Gamechanger Audio Plasma Coil Effects Pedal
The Plasma Coil is a version of the Plasma Pedal designed in collaboration with Jack White (The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs) and his company Third Man Records. Jack White uses the Plasma Coil on the latest Raconteurs album Help Us Stranger and the subsequent tour.
The Plasma Coil takes high-voltage distortion even further by adding intense and unique upper and lower octave effects by pushing the high-voltage transformer:
- 2 subharmonic modes (lower octave with a bit crush character).
- 1 high harmonic mode (upper octave with an octafuzz character).
- 2 mixed modes (combined high and low harmonics).
It’s the wild sibling of the Plasma Pedal. The octave effects add massive lows and highs to the higher notes and extreme, intense gain to the lower notes. The simplified signal path is as follows:
Input > Equalization > Octave/Effect > High-voltage Transformer > Xenon Tube > Antenna that picks up electromagnetic vibrations around the tube > Output.
The Plasma Coil uses a standard 9 Volt center-negative power supply (not included) at 250mA. The xenon tube’s lifespan is between 10,000 and 70,000 hours of play and it is replaceable if needed.
How does it work?
The PLASMA product series is a revolutionary approach in the field of overdrive and distortion, as it is a new, unexplored method to achieve signal clipping.
Instead of using LED circuits, transistors, or vacuum tubes to produce overdrive, PLASMA technology transforms your instrument’s live signal into a series of continuous high-voltage discharges inside a xenon-filled tube.
You play a lightning bolt.
In fact, you play an electric spark, and the electrical discharges produced by your instrument are instantly reconverted into an analog audio signal, producing fast, responsive, and extremely heavy distortion with tons of unique character!
A full plasma sound
The PLASMA coil does not have a BLEND knob – when engaged, it produces a fully WET signal created by the PLASMA tube circuit.
The pedal’s output can be shaped using a main VOLUME knob and two powerful EQ knobs (LOW Freq, Hi Freq), each capable of providing significant volume boost within their respective frequency ranges.
Voltage control
The VOLTAGE KNOB lets you adjust the amount of current sent to the Xenon tube – effectively increasing or decreasing the threshold needed to create an electrical discharge inside the tube.
Lower VOLTAGE settings allow you to achieve extreme contrasts between individual notes and eliminate all intermediate noise created by the instrument’s pickups or buzzing strings.
When the VOLTAGE setting is high, the PLASMA coil is very sensitive to any input signal, allowing you to create very long sustained lines. However, you can still use your instrument’s volume knob or palm-muting techniques to control the gating effect.
FX Modes
The PLASMA Coil features a specially designed multi-mode FX section with six types of octave-down and octave-up circuits.
Subharmonics are produced by modulating the voltage of the Xenon tube with multiple divisions of the instrument’s fundamental frequency, resulting in a distorted, glitchy octave-down sound somewhere between ring modulation and bit-crush effect. Upper harmonics are produced using a full-wave rectifier and band-pass filter, creating an octa-fuzz type sound with a distinct boost of the 2nd harmonic (perceived as an upper octave effect).
FX footswitch
The PLASMA Coil includes an additional footswitch to control the octave/boost FX section. The FX footswitch can be set to LATCHING or MOMENTARY mode using a two-position toggle switch located on the pedal’s rear panel.
Specifications:
- Input type: 1/4" TS unbalanced
- Input impedance: 1MΩ
- Maximum input level: 7Vpp (+10dBu)
- Output type: 1/4" TS unbalanced
- Output impedance: 100Ω
- Maximum output level: 7Vpp (+10dBu)
- Power connector: 2.1 x 5.5 mm center-negative barrel jack (standard 9V)
- Frequency response: 20 Hz to 22 kHz
- EQ LOW FREQ Boost/Cut: ± 9dB, corner frequency 600Hz
- EQ HI FREQ Boost/Cut: ± 10dB, corner frequency 1.5kHz
- Indicator: White LED control indicator
- Connectors: IN, OUT, DC input
- Power supply: 300mA, 9VDC
- Peak power consumption: 2.7 W
- Average power consumption: 1 W
- Standby power consumption: 0.025 W
- Dimensions: 148 mm * 96 mm * 70 mm
- Weight: 840 g
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