The Lawbreaker - official product page
All-tube. 4 watts RMS into 8 or 16 ohms. Guitar amplifier/pedal. Literal tube power amp in a pedal configuration. Tubes: two 12AX7's, one JLA "LBT4" dual triode output tube [what standard tube number is this? which tube is double-triode and can be used as a power tube?]. Both channels (lead or clean) feed enough signal to saturate the power amp stage for full power tube saturation. Class A single-ended output stage.
Line Out - attenuated [using dummy load] power amp output 1/4" jack with volume control [is this a variable power attenuator? can't be post op-amp, if "all tube"] to match [final monitor] amp signal level to guitar [Lawbreaker?] output level.
Speaker out - 1/4" inch jack with impedance selector switch for 8 or 16 ohms. When speaker is unplugged, dummy load is automatically switched in to allow power amp to be overdriven without damaging the unit.
Recording/DI Out - XLR/ 1/4" jack combo socket provides balanced or unbalanced attenuated [has dummy load] and frequency compensated [has cabinet response simulator filter] output for direct injection or silent recording.
Headphone Out - 1/4" output supplies attenuated and frequency compensated signal so you can play cranked for hours without disturbing the neighbors. [This is a good feature; I'll buy that. It has a line-level out, using dummy load; a full-power out, for directly driving a speaker, *and*, a *partial-power* out, perhaps using a fixed-amount power attenuator].
Effects loop - 1/4" jacks provide Preamp Out and Power Amp In connections to allow effects to be switched in and out using the Bypass switch. Helps reduce noise in other effects units by placing them after the high gain of the preamp. [I would also design a low-end stripped-down unit, eliminating the preamp distortion and the effects loop, to reduce the cost. Eliminate XLR.]
Control panel: Channel Select and Bypass foot-activated optically coupled switches. Panel illuminates either red for Channel 1 or green for Channel 2. Color flashes in Bypass mode. Works only with main Output jack when the Lawbreaker is used as an overdrive/effects device. [as opposed to?]
Channel 1: 3-stage, all-tube pre-amp section designed to give a wide variety of sounds from clean to full blown death metal overdrive. 3-band interactive equalization provides an infinite variety of voicings [is this pre-distortion? probably post-distortion, before the power tubes]. Master Volume 1 allows total control over your output level to Effects Send jack [what is the label text?] and Power Amp jack [what is the label?]
Channel 2: 2-stage all tube pre-amp supplies crystal clear highs and warm deep bass but with enough gain to dirty up nicely for that classic bluesy growl. Channel 2 dedicated 3-band EQ for wide control over your clean or second overdrive tone shaping. Master volume 2 allows total control over your output level to effects send and power amp. [total control doesn't mean it affects Channel 1, does it?]
[I'm predicting that future amps will need 3 volume controls: preamp distortion gain, power tube saturation amount, and final overall level]
110/220V operation. 9" wide, 7 1/4" deep, 3" high. Steel casing. Removable vented grill provides ventilation and safe, easy access to tubes.
Lawbreaker production is set to run in the first quarter of 1999. Planned price: $599 list.
Ken Brakebill probably has the marketing literature.
>Michael,
>I am looking for any info you might have on either the Jarrod Lee Lawbreaker, a recording amp designed for power-tube saturation at lower room noise levels.
David Coffin owned the Ampulator, owns the VG-8, Hi-Mu 7 watt tube amp, and the Folded Space Micro Room, and like Ken Brakebill, knows a lot about quiet cranked-tube-amp devices.
David Coffin wrote:
>Michael,
>On the horizon, there's the Jarrod Lee Lawbreaker, a tiny Matchless Hotbox/stompbox type of thing with a built-in 4-watt tube power section, to be available after the next NAMM (I played thru a prototype in Jarrod's living room recently and ordered one on the spot). This is an all-tube, $500, 2-channel (clean and lead, each has master, vol, and three tone knobs) device that sounds incredible driving a cabinet at very resonable levels. I didn't even GET to the lead channel, the clean one was so responsive.
*Good* sign. Very important and hard to achieve. Mere screaming distortion is all too easy to get. It should get a good "edge of breakup" sound.
>His little 4X8 "Hooker" combos, which have the same guts as the Lawbreakers but more juice, guitar speakers, and cabinet, totally wiped the floor, IMHO, with a Mesa Boogie Traxis/290 power-amp/dual-4x12-cabinets rig I auditioned shortly thereafter.
>I plan to mate my Lawbreaker with a Micro Room speaker isolation cabinet, following your recommendations.
For what it's worth, the Micro Room got a bad review in the November 1996 Electronic Musician. But I don't believe reviews of this type of equipment. Guitar Player happened to give a positive review of the Demeter speaker isolation cabinet, which is bigger and more straightforward.
>You can get specs for the Lawbreaker -- if you're not already on the case! -- from Jarrod at jlatube2 at aol.com, or 213-733-3796.
>I haven't heard anything but the demo tape of the Micro Room, but it seems it would be an ideal load device, even if the miked sound wasn't super-happening. Am I way off base here?
You might need to modify the Micro Room or have the manufacturer provide a way to bypass the attenuator. You probably shouldn't interrupt the communication path from the guitar speaker back to the power tubes.
I would love to try out the Micro Room as well as the Silent Speaker Chamber. But designers, don't you see, can't you see it -- we don't want a conventional but low-power tube amp with conventional speaker, and then as a separate purchase, a speaker isolation cabinet with speaker and mic, and of course, to make things even more complicated, a separate flat amp and flat monitor speaker... we want all this in a single package. (The alternative is a power-tube-plus-load "pedal" such as the ADA Ampulator or H&K Blues Master.)
Here are the 19 hits so far:
Messages 1-19 of exactly 19 matches for search Lawbreaker:
Date Scr Subject Newsgroup Author
1. 98/10/15 021 Re: Q: which guitar preamp f alt.guitar Michael
2. 98/10/15 020 Re: Q: which guitar preamp f alt.guitar Michael
3. 98/07/19 017 Re: Are high-powered tube am alt.guitar.amps Puentstein
4. 98/06/24 017 Re: If $ were no object--Wha alt.guitar.amps Puentstein
5. 97/05/28 017 Re: JLA Lawbreaker! 4-watt M alt.guitar.amps Anwari
6. 97/05/28 017 Re: JLA Lawbreaker! 4-watt M alt.guitar.amps Anwari
7. 98/02/07 016 Where is Jarrod Lee? alt.guitar.amps richman1
8. 97/12/31 016 very low powered amps with d alt.guitar.amps Puentstein
9. 97/05/28 016 JLA Lawbreaker! 4-watt Monst alt.guitar.amps Steve
10. 97/05/28 016 JLA AMPS--"Lawbreaker" alt.guitar.amps Steve
11. 97/05/22 016 JARROD LEE IG 290?? alt.guitar.amps Steve
12. 97/05/18 016 Re: WANTED Small High-End Tu alt.guitar.amps Dpcoffin
13. 97/03/11 015 Re: JARROD LEE AMPS? alt.guitar.amps Dpcoffin
14. 97/06/03 014 Re: 4 Watt Amps--12" speaker alt.guitar Tom Shaw
15. 97/05/29 014 Re: Debate: Cranking amp#1/3 alt.guitar.amps Steve
16. 97/03/20 014 Re: V-twin alt.guitar.amps Ken Brakebill
17. 97/03/14 014 Re: STEREO 6V6 AMP INFO alt.guitar.amps Ken Brakebill
18. 97/01/09 014 Re: Best way to record guita alt.guitar Dpcoffin
19. 97/05/29 013 Re: Debate: Cranking amps alt.guitar.amps Steve
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