JHS Superbolt V2 - Valco Supro Amp Tones

The JHS SuperBolt overdrive pedal, at its heart, is a discreet circuit designed to emulate the tone and character of the 1960’s-era Supro® amps. From its touch-sensitivity to the way the pedal sags with tube rectifier color at higher gain settings, the SuperBolt will give any guitar rig a versatile and useful new set of tones, reminiscent of some of the greatest sounds ever recorded. With three simple knob controls named Volume, Tone, Drive and a Gain toggle, you will have the ability to make any guitar rig drip with vintage soul and attitude.

To understand how the SuperBolt operates, let’s begin with the Drive knob. As you turn up the Drive, it’s like turning the volume knob on one of these small-box vintage amps; the more you turn it up, the dirtier it gets. Next, the Volume knob acts like what some would call a master volume. None of the vintage Supro® amps had this control, but it works perfectly for letting the SuperBolt get the dirty cranked-volume tones with the Drive knob and then backing down the loudness factor with the Volume knob. The V2 has an improved taper with a wider "sweet spot" for adjusting the best volume. The third knob is the Tone control, fairly true to the designs in many of these vintage amps. Our Tone control will serve as a breath of fresh air to all of you who are tired of the unusable and treble-ridden tone controls out there. All the way up, it is a biting and sharp tone that is extremely usable and easy on the ears; all the way back, you will find a dark but well-focused range of tones useful for jazz and more subtle styles.

The Gain toggle switch lets you toggle between two gain settings, much like the High/Low input jacks found on many of the amplifiers of the 50’s and 60’s. In the down position, the cleanest sounds are available and a slightly darker and more mellow tone is on tap. In the up position, you’ll find huge amounts of headroom, more upper mids, more available dirt, and the most rock and roll that the pedal can offer. When the Gain toggle is activated the status LED changes to Red. The Gain toggle is remotely switchable using the 1/4" jack on the top right side of the pedal. Set your normal SB setting and switch instantly using the Red Remote for an on-the-fly secondary tone without using hardly any extra space on your board at all.