Source Audio ZIO Analog Front End + Boost

The Source Audio ZIO is the kind of pedal that makes everything else on your board sound better - four analog preamp voices, up to +20dB of boost, and a use case for every position in your signal chain.

Every guitarist has experienced it - that gap between the tone in your head and what's actually coming out of your amp. The ZIO Analog Front End + Boost exists to close that gap.

At its core, the ZIO is an all-analog preamp and boost pedal with four distinct circuit voices: a transparent JFET boost, a LOW-CUT for tightening up a tubby low end, a STUDIO setting inspired by the classic Pultec studio technique for added clarity and midrange articulation, and E-PLEX, which captures the subtle, focused grit of a vintage Echoplex preamp. Each voice offers up to +20dB of boost, and a three-way TONE toggle adjusts capacitance to simulate different cable lengths - brightening or darkening your tone as needed.

Where you place it in your chain determines what it does: up front it shapes everything downstream, after your drives it sweetens and balances, at the end of your board it drives long cable runs without tone loss, and in your amp's effects loop it can push the power amp harder or compensate for level mismatches. Source Audio's first all-analog pedal, built in collaboration with Christopher Venter of SHOE Pedals - and one of the most versatile utility tools we've had on the board in years.