Anasounds Tape Preamp full kit

The Anasounds Tape Preamp full kit is a DIY boost pedal you assemble yourself. Anasounds positions it as "an ultra versatile and unique boost," and the manual describes it as usable "as a simple colored boost, or as an overdrive"¹². The circuit is analog, built around a JFET preamp, and its development started from the transistor preamp of a famous US-made tape echo produced between 1970 and 1991¹.

Anasounds says the pedal "sounds as fat and vibey as the actual preamp from a tape echo," with what the product page calls "a huge organic and juicy sound"¹. The idea traces back to how players used those old echo units: running the preamp alone, without the echo, as a dirty boost to push an amp into saturation while adding its own character.

A boost built on a tape echo preamp

The Tape Preamp began as an FX Teacher project by the Anasounds team, designed so a builder can "assemble and customize a legendary effect yourself, while learning the basics of electronics"¹⁴. The starting point was the transistor preamp section of a well-known US tape echo from the 1970s, a unit that stayed in production until 1991¹.

Anasounds is candid that the vintage roots are part of the sound. The manual notes the circuit "is inspired by vintage schematics, which have their own defaults that contribute to the sound of the circuit"². The original tape echo circuit is known to have operated at 25V, which Anasounds credits for the preamp's great dynamic range⁵.

The controls

The pedal keeps its control set simple: two knobs and a three-position switch¹⁴.

The Dynamic knob is the unusual one. A special power supply circuit inside the pedal varies the voltage from 3 to 27V⁶. Delicious Audio describes the top end of that range: "At the maximum, 27V headroom and a perfectly calibrated bias, for an open and dynamic preamp, which will respond to the attack"⁷. At the other extreme, the maker's own description is a "broken console type preamp"⁵.

The manual also suggests a starting point for a dynamic boost setting: Dynamic at maximum for optimal headroom, with the Bass switch in the middle for bass cut and more precision².

On the Bass switch, the up position gives the voicing of the original preamp, with deep and thick basses⁵.

What the kit includes

The full kit is the complete package: everything you need to build the pedal, with the enclosure already drilled¹.

• One Tape Preamp PCB
• One Tape Preamp enclosure with FX Teacher design and all holes already drilled
• One true bypass kit with 3PDT
• The electronic components, organized for assembly¹⁴

Inside the enclosure you find a bag 0 containing the PCB with the LED and JFET already soldered, plus four bags of components you work through in order⁴. The JFET being pre-soldered matters here: it is the heart of the circuit, and it is the part most easily damaged by handling.

The enclosure is also sold separately as a spare parts kit, with the Anasounds design and all the holes already drilled, useful for replacing a damaged enclosure or for builders who bought the electronic kit and want a pre-drilled box⁸.

Where the circuit comes from

The lineage runs from a famous US-made tape echo built between 1970 and 1991¹. Players of that era discovered the unit's internal preamp made a fine overdrive on its own, pushing their amps into saturation while adding its own character. The Tape Preamp isolates that preamp stage and puts it in a pedal, with the Dynamic knob extending what the original could do: instead of a fixed operating voltage, it sweeps from 3 to 27V⁵⁶.

Anasounds contrasts the result with a neutral volume boost: the FX Teacher Tape Preamp "gets you that big warm original JFET sound instead of turning it into a tame clean boost"¹. The trade-off is that this is a colored boost by design, with the vintage circuit's quirks baked in².

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