Crazy Tube Circuits Heatseeker Overdrive Distortion

Like a missile seeking its target, Heatseeker will give you the explosive sound of rock! Inspired directly from the gear setup used by Angus Young, it features the most important sonic elements to match the tone of the short-pants-rock-God. It’s no secret that a major role to his sound, along with the Marshall-brick walls, played one of the first wireless systems for guitar that quickly became a classic among guitar greats, the Schaffer Vega Diversity System. The preamp along with the Dynamic Expansion circuit found in the wireless transmitter/receiver gave it its distinct sound. Besides boosting the signal, the preamp tightens up lower frequencies and slightly accentuates mid frequencies while the Dynamic Expansion circuit enhances the dynamic response and harmonics of the signal giving punch and attack to ensure that it will cut through the mix. Instead of opting for a prefix setting for the Dynamic Expansion circuit as found in the original unit, we have re-imagined our version with the enhance knob on the Heatseeker to have more control over the guitar tone’s dynamic response. Setting it around 10 o ‘clock is a good starting point to add some extra sparkle. Max it out to bring back to life even the most dull and colorless sounds.

Utilizing an all-analog JFET circuit, running on 27 volts via an internal voltage boost (DO NOT plug higher than 9V DC power supply), we have captured the tone and feel of three British tube amplifiers, synonymous with the sound of rock and roll, with excellent clean-to-mean dynamic response. With the flip of a toggle switch you can capture the sound and feel of a JTM45, 1959 Super Lead or JMP 2203. A smart switching circuit follows the signal path and respective gain stages tuned for each amp and combines them with an actual Marshall style EQ and power amp simulation circuit for thundering rock tones. Angus Young usually plugs into Channel 1 or High Treble input of his JTM45s and Super Leads so we opted for that sound when we started visualizing Heatseeker on the drawing board. We have also extended the range of the presence control beyond the original’s so that the user will be able to match the pedal toalso use the pedal as a preamp and plug it to a clean power amp or straight to your DAW. Note that the pedal doesn’t feature any speaker simulation circuit so we recommend using a separate hardware or software guitar speaker simulation when going direct to DAW or a full range speaker.

A new feature to our booster/drive + amp-in-a-box line of pedals, recreating legendary sounds, is the switchable WoS (Wall of Sound) circuit. We have carefully tuned this circuit at the output of the AMP section of the Heatseeker to open up the soundstage by increasing the output, adding thundering lows and thickening high mid frequencies. Imagine standing in front of a wall loaded with Marshall amp heads and 4x12 speaker cabinets, grabbing your SG and hitting a chord. You will be blown away by the sound projection! In combination with the tube power amp simulation and the enhance circuit of the right section we’ve made sure that the pick attack will be as dynamic as it gets, softer picking will produce clean and slightly crunchy sounds, hard picking will give explosive distorted sounds! While primarily designed for Angus Young sounds, Heatseeker will definitely open the door to countless other guitar-great tones that used these Marshall amps and/or the Schaffer Vega Diversity System. Think of KISS, Peter Frampton and Van Halen to name a few.

Like our other dual overdrive/amp-in-a-box designs, Heatseeker features a passive effects loop to give you the option to connect your beloved pedals between the preamp/enhancer and amp-in-a-box circuit or use the two sections as separate and independent effects when using an external bypass switcher/looper. SND is the output of the BOOST/ENHANCE section, RTN is the input of the AMP section. SND is connected to RTN when no instrument jacks are inserted in the effects loop. Note that all pedals inserted in the passive effects loop are still in the signal chain when any or both sections of the Heatseeker are in bypass mode.

Heatseeker features a power-up bypass/engage pre-set function for the footswitches. You can change the default function by holding down the footswitch(es) during power-up. That way you can select which state your pedal will go to when you plug the power supply. This function comes in especially handy to people that use remote pedal switchers/loopers as they only set the state of the pedal once and then operate from the controller. any amp or gear setup. The master volume offers plenty of output so that you can select which state your pedal will go to when you plug the power supply. This function comes in especially handy to people that use remote pedal switchers/loopers as they only set the state of the pedal once and then operate from the controller.

• All-analog preamp/enhancer – amp in a box.
• Recreates the tones of the gear setup used by Angus Young.
• Right side: re-creation of the preamp/tone enhancer-expander circuit of the Schaffer Vega Diversity System.
• Controls:
• Enhance control amplifies your guitar’s dynamic response and harmonics.
• Level controls the output/boost of the preamp circuit.
• Left side: All analog simulation of the preamp and power amp sound and response of 3 distinct Marshall amplifiers: JTM45, Super Lead Plexi, JMP 2203.
• Controls:
• Volume (gain) control: control the amount of amp drive/saturation. From clean to mean.
• 3 band Marshall style EQ (bass, middle, treble).
• Presence controls the amount of upper mid and high frequencies to match the pedal to any gear setup.
• Master knob sets overall output volume. Designed to produce more gain at higher settings.
• Amp voicing toggle: select between JTM45, Super Lead Plexi, JMP2203 amp voicing.
• Wall of Sound (WoS) toggle switch: increase soundstage – output.
• Independent operation of the PREAMP/ENHANCE and AMP sections.
• Click-less true bypass design via high quality relays for each section.
• 2 Footswitches/2 Status LEDs - one for each effect section.
• Power-up bypass/engage preset function for the footswitches.
• Top mounted jacks.
• Passive series effects loop to connect pedals between the two sections or use them separately as independent effects.
• Power Supply: Use only 9V DC, 2.1 mm x 5.5 mm, center negative (not included).
• Runs internally at 27V DC (via internal voltage boost circuit) for higher headroom and tube-like performance.
• Current consumption 115mA.
• Flame Red die-cast enclosure with colour-coded lettering for the control section (white for the PREAMP/ENHANCE section, black for AMP section).
• Dimensions: (W x L x H) : 119x97x53 mm.
• Weight 422 g.
• Made in Greece.