Science Amplification collaborates with EAE's John Snyder for a superb Preamp Pedal take on their flagship Mother MKII Tube Amplifier

John Snyder seems to be consistently the hardest working man in this industry - and features on so many brand collaborations that sometimes it feels like he’s responsible for half of everything out there!

I’ve had this article in mind for a while, and over that period we’ve seen many a limited colourway editions for this pedal - where I’ve seen versions in green, and copper, silver, and white even I believe. I still feel that the original black take is a beautifully balanced creation - with exactly the right selection of knobs and control topology.

This is one of those JFET Tube circuit recreations that John Snyder does so well. You get the typical expansive 3-Band EQ here, but also 2 further more specialist controls - Absence and Depth. The first of which deals with the higher frequencies and harmonics of the pedal - where you can smooth those out (hence ’Absent’ them from the circuit), or else enhance those harmonics. While the Depth control tackles the low end - in a not altogether dissimilar way to a more typical resonance control.

The original Mother MKII Amp can be ordered with either EL34, 6L6 or KT88 output tubes.

Controls - CHANNEL A } Loudness A, Gain A; CHANNEL B } Loudness B, Gain B, UNIVERSAL } Bass, Middle, Treble, Absence (Harmonics), Depth (Lows), Channel A/B Footswitch, Bypass/Mute Footswitch.

It’s actually a really wonderful sounding preamp - super versatile, and fairly crisp and distinct from anything else out there. This is a larger format pedal, so possibly not perfect for my own setup - but it’s exceptionally finely engineered and has been wonderfully well received by most.

I don’t think John Snyder has it in him to make a bad pedal, and some of his are very fine indeed - with this one high among that number.

This is a beautifully expressive, dynamic and characterful whole gain section for your board / rig - where everyone who’s come into contact with it seems to love it. Definitely down on my list as a nice-to-have, while very much an essential for many!

These are made in fairly small batches - which seem to get snapped up very quickly. Note as I mentioned at the start - that there are some limited colourway editions in circulation too at various dealers.

The Mother JFET Dual Channel Preamp goes for $299 on the Science Amplification Webstore, and for UK customers is handily stocked by my good friend Joe Light at Joe’s Pedals Boutique - priced at £299.