Tube Distortion Pedals -- NOT starved plate

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workshed
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Tube Distortion Pedals -- NOT starved plate

Post by workshed » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:57 am

I'm looking into tube-driven disortion pedals that are not starved plate design to potentially use as a preamp to my tube amp. I've seen the EH ones and heard the sound samples, but most of the sound samples sound not so pleasing to me. I don't know if it's the operators of the sound samples, or just the characteristic of the pedals' tones.

Then there are all the other options out there, and it's hard to tell which ones are starved plate, or actually run the tubes at full voltage. Anyone have any suggestions?

-Bret

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Post by kayagum » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:21 am

The classic is the Tube Driver. Others include the Ibanez Tone King. Zen Budda, Mesa makes a couple (some of you may laugh, but if Richard Thompson likes them....), and I personally own and love the SIB Varidrive and Fatdrive. I believe all of them are at full voltage.

Most of these pedals take a 12ax7, which means you can swap it out for any number of other pedals, depending on what tone you want. I currently have a 12au7 on my Varidrive for my baritone. 12ay7, 5751, start rolling your own!

What I think the tube pedals have has less to do with the "tube distortion" (although the effect is there) and more about preserving/enhancing some bottom end. On that score, even something like the Sparkledrive (with the clean blend) or a bass-specific OD/drive/fuzz like the Fulltone Bassdrive can be useful.

Other people should chime in with their favorites. There are a few of these out there!

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Post by workshed » Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:55 am

kayagum wrote:The classic is the Tube Driver. Others include the Ibanez Tone King. Zen Budda, Mesa makes a couple (some of you may laugh, but if Richard Thompson likes them....), and I personally own and love the SIB Varidrive and Fatdrive. I believe all of them are at full voltage.

Most of these pedals take a 12ax7, which means you can swap it out for any number of other pedals, depending on what tone you want. I currently have a 12au7 on my Varidrive for my baritone. 12ay7, 5751, start rolling your own!

What I think the tube pedals have has less to do with the "tube distortion" (although the effect is there) and more about preserving/enhancing some bottom end. On that score, even something like the Sparkledrive (with the clean blend) or a bass-specific OD/drive/fuzz like the Fulltone Bassdrive can be useful.

Other people should chime in with their favorites. There are a few of these out there!
Thanks! I used to have an Ibanez Tube King many years ago that I liked a lot, but it was stolen from me. However, I just found out that those are starved plate. I'll check out the Tone King though. The bass player for my band has an old Fulltone Bassdrive that he never uses and he may be willing to let me use it or even sell it to me. It's an older one with the blue case. I'll have to try it out. Thanks for the suggestions!

-Bret

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Post by kayagum » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:03 pm

My bad... the "Tone King" is really the Tube King, and yes, all of the "Tube Driver" types are starved plate. That being said, I've had pretty good luck with them in the past.

Zen- there is also a Phatman, which is 25% less gain than the Budda Zen Man.



Sorry to spread bad info. :oops:
Last edited by kayagum on Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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workshed
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Post by workshed » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:13 pm

kayagum wrote:My bad... the "Tone King" is really the Tube King, and yes, all of the "Tube Driver" types are starved plate. That being said, I've had pretty good luck with them in the past.

Zen- there is also a Phatman, which is 25% less gain than the Budda Zen Man.

Mesa-

Sorry to spread bad info. :oops:
No worries! I kinda wondered when I went to search for tone king and came up with nothing. :-) I did like the Tube King quite a bit, I was sad when that got stolen. Thanks again.

Anyone know about the damage control pedals? They appear to be full voltage:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar/n ... 001+203070

I don't want one of their metal shredder style pedals, but the more classic rock ones, like the womanizer, might be cool. Direct out for recording, too!

-Bret

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Post by stereopathetic_banjo » Thu Oct 12, 2006 12:46 pm

You might want to check out some older Hughes and Kettner pedals- all of which run high voltage. I have the Tube Factor, and altho it's not my default pedal for everything(I'm more of a fuzz guy), when i need a nicely driven amp, it does the trick very well. I recorded a punk-ish band a few months back, and they we're psyched on the tone. And a few years back, i recorded a sludgey metal band thru the same setup, and they dug it as well....so there you go. Good luck on your search!

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Post by KennyLusk » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:15 pm

The most incredible tone I've ever gotten from a tube driven stomp box is the Tubester by the Hot Chile Tube Compay, hands down. And the silver wiring is totally worth the xtra $50.
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Post by inflatable » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:57 am

I've never been a fan of tube->tube overdrive. I have an Ibanez Tube Screamer. It's a solid state overdrive (I'm sure you know this already). I have the DX model which has additional tone controls for more bass, etc. I run it into a vintage? (1997) Blues Deluxe. I can't turn the amp past 4, but when I use the Tube Screamer it gets all warm and fuzzy. Just like Mom used to make.

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Post by mjau » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:02 am

inflatable wrote:I've never been a fan of tube->tube overdrive. I have an Ibanez Tube Screamer. It's a solid state overdrive (I'm sure you know this already). I have the DX model which has additional tone controls for more bass, etc. I run it into a vintage? (1997) Blues Deluxe. I can't turn the amp past 4, but when I use the Tube Screamer it gets all warm and fuzzy. Just like Mom used to make.
Yep, same here. If the amp has a master volume, a boost pedal can do wonders for driving the input stage nicely. I have 3 boost dedicated boost pedals now, but virtually any overdrive pedal with a volume knob works.

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Post by luckybastard » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:19 am

Bad Cat 2 tone. that's it. 2 channels. one clean that can get a nice ac30ish overdrive. the other is high gain that can get you anywhere from nice marshall tones to that hard to get qotsa sound. i've had the chandler tube driver and mesa vtwin. neither can hold a candle to this pedal. peace.

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Post by getreel » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:24 am

I used to have a black "Real Tube" pedal that sounded really good for what it was. I think it was a starved plate design though....but I don't know. I gave it to a friend when I got a Maxon OD-9 and Fulltone FDII.

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Re: Tube Distortion Pedals -- NOT starved plate

Post by SMC Productions » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:51 pm

workshed wrote:I'm looking into tube-driven disortion pedals that are not starved plate design to potentially use as a preamp to my tube amp. I've seen the EH ones and heard the sound samples, but most of the sound samples sound not so pleasing to me. I don't know if it's the operators of the sound samples, or just the characteristic of the pedals' tones.

Then there are all the other options out there, and it's hard to tell which ones are starved plate, or actually run the tubes at full voltage. Anyone have any suggestions?

-Bret
Only one that I know of, that *IS* high voltage, and NOT starved plate is the Damage Control pre's. I have the Demonizer, and it definitely ROCKS. I LOVE it! http://www.damagecontrolusa.com/dmz.htm
Calcitra Clunis
http://smcstudios.we.bs/

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