I can't move forward with the Super Storm at this time.   I ran into some serious manufacturing brick-walls with the upcoming Super Storm product.  Primarily, trying to work with other companies to produce various custom parts has proven to be nearly impossible.  I went all-in on my investment with this product. I chose to outsource domestically in order to reduce my cost-per-unit, essentially so I could sell the Super Storm at a very competitive price.  Furthermore, with the Super Storm I noticed I needed a ridiculous level of precision with the fabrication of metal parts.  It was something I first tried in-house and realized my equipment isn't accurate enough for the level of precision needed.  Outsourcing became necessary for this product.  I'm currently awaiting 100 faceplates from a deburring and counter-sinking stage, which is post laser cutting.  From that point I will need to deliver the faceplates to the powder coating shop down the road.  After that I can print the graphics onto the faceplates.  The rate at which the faceplates are being produced is mind-bogglingly slow, but the bigger hold up is actually the base-plates.  I need them made.  My attempts to produce them in-house and my attempts to outsource have thus-far have been failures to say the least.  This is at least partially my own fault for lack of knowledge and/or the necessary tools.  Until I can come up with a cost effective and reliable source for the base-plates, the Super Storm is on hold.

The end of product life for most of my existing product line was  necessary to free up my time enough to produce a new catalogue of products that I can produce in-house and to a high standard of quality.  Coming next week is the first new product, which is a special sort of audio transformer.  The target market is pedal designers and it will be have a minimum order requirement.  It's designed to be the same as what was used in the 2020S Steel-Core Instrument Transformer - when certain pc pins are selected.  However, it can be configured to be a step up transformer with impedance ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4, depending on which pins are accessed.  That can create the effect of a signal boost when feeding the secondary of the transformer into an amplification stage with a high input impedance.  The transformer can be used to invert the signal polarity via switch, or it can be used to isolate the signal from ground.  A detailed pdf will be provided, which includes sample circuits and a wiring guide.  The LBA-20SX is designed to be the input transformer for FX pedals.  

There is another product I'm working on, which is probably the coolest thing I've made in a long time.  Dark Storm is a stand-alone (1/2 rack ​size) JFET mic preamp with 4 audio transformers and it has both XLR and 1/4" I/O.  It's a 2 for 1 deal in the sense that it can be both a mic preamp or an instrument preamp.  But the best part is the pile of custom wound LBA Magnetics.  This is based on the Super Storm, but adds 2 extra transformers (4 in total) for a truly big sound.  Sonically, it's superior as well since it runs at a higher voltage (36V) for more headroom and gain (81dB!).  The front panel controls are "Gain", "Old", "Polarity", "48V" (phantom power), "Volume", "Low Cut", 1/4" input, and "Power".  The rear panel sports XLR in/out jacks, a 1/4" instrument level output (via dual output transformers), and a pair of ground switches - one for the XLR and a separate for the 1/4" output (for isolation/ground loop elimination).  The Dark Storm will ship without rack ears unless ordered as a stereo pair, in which they will be mounted together and presented as a standard 19" rack unit.  Consider it a desk-top or remote preamp.  It will include a 48V DC power adapter.  I plan to work on an EQ unit in the same 1/2 rack configuration next.  It'll be possible to order a channel strip - one Dark Storm Preamp and one Dark Storm EQ paired into a 19" 1U rack.  For now I'm still prototyping the Dark Storm.  No price has been set.  My best estimate at this point in time is $899 USD.    

Notification of end-of-production for 2020S, 2020i, and TI Box.
At the time of writing this, there is 1 2020i in stock, 5 TI boxes, and I'm accepting pre-orders for the final 6 2020S's.  This half dozen 2020S's will not have the yellow sticker decal, but instead will have the image directly printed to the metal with my UV printer.  Pre-orders will ship September 23rd.  After this run, I'll be completely out of stock of materials for these products.  To restock would require a very sizeable investment on my part.  While the demand for this product has been strong, it's profit margin is too low for me to justify the investment at this time.  The same can be said for the 2020i and TI Box.  My hands are getting older and more sore, so I'm moving on to more profitable ventures.  Sorry for the bad news and thank you for your support. 

True that it's almost here, but there have been many many delays as I battled through all of the materials logistics and manufacturing hurtles.  I plan to wait to offer a pre-release until I have at least 10 units in stock that I feel are "production quality."  The electronics aspect has been complete for some time now.  I've recently been working on getting repeatable quality faceplates made.  Up until just recently I was attempting to manufacture them in-house.  After wasting 200 faceplates through countless mistakes and trudging through the long hours on a manually operated drilling/milling machine, I decided to look less costly and laborious options.  I spent many hours improving the accuracy of DIY drilling/milling machine and finally got it dialed in.  I also spent many hours making various jigs for metal bending (the mounting base plate) and for alignment of parts on different machines.  It was a crazy amount of work just getting the machines set up for the most precision possible.  After all my effort I realized the level of tolerance I need for the metal working needs to be less than +/- 0.00025".  I found that's simply impossible to achieve with my equipment.  That alone means I should consider outsourcing, but I was concerned the cost would be too high.  The bottom line is that I got a couple quotes (2 different manufacturing methods) from domestic companies.  Both quotes would cost me less than my cost for just the metal...  and they would be providing the metal!  I simply can't compete and won't even try to.  That will free up a significant amount of my finely spread time and ultimately it will lower the cost of the Super Storm substantially.  I'm currently waiting on the first test batch from a company who laser cuts the face plates out, along with all the necessary holes, from 4'x8' sheets of aluminum.  After I am able to confirm quality fit and finish with repeatability, I'll move forward on getting the bottom support plate made by a 3rd party.  That particular part requires a 90° bend, which I was having a terrible time trying to align perfectly.  After that's resolved the product is manufacturable on a larger scale than anything I made before.  That'll be the point at which I can confidently offer a pre-order with a short waiting time for customers.  Please standby as I work out these last couple issues.   

My webstore is back up and fully stocked on LBA goodies.  I'll be adding a few more items over the next couple weeks.  One thing I'm working on is creating 3D renderings of my transformers for integration into the PCB design software, KiCad.  When folks buy my transformers in the future, they'll be able to download the KiCad footprints, schematic symbols, and 3D files for those transformers - free from this website. 

The Super Storm is nearly ready for pre-release.  Stay in tune.   

Due to world events, the price of Nickel surged three times to nearly its highest point in history according to the London Metal Exchange (article here).  The issues surrounding and created by this directly affect my business.  Nickel is the primary metal used in the shielding cans of my small signal audio transformers and that's where the issue is for me.  Many, but not all of my transformers use an alloy high in nickel, so those transformers are also affected.  I just ordered a very large quantity of transformer laminations (nickel alloy).  I paid 20% more than usual knowing the price will probably be high like this for a least a few months, but possibly over a year.  The last time nickel prices jumped like this it took a long time for it to recover.  The bottom line is I can't get more shielding cans at this moment in time.  My inventory of cans has dwindled down to a quantity of 32, which won't last long.  I have decided to reserve these for my upcoming 500 series mic preamp and halt all orders of other products until the situation becomes resolved.  I am working on a few ideas to at least temporarily remedy the situation.  The leading 2 solutions would involve manufacturing of custom cans in house.  I'm already manufacturing the transformer bobbins and an array of other components for my products - all of which eats up my time.  I'm not happy about any of this, but I will do what needs to be done.  I don't want to deal with China, but there's a Chinese company who may be able to supply me with clones of the cans I'm currently using.  I need to reach out to them for a quote.  Their price will need to be super low for me to even consider working with them.  I will do my best to keep you informed with future blog posts as things progress.   

-Update 3/30/22:  Enough transformer cans and laminations have been ordered to cover my business needs for an estimated 12 to 18 months.  Hopefully that'll be enough to ride the storm out.  Thankfully, I was able to save some money buy ordering larger quantities.  The overall cost impact on my transformers is minimal.  I will only need to raise my price by $1.50 USD.  The laminations are in stock.  I'm just waiting on the shipment of magnetic shielding cans.  Once they are in stock I'll be able to open my online store within a day or two.  I'm expecting to have them within 2 weeks, but who really knows with the current state of the world?

-Update 4/6/22:  Business will re-open on the 19th of April.  The webstore will be open at that time and all LBA products will be available soon after.

2 DiVisions are all that remain until I begin a pause on production of the DiVision.  There will be a 3rd one, which is not "new".  That unit is a demo has been around the USA to a number of high profile record producers and to one reviewer.  It is the very low serial number of 3/68.  A list of who it's been used by will be published on it's store page when I am ready to sell it.  It will come with a full warranty.  #3 will probably be for sale in December for $350 USD.  
PAUSED:  Due to the coming cold weather I am pausing production of the DiVision.  The screen printing aspect that I undertake requires ventilation.  It gets a bit too cold in the shop with the vent fan going on a winter day.  Production will resume March 21st, 2022.  At that time 26 DiVision's will be the final quantity remaining. 

Head on over to sushiboxfx.com to order one of his super cool LBA transformer equipped tube DI's.  You'll be helping both our businesses and you'll wind up with something great.    

My Trinity design is nearing completion and that means moving from prototype to production.  I realize there are a few products on the market already called "Trinity."  I came across a guitar amp head by some company and a master clock by Antelope Audio to name a couple off the top of my head.  Since starting the project 6 years ago, the design has radically changed.  It originally was 3 dual triode vacuum tubes and 3 audio transformers - thus the name.  In the latest version, it is 2 dual triode tubes, 1 pentode vacuum tube, 6 audio transformers, and an audio inductor.  I don't think "Trinity" says much about the product anymore, so please help me come up with a solid name.    

For the entire month of July I'm offering 10% off LBA products from my webstore in celebration of 10 years in business.  Special thanks to all my great customers over the past decade for supporting my creative endeavors.  I couldn't have made it work without your trust and investment, so thank you very much!  Have a great day :)

Mike:  Fire those girls up yet?  (Trinity's)
Sean:  Sure did!  I did end up using em on kick and snare to much success (new version on kick and old on snare).  I ended up going super clean with the kick with no EQ or anything.  And a touch of EQ on the snare with a little bit more input gain.  Sounding killer so far.
Mike:  That EQ should come in super handy for dialing in the guitar.
Sean:  Yeah, I'm stoked to try it on other things.  I've been extremely conservative with the EQ simply because I'm monitoring in the same room as tracking.  So it's a little tough to know exactly what's going on.  But, I think I really want to run stuff back through it after tracking to really juice stuff and experiment with the EQ more.
Sean:  Drums are sounding sweet.  Tomorrow we finish drums.  In all my editing work though I've been very stoked on the kick and snare sounds from the strips.  
Mike:  Well, you are one of a few people giving me feedback, so bring it on.
Sean:  Best descriptions so far would be.  Thick.  "Vibe".  Didn't use much EQ on kick (just a little lo boost and mid cut).  Little treble and brilliance on snare.  Really nice.
Sean:  Dude, so the Trinity strip has really been kicking ass on bass.  I haven't A/B'd the 2 units on it yet cuz I've just really been digging the mid control on the newer one.  I've found for my purposes, a small/medium boost of all 3 bands is really sweetening it up.  I experimented with the Thunder control and it sounded super bad ass, but I found with Dan's bass it was a little too much (he plays a Music Man with active pickups, so it's coming in pretty hot).  I actually found there was PLENTY of "vibe and dirt" without needing the Thunder or Ribbon settings.  We ran one song super clean (input around 2.5-3) and it had plenty of spank with a smooth upper mid/highs.  We ran another song on the more dirtier side (input only around 12:00).  It sounded nice with a mild bit of rasp/throatiness when he was in the middle registers of the bass, but really brought out a nice growl when he moved down low and laid into his low D (we tune down to D standard).  It's all been sounding super silky and smooth (even when slightly dirty).  But the way it butters up the low end is suuuuper sweet.
Mike:  What were your favorite frequency selections for Bass EQ?  Still not tasting the brilliance?
Sean:  I know I have a touch of brilliance going (maybe like 2:00).  I think 200Hz for the low boost and boosting the mids at 2kHz.  Again prolly around 2:00.  Just giving it a little bit of clarity and attack.  But nothin crazy. 
Mike:  Have you tracked guitar?
Sean:  Haven't done guitars yet, but should be sometime next week.  I have gone pretty conservative with EQ so far cuz some of the songs are gonna have real thick walls of guitar and I don't wanna get myself in trouble.  I plan on running stuff back through the unit once I have more of the layers in.  Then I'll get more aggressive once I have a better idea of how much room I'll have.  
Mike:  Understood.  Depends on the mics too.
Sean:  I went fully DI so far with bass.  I reamped live and recorded an amp track with a 421 mostly just for reference.
Mike:  Was the bass through the TI Box?
Sean:  Nope.  Straight into Trinity.  Split back out via the interface control with virtually no latency into a reamp box, then pedalboard and amp.
Mike:  I love the bass sound direct into a Trinity.
Sean:  I honestly don't think anyone would need anything more from a channel strip for bass.  It just nails it.  I mean of course there isn't one solution for every audio need in existence.  But it's certainly kickin ass.  It definitely has a vibe and signature which is super cool and extremely useful.  There's a very real possibility that almost every single instrument will go through the Trinity at some point on this record haha.  
Sean:  They sounded great on guitar.  I ended up pushin gain pretty hard to give a little extra dirt.  Ended up tweaking the EQ depending on the sound of that particular section.
Mike:  Nice.
Sean:  For heavy fuzz and distortion I cut the brilliance all the way down and tamed the highs.  That combined with the extra dirt was awesome.  
Mike:  Did you use the Thunder feature for that application?
Sean:  No I didn't.  I just needed a little extra push.  The Thunder was a bit too much.
Mike:  How's the record coming?
Sean:  Good!  I think I finally have all the ridiculous layers of guitars done.  I reamped bass yesterday and it's sounding awesome.  Reamped Trinity strip bass DI into an old Ampeg V4.  Miced with a Warm Audio 87 clone into the Trinity strip with the Thunder function.  Beef city!
Mike:  Excellent.
Sean:  So Trinity squared for bass haha.
Mike:  I'm eagerly awaiting this new record.  Have a date yet?
Sean:  Hopefully wrapping up everything within the next 10 days.  Finally started vocals yesterday.  Did the Thunder function trick... sounded so sick... worked perfectly for what I was looking for.  Super present and dry, but full of "vibe".