Is your lunchbox looking a little empty recently? Even if you answered "no," you might want to consider making space for the new Radial Engineering JDX-LB, a 500-series lunchbox-compatible version of their one-of-a-kind guitar amplifier D.I. This is one of those rare situations where having a full lunchbox actually makes you life more complicated -- what module do you jettison to make room for the JDX-LB?

The original JDX was designed to be placed between a guitar amplifier head and cabinet to supply a direct, cabinet-emulating tone to the board for live or studio use. The JDX can either replace or work in conjunction with a microphone to either speed up setup or generate fatter guitar tones. Apparently, in conjunction with Radial's Phazer phase-alignment box, the JDX yields some stupidly fat tones. One caveat: it seems to me that the best placement for any kind of direct box would be as close to the amplifier as possible, to keep the thru-put cable run as short as possible. Wouldn't putting the JDX in your lunch box make that impossible? Hmm. . .

Radial Engineering introduced the LB series at the 125th AES convention in San Francisco in August of this year, and the JDX D.I. at Winter NAMM 2007. Now, at this upcoming Winter NAMM 2009 they will show off the JDX-LB. Do you detect the pattern? That's right, Peter Janis, CEO of Radial Engineering is the dreaded Zodiac Engineer.

The price of the Radial JDX-LB has yet to be determined.