Hagerman is throwing it back to the days of cathode TVs with their new Reactivator pedal. The Reactivator is a two-transistor, two-triode overdrive pedal that offers everything from a little extra crunchy warmth to some full-on growling distortion. The pedal employs a clean gain boost, the starved tube section from the Hagerman Valve pedal, and then finally a tonestack with output buffer.
“During the early days of TV, if a picture tube grew dim, servicemen could perform a trick called ‘reactivation,’ where heater voltage was overdriven to the point of regenerating a poisoned cathode, thus restoring brightness,” said Hagerman about the pedal name.
“That’s where the name of this pedal comes from! Increasing power from 9V to 12V adds another 6dB of gain for even higher performance. It may not reanimate dead tissue, but it will breathe new life into your guitar. This pedal is absolute magic.”