Life Support

Intensive Care Audio's "Life Support" is a high fidelity all analogue (signal path) preamp and overdrive circuit capable of everything from chimey, brilliant transparent boost through to mid gain, heavily compressed and saturated distortion whilst still maintaining clarity and note definition. The circuit has been 3 years in the making, with countless dead ends and redesigns as i have been searching for that most illusive overdrive pedal which sounds fantastic in every single position rather than having dead spots or undesirable areas. 

 

It features a unique clipping blend control which allows you to blend between LED clipping and a parallel jftet/mosfet clipping arrangement. The LEDs yield a softer, more open and transparent tone and as you blend in the jfet/mosfet arrangement the clipping threshold is reduced, increasing saturation and compression. Paired with the 'Preamp' control which adjusts the overall gain there is an extremely wide variety of available tones and gain combinations. 

 

The EQ section utilises independent subtractive treble and bass controls and are situated 'post gain' so you can really dial in the guitar tone depending on your gain and clipping settings. After this is the output transformer, a TRIAD TY-141 as used in the Hudson Broadcast. 

 

There is also a jfet boost circuit which you can switch in and out with the right foot switch and whilst it can't be used independently of the preamp it is extremely useful in pushing the preamp circuit further into break up or for use as a solo/lead setting.