Vein-Tap.com Leech

The Vein-Tap.com Leech is a passive volume attenuator in pedal form, made by Vein-Tap.com and announced in August 2017. It is built to sit in an amplifier's effects loop and turn the loop's send level down, so a player can run the amp's output stage hard and still get what the maker calls "juiced tone at bedroom levels, for less than the price of a round of drinks!"¹

What it does

The Leech is a passive device: it does not power or process the signal, it attenuates it. Vein-Tap.com describes it as "a great little switch that can bleed a beautiful crunch or clean sound out of a lead amp channel, adding an extra d[imension]" to the amp's sound⁴. In practice, that means turning the loop level down while the amp itself stays pushed, which is the usual way to get power-tube drive at home-friendly volumes.

Because it is passive, it needs no power supply of its own; the product page lists it as a "Passive Volume Guitar Attenuator with LED Indicator"².

Where to put it

Placement matters with this pedal, and Vein-Tap.com's support article is blunt about it¹:

Vein-Tap.com describes the Leech as "our fantastic new pedal" and has released a video demonstrating it³. The company's own materials are the place to look for placement guidance, since the Leech is a new release and published reviewer coverage of where it sits in a signal chain is not yet available.

The intended placements are:

• In the effects loop, the standard position, where it attenuates the loop's signal¹
• In front of the amp, but only when the amp has a parallel effects loop; the maker says "a Leech still makes your tone awesome put in front of the amp!" in that setup¹

Background

Vein-Tap.com announced the Leech in August 2017, with Ben from the company writing that "we here at Vein-Tap.com are beyond thrilled to announce The Leech"⁴. The company followed the announcement with a demo video the same month, describing the Leech as "our fantastic new pedal"³.

The Leech sits in the volume family of gear rather than the wah- or expression-style pedals that share the category; for the wider field, see the Volume Pedals page, or compare with products such as the Morley M2 Passive Volume or the Ernie Ball VPJR²³¹.

Videos

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