The Super Forty

PREAMP

The Super Forty pedal is a pedal-format re-imagining of the vintage Ashly SC-40 instrument preamplifier, as famous for use by many bassists. It offers controls for Level, Gain, and a semi-parametric 3-band EQ, with independent sweepable frequency controls and ±15 dB boost or cut per band. The low and high bands are shelf-type EQs, while the mid band is a peak-type EQ, giving flexible tonal shaping across Low (20–300 Hz), Mid (160 Hz–8 kHz), and Hi (700 Hz–8 kHz) ranges. Additional toggle switches let you engage symmetric silicon-diode distortion clipping, choose EQ Pre/Post in the signal chain, and set the input sensitivity to High or Low depending on instrument- or line-level input. The pedal runs on a standard Boss-style 9 V DC power supply; internally it uses a SMPS to generate ±15 V, giving the equivalent of a 30 V supply for increased headroom.