Mercury Pre-Amp Booster (warm grey)

This is a point to point pre-amp boost based on the 1950’s Hofner Pre-amp. Back in those days, guitar amps weren’t as available as today, so people would plug their guitars into old tube radios. Only problem was the signal impedance was mismatched, resulting in a weak and muddy sounding guitar tone. The Hofner Pre’s were designed to correct this signal loss when playing through household tube radios. Later, guitar players discovered that this simple little pre-amp boost would drive a guitar tube amp into glorious overdrive.

The original Hofner design had two RCA style output jacks and no volume control. I've added a master volume, similar to the R2R modifications that combine the circuit voicing of the Hofner Pre, and the Dallas Rangemaster master volume/boost. This unit is powered by an NPN Germanium transistor. That means you can daisy chain this with all your other standard center negative pedals, yay!

I love these unique sewing machine foot pedals from the 50's and 60's. Seems fitting to house a vintage circuit in an enclosure from the same era. I modified the foot pedal by adding a little rubber bushing under the step plate. This has two functions. Reducing the gap between the switch and the step plate for better response, and it just feels better to turn on. I also added a grip pad so you don't slip in the middle of your gig ;)

Features:

- Germanium OC140
- Carbon comp resistors
- Phillips and CDE coupling capacitors
- Point to point circuit design and original layout
- Cliff jacks
- Lumberg DC jack (center negative)
- Gørva Design foot switch
- Vintage Mercury Electric enclosure