Aquaria

Legendary Overdrive

## Description

### Graphic

The graphic is an etching of a mermaid in profile readying to blow into a conch shell.

### Controls

* Tone - Active high-pass filter
* Clip switch - Switches between germanium, Schottky, or silicon clipping diodes
* Gain - Input gain
* Level - Output master volume with up to 6dB boost
* Boost - Output gain of the boost circuit (12dB)
* Clean - Mixes in clean signal
* Bass - Active bass frequency (40-100hz) EQ cut/boost (up to 16dB)
* Lo-mid - Active low mid-range frequency (400hz) EQ (up to 16dB)
* Hi-mid - Active high mid-range frequency (800hz) EQ (up to 16dB)
* High - Active treble frequency (4,000-10,000hz) EQ (up to 16dB)
* EQ footswitch - SmartRelay footswitch, toggles boost and EQ section on and off
* Bypass footswitch - SmartRelay footswitch, engages and bypasses effect
* Buffer switch (internal) - switches between buffered and true bypass modes

### Jacks

#### Top

* In - Signal input
* 9v - 9 volt, center negative power adaptor input
* Out - Signal output

### Webstore Description

> The *Aquaria* is our hommage to what is possibly the most sought after Overdrive in the world!
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> While we wanted to give you all the sounds of the original we of course didn’t stop there: we added a three-way clipping switch to tailor the saturation and compression to your liking: choose between smooth sounding germanium diodes, a modern modern take with a combination of schottky diodes and a smoothing capacitor or silicon diodes that give you more headroom but also a harsher almost distortionesque sound!
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> While the horseman-ancestor of our Aquaria gets it’s signature sound from mixing more clean signal as you increase gain we decided to split this function into two separate controls that allow you to use it as a perfect clean-boost, raunchy distortion or as the classic transparent drive we think of when seeing a hybrid creature on a pedals artwork. We also kept the principle of the original tone control but improved the response drastically.
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> In addition to these tweaks we added a footswitchable 4-band EQ with perfectly chosen bands and a second master volume that we called “boost”: dial in Aquaria to have the ideal frequency spectrum for your situation, use it as a two-channel device or simply as an EQ: limitless possibilities!
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> Aquaria feels equally at home in front of a clean channels as well as a drive to push your amp really over the edge! Last but not least we added a small internal switch that lets you choose between the infamous Klon-bypass buffer and true bypass operation!
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> Features:
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> * Lichtlaerm Audio Smart Relay technology
> * transparent overdrive, clean-boost and EQ pedal
> * germanium, schottky or silicon clipping
> * clean & saturated gain controls
> * 4-band EQ with up to 16dB cut/boost per band, non-interactive, constant-Q
> * low noise, high headroom (27V internally created)
> * bass: 40-100hz, low mid: 400hz, high mid: 800hz, treble: 4000-10000hz
> * up to 6dB full range boost via volume control
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## History

### 2022

The first appearance of the Aquaria was in the announcement of Lichtlaerm's relaunch on July 1, 2022. It was shown alongside five other pedals that would be returning from the original run - the Aesahaettr, the Key and the Gate, the .Ritual., the Altar, and the Amber Spyglass - as well as an unknown seventh pedal with no faceplate.

On July 11, 2022, the Aquaria became the first new pedal to join the Lichtlaerm line-up after the relaunch of the company. The circuit was based on the Klon Centaur overdrive with three selectable clipping diodes and an additional Boost section with four band active EQ for up to 12dB of boost.

Aquaria official announcement, 2022/07/11Aquaria circuit, 2022/07/11

On November 1, 2022, a run of white and silver, and white and gold color variant Aquarias were released alongside color variants of the Aesahaettr, the .Ritual., and the Altar. Each was limited to five pieces. The post did not include an image of the white and gold version.

### 2023

On September 17, 2023, in a post on Lichtlaerm's social media pages regarding Guitar Summit 2023, it was revealed that all pedals in production going forward would feature white text and pedals with dual footswitches (except for the two reverb pedals, the Transcendence and the Untiefe) would feature dual bi-color LED indicators rather than a single bi-color LED.

## Videos

### 2022

* July 31 - Max Power's Tasty Tones
* August 4 - That Sounds Terrible (with Gojira Drive)
* September 1 - That Sounds Terrible
* October 21 - Sonic Drive Studio

### 2023

* February 19 - Red Dragon
* October 4 - Mad Steex (feature explanation by Daniel with full Guitar Summit 2023 line)
* November 13 - Ens\_Bass (bass demo with the King in Yellow, Altar, Medusa, Gehenna, and Electric Roots Meatgrinder, Lilith v1, and Lilith v2)