Land Devices EP-5

The Land Devices EP-5 is a boost/preamp pedal, a pedal that both raises your signal level and shapes its tone, built around the preamp unit of the Echoplex tape delay. It provides a boost and includes a buffer, the circuit that keeps your signal strong through long pedalboard chains, so it can sit at the front of a board doing two jobs at once.¹

What it does

The EP-5's circuit comes from the preamp section of the Echoplex, the vintage tape echo whose preamp has long been prized as a tone-shaping stage in its own right. Land Devices pairs that circuit with a buffer, so the pedal can add its own character while also driving the rest of a signal chain.¹

An internal charge pump doubles the voltage inside the pedal, which gives the circuit more headroom, meaning it can handle hotter input signals before clipping.¹

The pedal offers three voicing settings: glassy, fat and cranked. According to Delicious Audio's Paolo De Gregorio, it "can add warmth and sparkle to your cleans and fatten up your dirt or single coils with the EP5 button engaged to maximum gain." In practice that covers two common uses: a clean lift that brightens and warms an amp's clean channel, and a hotter setting that pushes overdrive or distortion pedals, or thickens the sound of single-coil pickups.¹

The EP-5 also ships with what the maker calls a mystery knob. According to a video by The Sound Parcel, turning it increases the "sweetness" of the sound.¹

Where it sits on a board

As a boost/preamp with a buffer, the EP-5 belongs to the broader family of boost pedals and preamp pedals, and its buffer function overlaps with what dedicated buffer pedals do. Players who use dirt pedals may also find it useful as a push in front of overdrive pedals or distortion pedals, which is the "fatten up your dirt" use De Gregorio describes.¹

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