We're going to offer a giveaway for the exact Op-2 Comp pedal used in our crash test video (video below). If you're already on our email list you'll be automatically entered into this giveaway. If you're not on the list, sign up here before September 1st:  http://eepurl.com/lELgf.
A winner will be selected from our email list subscribers at random on September 1st. We will announce the winner on our facebook page and the winner will be notified by email. If we do not hear back from the winner within 3 days, a new winner will be selected at random and the process will repeat until we hear back from someone with their shipping info.

Things have really been on the up and up lately.  A lot has been getting accomplished.  I finally found enough time to get back to work on designing the Trinity channel strip system.  Looking back I realized how far I had come and how much I had learned along the way.  After spending a few days trying out new ideas and getting nowhere significant I decided to scrap the design and start over from scratch.  It really sucked having to make that decision.  Bottom line is I am a perfectionist and I have a vision for what the final product will be.  I tried everything, exhausted all possibilities and spent probably too much time trying to make the damn thing meet all of my insane performance requirements.  Scrapping the design to start over made the most sense in order to meet the system requirements I set forth well over a year ago.  I started over by designing a block diagram of how the new version should be laid out.  It will be significantly more expensive now, which also sucks, but the sound and performance are what matter to me.  

Today, I made some incredible developments.  The Trinity channel strip will have 3 vacuum tubes in it, each one representing a gain stage.  Today I finally was successful in developing a working prototype of the first gain stage,  in which my sound and performance requirements have been exceeded.  The first stage offers 35dB of gain (with a gain knob for the input level).  The noise floor of this stage at full volume is -110dB on the spectrum analyzer.  It has a very flat response from DC-25kHz, which is the cutoff point of my analyzer.  I'll use my o-scope soon to determine how far out the high frequencies extend before rolling off.  25kHz is pretty awesome as it is, but I feel like it probably goes way up.  The THD is below 0.1% with a 1v 2kHz sine wave, but I can't give an exact number until I conduct more tests.  Each stage will contribute some THD, so it needs to be low... although some THD is ok with me.  My limit for what I feel sounds great in normal situations is 0.47% THD.  To me, anything above half a percent is too colorful to be an all-around-player.  Above .5% it becomes to me, a specific sound and color that is desirable for only certain situations.      

This new design for Trinity is going to be very expensive and will probably take a considerable amount of time to work out, but I'm sure I can get it done in under a year!  The new layout calls for 4 audio transformers in the signal path, twice as many as before.  Its necessary for total isolation between the various circuits.  The EQ circuit especially needs to be isolated for noise and stability reasons.  I'm planning to go with a push/pull output stage this time around to minimize noise and THD, while providing plenty of volume.  I experimented yesterday with using an interstage transformer as a phase inverter and it worked great.  That's the plan for the output stage.  The main thing I need to figure out is a low noise tube stage for the EQ circuitry.  That stage mainly needs to provide about 20dB of low noise gain that's relatively clean.  I would be cool with a higher amount of THD with the EQ on vs. bypassed.  It would be easier to design and I think no one would complain about more tube tone.  More to come!    

Lots going on and planned for the future.  Jon set up an instagram account for LBA and is managing that for us.  If you're on Instagram, head over and check out http://www.instagram.com/lightningboyaudio.

In other news, we shot an crazy video in which we demolish an Op-2 Comp (or attempt to) to demonstrate how bullet proof the design is.  People have expressed concerned over the fragility of the glass tubes when it comes to gigging and possible stage falls.  Others have shown concern over the reliability of point-to-point wiring vs. everyone else's PCB building techniques. This video was put together to silence the naysayers.  There is no way in hell your pedal will ever be abused to the extremes we put it though.  Check out the vid here:

Yep, it works and it sounds great!  A one-off for LBA Recording Studio (new website coming soon with photos).  After I finished designing the Op-2 Comp and finished teaching Jon how to build them exactly as I would, I was supposed to get back to work on the Trinity project.  I decided to take a slight detour and completely rebuild the control room at LBA Recording Studio from the ground up.  lol.  That was no slight detour, btw!  I have been planning to do this for years.  Really, I just needed the time, money, and motivation.  It was a huge job that would not be complete unless I built a vacuum tube powered mixing board.  Here it is... the Trinity Master Module.  Its expandable, so as the years drift on I can keep adding modules to expand its capabilities.  The Master module seen here is a 10 channel mixer with pan controls for 8 channels.  The other two channels are fixed hard left and right.  There's a Master output volume attenuator (Gold Point stepped attenuator), and left/right master trim controls for the tube output amplifier stage.  Most of the controls are for the stereo master, which include independent left/right channel mutes, a master mute, phase invert, mono/stereo switch, speaker selector, input selector (external stereo input or 10 channel internal mixer), and output selector (monitor, bounce).  The board is powered by the Trinity system's "Beast Mode Power Supply," which can supply power to 4 different Trinity system devices.  Right now its powering the Trinity Master Module, the Trinity ARA (Auxiliary Return Amplifier), and a prototype Trinity Channel Strip.  The idea is a bunch of Trinity Channel Strips feed into the Trinity Master Module.  This is probably the first all-tube point-to-point hand wired mixing board made since the 1950's, but its lightyears beyond in terms of technology and fidelity.  The mixer is basically noiseless (-110dB noise floor) and has practically no crosstalk, with a flat response from DC-30kHz.  In terms of sound its more punchy and forward than the Flux Bender EQ, but with some of the same tonal qualities.  Very clean, but tastefully warm.

I have been hunting for a low noise 12v power adapter with a negative barrel center for a long time.  Up until now the best solution for someone looking to power their Op-2 Comp off a single wall adapter (not a multi-pedal supply) has been the TC Electronic adapter we have been offering.  I was not entirely satisfied with the noise performance of this adapter, but it was better than average.  The main reason I had to look harder is because one customer had a problem with their TC adapter not working sometimes.  Lightning Boy can not back a shoddy product and thankfully we don't have to thanks to the new adapter option I'm about to tell you about.  We're now offering a new adapter for sale with or separate from the Op-2 Comp.  This 12v adapter was designed for computer applications, so it has super low noise.  The main problem with adapters like that is the barrel jack's center is positive.  To remedy this, we are including a polarity reversal adapter jack that plugs onto the DC barrel jack of the power adapter.  The combo ships together for one price of $24.95 USD.  I'm happy to say I finally found a low priced low noise 12v solution for Op-2 Comp.  This power supply offers a whopping 2A of current. Its plenty of juice if you wanted to daisy chain a few 12V tube pedals off one low noise supply.  

Customer concerns about powering the Op-2 Comp:

Question:  what are you planning to offer or recommend as a power supply for the Op-2 Comp now that you've switched over to 12v?  
Answer:  We have tested a number of wall wart style 12VDC power supplies for low noise and selected the one we feel performs the best.  We are now offering a TC Electronics branded supply for optional purchase with the Op-2 Comp.  
 
Question:  What if I don't want a wall wart?  I want to power all my pedals from one power supply/brick.  Not a wall wart and no daisy chains.  
Answer:  There are many products on the market that supply at least 400mA at 12v and also supplies 9v to multiple jacks.  Some examples are the Voodoo Lab 4x4, Voodoo Lab ISO-5, Eventide Powerfactor 2, Cioks Big John, AC10, DC10, TC10, Ciokolate and the upcoming DC10 Link. Additionally, the TRex Goliath has 12vdc at 450 ma outputs. While a bit more obscure, Yankee Power has several power supply products that can supply 12 vdc at 400 ma minimum. 

Question:  But I already have the MXR Iso Brick.  I need something that can power your 12v pedal(s) and the Iso Brick, which needs 18V DC @ 2A regulated.  
Answer:  I'm not aware of anything that does exactly that.  In this situation, the only solution I can think of is a custom power supply that I could build for you.  It would have 3 regulated DC outputs.  Two 12v 400mA outs and one 18v 2A out, all isolated.  Not an inexpensive solution though!  

I have been working closely with Cyrus from Ovnilab to make improvements to the design of Op-2 Comp.  He has been playing with the pedal and gave me some valuable recommendations for improving the product.  I did not take what he said lightly.  Since Op-2 Comp hasn't been released yet, I made all the changes he suggested.  Here's the list of changes:

• The pedal will sell for just under $380 instead of $400, but the first run will be sold for $360 each.  Read on to learn more about that.  
• The pedal now runs on 12v at 400mA instead of 9v at 1270mA.  Less current draw is a big plus, but the added voltage was much needed to create more headroom.  This change also created more volume, more compression, and a cleaner tone.   
• The on/off power switch is no more.  The unit powers on as soon as you turn on/plug in your power supply.  The on/off switch is still on the pedal, but now it does something different.  Its called "Turbo."  When the turbo switch is engaged, it gives you more "Tube tone" and more volume.  Technically what it does is increase the THD slightly, it modifies the frequency response super slightly, and it boosts the volume.  Basically it sounds thicker and warmer.  
  

Since the first run of pedal cases have already been made with the original nomenclature, they will be discounted.  Every Op-2 Comp we release will be this new Revision A.  The first run will be hand engraved on the back to indicate Revision A and 12v DC @ 400mA.  There is a limited supply of 1st run pedals, so they are first come first serve.  
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Unfortunately, Gearmanndude reviewed the pedal before the revision A update, so we're working on putting together a shootout video of the original design vs Revision A.  The difference is massive, so that's why we decided to go with Rev A for the official release.  

Since Op-2 Comp is an evolution of Opti-Mu Prime and I feel its a massive one, I wanted to share this cool little A/B comparison I put together with a youtube playlist.  Both the Opti-Mu Prime and Op-2 Comp pedals are demo'd by Gearmanndude.  I think the difference between the two is pretty obvious and it says a ton about how far LBA has come and where LBA is going.  You can check out this cool little 2 video playlist by clicking right here.

It has been a difficult decision to make, but I have decided we will do a greater degree of tube selection for Op-2 Comp.  Basically, we will be selecting tubes that exhibit high gain and low noise for use in Op-2 Comp.  This accounts for about 17% off all the NOS 12AU7 tubes I buy.  Its going to be an expensive practice, but I find the benefits outweigh the costs.  With high gain low noise tubes installed in Op-2 Comp, it is able to boost your signal by about 10-15% after the compression is turned up all the way.  Now, that's pretty cool!  But, with these tubes the pedal also creates significantly more compression... in the realm of about 15-20% more!!!  Now we're talking.  I feel like this makes the pedal more desirable overall.  Instead of just offering some special version of the pedal as option, we'll just make all the pedals the same badass premium quality.     

Now that everything is up and running, work has continued on getting the new products ready for their releases.  Op-2 Comp has a product photo shoot scheduled for this weekend with Bryan Wray.  Two pedals are going out for review this week.  Jon Clarke started training, learning the craft of P2P wiring and the art of LBA pedal building.  Today, the first batch of official pedals are coming off the CNC and Laser Engraving machines.  We're hustling to get everything done in time for the product release.  Stay tuned and keep a look out for Op-2 Comp... the tone of this pedal is inspiring!