Bows Germanium Preamp Booster
Aaron Rogers
Ho! Ho! Ho! Wrap up your tone tighter than Christmas in July with the Bows Germanium Preamp Booster! The Bows is a transistor-based boost/overdrive that's anything but clean, and naughtier than, well, a really naughty thing. It features selectable "Treble" and "Full" modes and an extra 15dB of gain above unity to squeeze a diamond from that lump of coal you call a guitar tone.
In "Full" mode, the Bows adds a beefy low-end push without getting flabby, like Santa Claus running a marathon in the desert, which makes it great for thick, chunky rhythm playing. The Bows' "Treble" mode excites the resonant vowel-like upper harmonics in your tone for rockin' cocked-wah lead sounds, and spiky, trebly, staccato bursts. Try wrapping the Bows around your favorite overdrive or fuzz pedals for a confetti explosion of sound!
The Bows is a Germanium preamp designed around a rare NOS OC139 black glass transistor. For being a little one-knobber the Bows wears many hats. Right out of the box it's got several tone shaping abilities spread between two modes: Full and Treble. Full mode is warm with a lot of body and low end. Treble mode is a resonant, treble booster with a “cocked wah” tone that can drive any tube amp into harmonic rich distortion territory. Each mode has a little bit of grit to start with, but as you get passed 12 o'clock on either setting their subtleties are accented. The vowel-like sound out of the Treble side will be more prevalent as you bring the Level up. Doing the same on Full mode will get you a nice, full bodied crunch tone that retains clarity. Place any drive pedal before the Bows and it's another story. Full mode turns a dirt signal into a crumbling wall of sonic chaos, while Treble mode becomes an ultimate lead tone. Each and every Bows is built one at a time by real life human beans in the temperature controlled bubble of Akron, Ohio.
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