Third Man Hardware and Gamechanger Audio announce the PLASMA Coil, a special version of the PLASMA Pedal created by Gamechanger Audio and Third Man Records.
The PLASMA Coil is used by Jack White on the Raconteurs’ latest album Help Us Stranger, in the subsequent tour and upcoming projects.
At its heart is Gamechanger’s innovative High Voltage Distortion technology that expresses audio signal as a series of electrical discharges. Even though they’ve been printing the words: “High Voltage Rock’n’Roll” on t-shirts since 1973, PLASMA Distortion is the first commercial musical device that literally amplifies the audio signal to 3500 Volts.
Plasma Coil takes High Voltage distortion to new heights by adding multiple Octave-style circuits, and an additional Effects footswitch that can be toggled as latching or momentary.
Natural Noise Gate
As soon as you stop playing the electrical discharge within the gas-filled tube is interrupted, and the pedal will not produce any output signal at all. This feature allows you to achieve extreme contrasts between individual notes, by eliminating all of the in-between noises created by the instrument’s pick-ups or by humming strings.
Extremely Wide EQ
The PLASMA pedal loses the original dry input signal and creates a new signal from fluctuations in the electromagnetic field surrounding the gas-discharge tube. This allows for a very wide range of frequencies. Boost and cut the lows and highs with the dedicated knobs. The EQ can be switched to affect only the wet sound or dry sound, which is especially suitable for bass.
Unique Harmonic Saturation
PLASMA converts your instrument’s signal into a rapid series of electric discharges, which results in a large amount of non-linear harmonic saturation that causes extremely rich and responsive attacks, and brings out screeching sharp overtones and harmonics. These harmonic artifacts, produced as a by-product of the high voltage discharge are uncommon in traditional signal amplification, and therefore PLASMA Pedal’s distortion is unlike anything you have heard before.
Simplified Signal Chain:
Input -> EQ -> Octave/Effect -> Transformer to High Voltage -> Xenon Tube -> Antenna that picks up the electromagnetic vibrations surrounding the Tube -> Output
The expected life of the xenon tube is 10,000 to 70,000 hours of active playing. The xenon tube is replaceable.
We challenge you to find a single pedal that takes your sound from clean to this level of insanity, whilst still being fully playable both with power chords, low riffs and solos.