.

I play everything from blues to classic rock to "stoner rock" (which is where the Muff comes in handy :) ) This is a boost pedal, it's suitable for whatever kind of music you think you need a boost pedal for.

I've been playing a year and a half, but I have always been a tone freak since a couple months into my playing. I'm typically not happy with anything out there, which is why I started building my own amps. If this pedal were stolen I'd eventually get another one, it's not like my tone depends solely on this pedal and most of the time I just go straight from the guitar into the amp, but this pedal is nice to have.

It's a good solid boost, it does change your tone, but from what I can tell it's in a good way. There's nothing really bad about this pedal, it's really simple and either you like what it does, or you don't. I do also really like that it's true bypass.

I did spend a little time shopping around, but this is one of the simplest pedals ever created and EHX is a pretty good brand in general so I'm sure I made the right call getting this pedal for what I was going to use it for. It has everything I want in a boost pedal - a knob and a switch.

Overall, it's cheap, it's simple, it's small, and if you're just looking for a boost pedal to drive an amp or pedal harder, or fatten up your sound, you really can't do much better than this, especially for the price.

Reissue Nano EH Linear Power Booster pedal. It does everything one would want in a power booster or microamp. The all-metal LPB-1 has one boost knob, one LED light, and one metal switch. That???s it.

I bought the LPB-1 to replace the Digitech Bad Monkey overdrive pedal I was using to boost my tube amp to extra distortion during leads. The good news is that the EH LPB-1 is much more tonally transparent than the BM. The bad news is that the LPB-1 is much noisier. Actually, the LPB-1 added noticeable hum to my sound ??? regardless of whether the unit was switched on or off. The weird thing is that the hum would go away whenever I touched the pedal. Thus, I assume that it???s some sort of ground issue. The unit hummed with both the included battery and a Visual Sound power adapter.

The LPB-1 also sounded a bit harsh on treble notes. I ended up re-selling the LPB-1 on eBay and kept the BM. Even though the BM is midrangy, it doesn???t add hum or harshness like the LPB-1.

I didn???t like the way the unit was constructed, which is surprising considering it???s a made in the USA. My LPB-1 didn???t sit flat on the floor. The unit is light enough to be moved easily when switched on. Speaking of the switch, it didn???t seem as solid as the metal switches on some of the other Chinese pedals I own.

The LPB-1 is a disappointment. I was considering buying the EH Nano Small Stone phaser. After this pedal, I decided to pass on the other EH Nano Series pedals. While the Chinese made BM is the same price as the LPB-1, it???s smoother sounding, less noisy, and more versatile.

This review is for the reissue line booster (NANO). One knob that increases the amount of gain - on/off switch. Super easy

I'm going to compare this to an MXR Micro-Amp and a ZVEX Super Hard On, as i'd guess you'd be reading this thinking of it as either a clean boost or an overdrive. (1) This pedal is definately NOT a clean boost. If you're looking for that, you will want a Micro-Amp. However, the microamp will not drive an amp like this pedal (or the Super Hard On) will. For a clean boost, look elsewhere. (2) This pedal is a straight up overdrive, very similar to the Super Hard On. When used before a loud quality tube amp either clean or overdriven, this pedal is great. Sounds virtually identical to a Super Hard On. Through a quiet tube amp or any solid state amp, this pedal add much more treble compared to the Super Hard On. It's not terrible, but it does sound more brittle than a Super Hard On. So, if that is worth the insane price difference to you, and you're obviously rich, go for the Super Hard On. But here is the SURPRISE, (3) if you use this to goose another distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedal (before that pedal in the chain), this pedal destroys both the Super Hard On and the Micro Amp. Absolutely no tone change whatsoever from your main pedal, the Line Booster just sends that thing into hyperdrive.

Super Reliable

No Clue

For the price, this is a GREAT pedal. It's not a clean boost, so i cant compare it to a clean boost. Compared to a ZVEX Super Hard On, it sounds identical through a cranked tube amp. Using it to goose another OD/DIST/Fuzz pedal it is AWESOME. Destroys the Super Hard On for that. No question, the Super Hard On sounds warmer on low volume tube amps and any solid state amp.....so my advice is decide what you'd want to use this pedal for and if the price difference is worth it for you.

This review is of the recently released Nano model of the LPB-1. Very easy to use. One knob controls boost level. There are no other controls. The LPB-1 is true-bypass and includes a handy AC input. There is a one page "manual" included in the box, but it doesn't say much.

Adds heft and grit to whatever you put into it. Excellent in front of your favorite overdrive or fuzz, almost as if you now have two "dirty" channels on your amp. I'm not going to go into my gear as you can use the LPB-1 with pretty much any setup. Not noisy, maybe a little hiss when you dime it, but nothing surprising or unreasonable. This essentially just boosts the signal coming out of your guitar. Sounds like it probably adds some mids along the way, too. You can set it to be subtle or substantial -- sounds great either way! I let the lead guitar player in my band borrow the LPB-1 and he offered to buy it from me less than 30 seconds later. Now we both have one.

I haven't had it long, but the LPB-1 is a *very* simple circuit housed in a sturdy box. I suppose the footswitch could fail at some point, but it feels pretty solid at the moment, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I am currently using it without a backup, although I have a handful of other overdrived, distortions and fuzzes, so I could get through if it went out on me.

Electro-Harmonix recently fixed a fried Nano Muff Fuzz for me, free of charge under warranty, even though I couldn't find the receipt. The email exchange was polite and helpful, repair and return time was quick and I was not charged for return shipping. A lot of other companies could learn a thing or two from E-H about keeping customers (I'm looking at you, SoundTech)!

I play punk-inspired rock music. This is a good match. I have been playing for about 13 years now. If it were stolen or lost, I'd probably get another one, especially at the reissue price! I've played a million (maybe less) distortion and overdrive pedals. The LPB-1 is just different enough to justify keeping around -- plus, it makes your other pedals (and your amp) a lot more versatile once you learn to set them anticipating the boost for "bigger" or "heavier" passages. If you've been looking at Micro-Amps or more expensive clean boosts, but you like a little extra grit, you may want to give this inexpensive little box a try.