The Lovepedal Mini Valve is an upgraded version of the company’s classic Balance Ultimate Pre Amp. The improvements included in the Mini Valve include a 9-volt DC filtered power input jack that will accept any negative ground power supply, soft touch ‘true bypass’ relay system rated at 200,000 cycles, dual layer epoxy glass circuit board with embedded traces and bullet proof construction design. 

Lovepedal calls this the ‘ultimate pre-amplification’ unit and the ‘most transparent pre-amp/clean boost pedal on the market’.

Effects guru Robert Keeley this week offered his MySpace friends a sneak peak at a new distortion pedal he has been working on at his custom pedal shop in Oklahoma. Not much is known about the stomp – dubbed the 537 FET Distortion pedal. A quick Google does turn up an old 2004 chat with Keeley where he talks a bit about a FET distortion stomp he built for a customer, but at the time it looked like he had no intention of building the unit for the masses.

It is unknown if the new 537 is identical to the one-off Keeley built earlier in the decade, but chances are it is not a twin of that unit. More on this as it develops…

Arizona-based Homebrew Electronics are looking to cool down the desert this summer with the introduction of their new Frost Bite flanger stomp.

The new pedal is based on the vintage ADA flanger and comes equipped with six knobs – threshold, range, manual, level, speed and enhance – as well as a harmonics switch and heavy-duty activation switch.

Oohlala Manufacturing has chimed in with news it is shipping out the latest Devi Ever/Effector 13 boutique stomp – the Synth Mangler – to retailers. The new pedal is basically two Soda Meiser-style fuzzes in one box, each with its own volume control, hiss and chaos modes.

A unique joystick feature controls the intensity of both fuzzes, while a built-in photo eye will allow you to use the Synth Mangler as a stand alone noise generator.

MSRP for the Synth Mangler is $315.

The Left Coast modeling gurus at Line 6 took their show on the road to the East Coast earlier this month to the New York Amp Show where the company showed off the prototype to its new M-13 stomp modeler.

Line 6 touts the M13 Stompbox Modeler as an all-in-one pedal board experience that features a comprehensive collection of the most sought-after stompbox sounds, a full-featured looper and super-heavy-duty all-metal construction. Without complicated menus or presets, M13 Stompbox Modeler is said to channel the soul and ease of a stompbox.

Midlothian, Texas-based OceanEFX has redesigned its Pearl Drive overdrive pedal to fit into a smaller housing. The company said that customer feedback prompted it to offer the smaller option to the original Pearl stomp. The new-look Pearl will boast the same circuit as the original, but be just a bit easier on the pedal board real estate.

OceanEFX said it would continue to offer the Pearl Drive in the original, larger housing as well, but that the smaller units would have a quicker turnaround time due to the new housing being more readily available.

Wilson Effects has built a new compressor pedal based on the vintage Ross compressor know for its squishy sustain. Handmade and built in the US, the new stomp offers the high quality tone of the vintage Ross circuit with out the hefty price of most other Ross clones.

The Wilson compressor is true bypass and each is equipped with an internal trimmer to help tune the compressor to the user’s taste. The stomp is a made-to-order pedal with a lead time of around two weeks. Sounds clips are available at Wilson’s website.

Finnish pedal king Mad Professor has completed work on a pair of new pedal prototypes due to hit the streets later this year. The first is the Snow White auto wah, which packs a four-knob voltage control filter that works with guitar and bass and can be adjusted to all kinds of guitars/amp setups. The Snow White is expected to be available towards the end of the summer.

The second pedal is the Forest Green Compressor. The stomp sports three knobs and a switch for compressor/sustainer effect. Mad Professor said the compressor is very natural sounding with low noise and lot of output. The Sustainer switch offers up another effect, giving the player the same tone, but with sustain.

Massachusetts-based Gig-Fx is set to unleash second generation units of its unique Chopper and MegaWah pedals just in time for the Summer NAMM show next month. The Chopper boasts improved switch access, smoother pan/depth tremolo control and an improved bypass system. The new MegaWah will have a warmer high-end response, adjustable resistance and overall smoother action.

The Chopper includes five built-in effects (tremolo, rotating speaker, chopper, delay emulator and panning machine), ratio, rate and pedal/rate switch controls for the chopper section and ratio and depth controls for the tremolo/pan section.

Michigan-based Lovepedal has raised the curtain on a new echo box that it claims rivals vintage Cornish and Chandler units.

The Echo Device – currently dubbed the Gen 5 – includes tap tempo circuitry by Cusack Music integrated into its design.

A sneak peak at the prototype is available here, as well as the Lovepedal website.

ProTone Pedals has unveiled new stomp based around the vintage Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi. The Dallas-based outfit dubs the Ram Skull a re-birth of the ‘ridiculously expensive and hard to find’ Big Muff Pi commonly known as the “Ram’s Head”. The Ram was favored by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour from 1977 to 1989.

The pedal features sustain, tone, and volume controls, operates on a standard 9v battery or BOSS style adapter (negative tip), boasts true hardwire bypass for noise free operation.

The gear fiends over at the GearTrap will make a run at the record books by assembling the world’s largest pedal board at a party sponsored by the blog at the upcoming Summer NAMM conference. The party will be held at 12th & Porter in Nashville on 18 June. Live music, giveaways and clinics on the monster board are all on the agenda.

The blog reported last week that it has a raft of new sponsors assisting it with the pedal board project. The sponsors will be announced in the near future.

Created in collaboration with the artist hailed by the New York Times as ‘dobro’s matchless contemporary master,’ Fishman has unveiled its new Jerry Douglas Signature Aura Imaging pedal. The pedal uses 16 custom Fishman Aura images created and used by Douglas specifically for resophonic guitars.  

In addition to its signature sounds, the Jerry Douglas pedal features volume, blend and image select controls; a phase switch to fight feedback, and a bypass/mute foot switch. 

TC Electronic has posted a software upgrade to its recently released Nova System floor-based all-in-one guitar solution. Version 1.1 adds speaker simulation, active effects are shown in ‘Edit FX’ LEDs and assigning an expression pedal to volume now is a global setting. The new software also fixes a handful of early glitches.

The Nova System boasts TC’s Nova Drive Technology – a drive and distortion circuit that offers true analog sound under preset and expression control. While the drive circuit is 100% analog and physically separated from the digital effects, its controls are digital.

Tennessee-based Creation Audio Labs is planning to unveil its new distortion/overdrive pedal at Summer NAMM in Nashville this June. Dubbed Holy Fire, little is known about the pedal currently other than the picture on the company’s website.

The top three control knobs on the stomp are labelled G, O and D. I can assume those would be Gain, Overdrive and Distortion. Nice touch, guys.