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  1. HomeLeveling Amplifier
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Hi-fidelity Leveling Amplifier
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Leveling Amplifier

£365.83 – £490.83

The Effectrode® ‘LA-1A’ Leveling Amplifier is a high-end, studio-grade vacuum tube compressor in a pedal. Whisper-quiet operation and a wide, wide dynamic range make this tone-tool an unparalleled tone enhancer on stage and in the studio—its natural warmth and clarity are unmatched.

The Effectrode LA-1A is a formidable piece of guitar and bass hardware” – Vintage Guitar

Brimar 12AX7 valve“Brimarize“ your pedal! The Leveling Amplifier can be purchased with either new JJ tubes or grade ‘A’ NOS (New Old Stock) Brimar tubes fitted. JJ tubes are excellent tubes, however the NOS Brimar tubes were manufactured in an era when tube expertise and materials were at their zenith—they’re truly exceptional in terms of quality and reliability. Further, the longer plate construction yields a smoother, fuller tone than modern tubes.

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Description

The Effectrode® ‘LA-1A’ Leveling Amplifier was designed with one purpose in mind: to enable artists and engineers extract every last nuance from a musical performance… without compromise. Tubes are unmatched tone enhancers, adding warmth, depth and clarity to recorded and live instruments and Effectrode wanted to push their sonic performance even further and beyond expectation. To that end we based our Leveling Amplifier on a parallel tube plate design—the type of tube circuitry only found in audiophile tube phono-stage preamps for high-end turntables. Parallel tube design reduces the LA-1A’s noise floor to vanishing point. In practical terms this means best possible signal to noise ratio for your guitar. It’s an expensive way of doing things—as four identical tube input stages are used in its circuitry—but it does yield stellar sound quality, without the compromise of noise gates or ‘cutting’ certain frequencies using equalisation. The parallel tube design has never been built into a stompbox or even a professional studio leveling amplifier/compressor before, making the LA-1A a truly special compressor.

FEATURES

  • Peak Reduction knob sets both the threshold and the amount of signal compression. When adjusting the compression or sustain a good starting point is the 9 o’clock position where subtle leveling enhances note detail, creating a fuller, warmer tone. As the knob is rotated clockwise the volume level of loud notes is reduced relative to quieter ones, squashing playing dynamics—the definitive sound of many country and funk-style guitar riffs.
  • Gain knob adjusts the ‘make-up’ gain and is used to match the relative levels of bypassed and effected signal. It can also provide +15dBu of tube boost when the ‘Peak Reduction’ knob fully counterclockwise (zero compression).
  • Boost knob gives an additional +6dB of gain (on top of the make up gain)—useful when soloing on guitar or bass and can push the input stage of a tube amp into overdrive very nicely too. The ‘Boost’ footswitch engages (red LED lit) and bypasses (green LED lit) the boost.
  • Attack and Knee knobs allow the compression character to be tailored perfectly to suit instruments that are challenging to amplify or record. For example, active 5-string bass guitars, nylon and steel string acoustic guitars fitted with piezo pickups and even especially ‘difficult’ stringed instruments such as hammered dulcimer, harpsichord or tar. Rotating the ‘Attack’ knob clockwise increases how fast the side-chain reacts, i.e. the speed at which compression kicks in. The ‘Knee’ knob alters the input/output curve, i.e. how the LA-1A transitions into compression—rotate clockwise and the LA-1A becomes a limiter and counter-clockwise for compression.
  • When the Dynamic EQ toggle switch is in the ‘down’ position the LA-1A dynamically boosts high frequency material. With the ‘Peak Reduction’ knob fully counter-clockwise (zero compression) dynamic eq is inactive, however as the knob is rotated clockwise, and the pedal begins compressing, the effect becomes increasingly pronounced. Fabulous for jangly 12-string Rickenbacker® guitar sounds.
  • Bypass Footswitch utilises quiet true bypass switching to minimise ‘pops’ or ‘thump’ when engaging the pedal and ensure there is no loss of guitar tone when the pedal is bypassed.
  • Balanced Direct Out ¼” TRS (stereo) jack socket allows connection of the LA-1A to mixing desk, computer sound-card or external audio capture device. This output is fully balanced and transformer isolated, eliminating earth loops and reducing hum to an absolute minimum and features a gain pad (+6dB, +12dB and +18dB) to facilitate matching with any line or instrument level gear. The Triad Magnetics audio transformer also imparts it’s own character to enhance and sweeten the direct sound.
  • External Select ¼” TRS (stereo) jack socket. This enables an external footswitch, such as the Fender® ‘Twin Reverb’ Amp tremolo/reverb dual latching footswitch), to be utilised for remote bypass switching and activating the tube boost.
  • Includes 12V Wall-wart Power Supply: High quality low-noise switched mode 12VDC at 1.5A wall-wart compatible with all our pedals.

Video

Manuals

PDF iconDownload LA-1A Leveling Amplifier Owners Manual
393.96KB

Reviews

  • Download Vintage Guitar June 2018 Leveling Amp Review
  • Download Guitarist Magazine Blackbird and Leveling Amplifier March 2017

13 reviews for Leveling Amplifier

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  1. 5 out of 5

    X:144 (verified owner) 8th November 2021

    Hey Phil! I got the LA-1A in the rig, and all I have to say is WOW. With just it barely tapping the signal there’s so much dimensionality and musical life added to any bass I’ve thrown at it.

    This is has got to be an industry secret weapon. I’ll make sure I’ll do what I can to help the brand out. I absolutely love it. Every bassist should have this in their rig.

  2. 5 out of 5

    Saul Burgess 27th May 2021

    Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou
    The only pedal I have ever bought LA 1A that stopped me in my tracks.
    Finally play thru an amp, like playing a nice acoustic in wooden floored room.
    Playing since I was 9, 56 now, nothing has given me the freedom on an electric like this thing.
    God bless the hell out of you.
    Kind warm regards
    Saul

  3. 5 out of 5

    Vincent Nichols 29th January 2021

    A quick mail to let you know how utterly impressed I am with the LA-1A! You knocked it out of the park with this one, this is one tube-fitted box of magic!!!

    I’ve used it with a Taylor ES2 equipped 12 string through a Sarno Music Solutions Octal V8 preamp (clean as can be!) and I haven’t ever had a better amplified acoustic tone! Absolutely stunning and the setup is dead quiet!!! Imagine: no noise at all with a compressor on an acoustic!!! I’ve never heard the like of this before!

    What amazes me is that I also barely need any EQing if at all with this setup: I ran it through Grace Audio’s most excellent Alix preamp, and despite the heavy EQing options on this one, the setup sounded worse and became noisy!!! LA-1A and Octal V8 alone = way to go!

    It seems as if I finally nailed the amplified tone I wanted and I’m amazed to find it with such a simple setup. I use a very soft knee, the attack is set extremely low and the peak reduction is also very light: the result is a warm, rich, natural tone which I feel compliments my fingerstyle playing perfectly!

    Will get to record a soundclip someday!

  4. 5 out of 5

    Jeremy Meyer 19th April 2020

    I love my new Blackbird that I ordered from Big City Music here in the States. Can’t keep my fingers off the fretboard of late thanks to Effectrode.

    • Phil Taylor 29th April 2020

      Hi Jeremy, That’s great to hear. Thanks for taking the time to let us know. All the best, Phil

  5. 5 out of 5

    Guy Taylor, Australia 12th October 2018

    The leveling amp arrived today, and as usual with Phil’s amazing pedals, I have instantly falling in love with it 🙂 Please tell, it’s amazing!

    • Phil Taylor 16th November 2018

      Thanks Guy, best regards, Phil

  6. 5 out of 5

    Mike Van De Veer, U.S.A. 8th October 2018

    Just got the pedal, I’m pretty impressed, easily the quietest comp pedal I’ve come across.

    • Phil Taylor 16th November 2018

      Thank you Mike – delighted to hear the Leveling Amplifier pedal works for you. Best regards, Phil

  7. 5 out of 5

    Marc Leslie 1st January 1970

    I have had my Brimar equipped Leveling Amp you kindly put together for me (despite being out of stock for so long) for 3 days. It is hands down the finest pedal based effect I have ever used, especially when compared to anything else even the big studio pieces. Most importantly is the resulting tone I coaxed out of the unit with my rig. Better still, just it, straight into a nice Morgan Dual 40….Out of this world! Thank you so much for honoring the art of music with such an amazing product in design and build quality. I will be back to try the rest of your offerings. Stay well and keep doing what you do.

  8. 5 out of 5

    Andrés Falagán 26th June 2020

    The LA-1A is a fantastic sounding unit, by the way. I was expecting it to sound great, but what really surprised me is how quiet it is. In front of a high gain amp you can barely notice the added noise to the signal. Really impressive!

  9. 5 out of 5

    Jason Melman 26th May 2020

    First and foremost, the Leveling Amp is absolutely incredible. I bought the PC-2A last year from Electric Mojo and while I loved the sound and simple functionality of it, I wanted to have some more control on the parameters, and so I ended up selling it to a friend and bought a Cali76 CD, which I’ve been using since then. When I plugged in the LA, as great as the Cali is, the LA was hands down better to the point where I’m now going to sell the Cali. The LA is hands down the best compressor I’ve ever used and I feel privileged to own one and I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface for what it can do with not only guitar but bass and other studio uses.

  10. 5 out of 5

    Vincent Nichols 26th November 2019

    Short mail to let you know once again how much I enjoy my LA-1A: dead simple to set-up with an acoustic guitar and the noise floor is absolutely unbelievable: no noise from an acoustic guitar preamp is something I had never experienced before!

  11. 5 out of 5

    Adrian Bond 21st September 2019

    Quality-wise, this is easily the best electric tone ever, by far. I, too, was turned off by the disappointing tones I was getting over the years–no, decades, and only last year got a real American Strat and entry-level Fender tube amp for the first time, upgraded the tubes and speaker, and was FINALLY mostly satisfied. But with the Blackbird and LA-1A, this is an entirely unprecedented level of tone quality and absence of noise. And that’s with only a couple of NOS tubes installed, as I’m waiting on the others to arrive. Hat’s off to you, mate! Well, well done!!!

  12. 5 out of 5

    Rasmus Fris (verified owner) 23rd August 2019

    recieved package in finest order today …. thanks for providing such exelent products!!
    Again the leveling amp is working fantastic together with the blackbird for direct to DAW pedalsteel recording, I use it together with a diamond memorylane analog delay!
    Best preamp setup I ever had .. ?? the noise floor level is exelent low ??
    Have a Great weekend Sincerely Rasmus

  13. 5 out of 5

    bfrye55 2nd May 2019

    Just received mine the other day and set it up with my Dyno Rhodes. OMG! I’ll have much more to say on my Insta, but not only is this super quiet, it is UNBELIEVABLY MUSICAL! Breathtakingly so. You can remove the bypass switch, this will never be switched off!

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