doglooseHow about a scary story since we’re so close to Halloween?

...

There once was a guitar player named Jerry. Creativity struck, but as Jerry reached for his

How about a scary story since we’re so close to Halloween?

There once was a guitar player named Jerry. Creativity struck, but as Jerry reached for his amp’s power switch, he saw a clock on the wall that read 12:00am. He put his guitar away, and when he woke up in the morning his idea was gone forever.

Since I don’t always have the luxury of loud, I wanted to try the Le Clean by the French company Two Notes with my home recording setup. While the pedal works for a slew of applications (D.I. box, pre-amp, headphone amp, overdrive/boost pedal, effects loop), my main interest was to see if it could give my direct recordings a little tube magic when I can’t crank an amp.

Le Clean is one of four different tube preamps from the Le Preamp series. Each preamp has two channels plus Hot and Cold Fusion mode which blends the two channels together for two additional tones.

Channel A is as simple as it gets. The controls are Gain, Volume, Bass and Treble. It reminds me of a no nonsense blackface Fender Bassman.

Channel B gets a bit more complex. The common controls are Gain, Sweep (works with Mid), Volume, Bass, Mid and Treble. Also included in Channel B is the Hot/Cold switch and Fusion knob. These come into play only when you use Fusion mode.

Fusion mode is when both channels are combined. There are two ways to do this. Cold Fusion mode puts both channels in parallel, which adds in the high end clarity that often gets lost in a distorted sound. Hot Fusion mode cascades the two channels making it great to boost your volume for solos.

Clip 1: Here’s a Strat with no amp, just the D.I. out with the Speaker

Read more from our friends at Guitar World