Tube Distortions - Opinions wanted

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:07 pm

[youtube][/youtube]

i quite like this. again the amps a little dirty

the isaac eaton · Post by **the isaac eaton** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:57 pm

Gah, nothing annoys me more then Dirt on the amp in a dirt pedal video.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:13 pm

I agree.
Fuck sake, if you have solid state and yo want teH valves these videos are wank. Not having a go at you Rob, just the numptys that make these videos.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:18 pm

sorry fran. where did you see the aria tube pedal? hardy smiths?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:58 pm

Progrockabuse wrote:sorry fran. where did you see the aria tube pedal? hardy smiths?

Ya' bastard, you want me to buy something shit so i sound like the gay0rx whilst your blazing away in Dorian Mode

Ideal instruments at Mansfield.. on ebay of all places. The guy (Wayne) that runs the shop is cool though, i would like to throw some custom his way.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:05 am

Fran wrote:
Progrockabuse wrote:sorry fran. where did you see the aria tube pedal? hardy smiths?
Ya' bastard, you want me to buy something shit so i sound like the gay0rx whilst your blazing away in Dorian Mode
Ideal instruments at Mansfield.. on ebay of all places. The guy (Wayne) that runs the shop is cool though, i would like to throw some custom his way.

lol you say dorian, i say it's just a little bendy thing cause i has ta bluez lol

is that wayne who used to own waynes guitar shack?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:17 am

Progrockabuse wrote:
Fran wrote:
Progrockabuse wrote:sorry fran. where did you see the aria tube pedal? hardy smiths?
Ya' bastard, you want me to buy something shit so i sound like the gay0rx whilst your blazing away in Dorian Mode
Ideal instruments at Mansfield.. on ebay of all places. The guy (Wayne) that runs the shop is cool though, i would like to throw some custom his way.
lol you say dorian, i say it's just a little bendy thing cause i has ta bluez lol

is that wayne who used to own waynes guitar shack?

I dunno mate, its a bit of a Metal Players shop to be honest. He is an ESP dealer. But he's got some odd nice bits in.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:11 am

ESP? wonder if he has that george lynch relic strat thingy? that thing is pretty nice

jamieb · Post by **jamieb** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:58 am

I use the Twin Tube Classic by SD. Love it, etc.

[youtube][/youtube]

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:36 pm

Thanks for the opinions everyone, i bit the bullet today-

I went down to that shop and tried the Aria out. Straight away it boomed through the Randall stack in there, very high gain, the best settings are around 12 o'clock then after that it gets crazy like a Big Muff on steroids. Pretty much the same delivery through a cheap Kustom solid state combo as well, minus the huge low end.
Its not a compressed sound, more like a roaring stack sound a bit messy round the edges- think Soundgarden/Black Sabbath.
The valve in it was a chinese 12AX7 so the guy threw in a Sovtek EHX 12AT7 with the deal as well. I've just tried the 12AT7 and in cleans things up a little, it is less voltage gain as far as i can gather from reading a little.
Trying it through my Marshall combo im well impressed, i can finally get rid of that half broken EHX Big Muff. Through the Crate Powerblock & 4x12 it also sounds great, exactly what i wanted! Low rumbling growl.
Up to yet i'd say it works better with solid state, its more controlled.

At this price its a great pedal but its not subtle, you cant really roll off to a Clapton crunch although i've only tested it with the Toronado and BC. But the idea of a versatile pedal where you can swap valves for different sound is brilliant and one of the things that attracted me to these pedals. Now i'm wondering how other valves may sound in it...

If anyone is interested i'll bring it to Doogfest, Mike could review it if he wants.

Dogma Hollow · Post by **Dogma Hollow** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:29 pm

Fran wrote:Thanks for the opinions everyone, i bit the bullet today-

I went down to that shop and tried the Aria out. Straight away it boomed through the Randall stack in there, very high gain, the best settings are around 12 o'clock then after that it gets crazy like a Big Muff on steroids. Pretty much the same delivery through a cheap Kustom solid state combo as well, minus the huge low end.
Its not a compressed sound, more like a roaring stack sound a bit messy round the edges- think Soundgarden/Black Sabbath.
The valve in it was a chinese 12AX7 so the guy threw in a Sovtek EHX 12AT7 with the deal as well. I've just tried the 12AT7 and in cleans things up a little, it is less voltage gain as far as i can gather from reading a little.
Trying it through my Marshall combo im well impressed, i can finally get rid of that half broken EHX Big Muff. Through the Crate Powerblock & 4x12 it also sounds great, exactly what i wanted! Low rumbling growl.
Up to yet i'd say it works better with solid state, its more controlled.

At this price its a great pedal but its not subtle, you cant really roll off to a Clapton crunch although i've only tested it with the Toronado and BC. But the idea of a versatile pedal where you can swap valves for different sound is brilliant and one of the things that attracted me to these pedals. Now i'm wondering how other valves may sound in it...

If anyone is interested i'll bring it to Doogfest, Mike could review it if he wants.

Swapping valves did a world of good for my H&K Tubeman. With the stock 12AX7 it was way too hot. Clean broke up early, channel 2 (mid level gain) couldn't be cut down to have just a little bite, and channel 3 (heavy gain) was unusable past 3 or 4, even for metal. I dropped in a gold plated JJ 12AU7 at the recommendation of Jay at Eurotubes, and it works beautifully now. Clean channel stays clean, channel 2 can be rolled back to be almost clean with just a tad of bite, and channel 3 can be either a nice chunky rock drive or you can crank the gain up halfway and it gets HEAVY FUCKING METAL.

I've not yet played a tube pedal where you couldn't get way more drive than you'd ever need out of it. I've always been on the lookout for a pedal that has a wider sweep on the less-than-ridiculous gain levels, but until then swapping tubes seems to solve the problem.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:25 pm

Dogma Hollow wrote:
Fran wrote:Thanks for the opinions everyone, i bit the bullet today-

I went down to that shop and tried the Aria out. Straight away it boomed through the Randall stack in there, very high gain, the best settings are around 12 o'clock then after that it gets crazy like a Big Muff on steroids. Pretty much the same delivery through a cheap Kustom solid state combo as well, minus the huge low end.
Its not a compressed sound, more like a roaring stack sound a bit messy round the edges- think Soundgarden/Black Sabbath.
The valve in it was a chinese 12AX7 so the guy threw in a Sovtek EHX 12AT7 with the deal as well. I've just tried the 12AT7 and in cleans things up a little, it is less voltage gain as far as i can gather from reading a little.
Trying it through my Marshall combo im well impressed, i can finally get rid of that half broken EHX Big Muff. Through the Crate Powerblock & 4x12 it also sounds great, exactly what i wanted! Low rumbling growl.
Up to yet i'd say it works better with solid state, its more controlled.

At this price its a great pedal but its not subtle, you cant really roll off to a Clapton crunch although i've only tested it with the Toronado and BC. But the idea of a versatile pedal where you can swap valves for different sound is brilliant and one of the things that attracted me to these pedals. Now i'm wondering how other valves may sound in it...

If anyone is interested i'll bring it to Doogfest, Mike could review it if he wants.
Swapping valves did a world of good for my H&K Tubeman. With the stock 12AX7 it was way too hot. Clean broke up early, channel 2 (mid level gain) couldn't be cut down to have just a little bite, and channel 3 (heavy gain) was unusable past 3 or 4, even for metal. I dropped in a gold plated JJ 12AU7 at the recommendation of Jay at Eurotubes, and it works beautifully now. Clean channel stays clean, channel 2 can be rolled back to be almost clean with just a tad of bite, and channel 3 can be either a nice chunky rock drive or you can crank the gain up halfway and it gets HEAVY FUCKING METAL.

I've not yet played a tube pedal where you couldn't get way more drive than you'd ever need out of it. I've always been on the lookout for a pedal that has a wider sweep on the less-than-ridiculous gain levels, but until then swapping tubes seems to solve the problem.

Cool, thanks for that. I'll look into the 12AU7, as the gain still gets mental past 12.00.
From reading HC user reviews on a lot of these tube pedals it seems tube changing is mandatory with most being supplied stock with chinese 12AX7s.
Dont get me wrong, i was looking for that 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' tone and got it, but opening more possibilities up at the other end would be a bonus.

Progrockabuse · Post by **Progrockabuse** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:46 pm

well pleased for you fran, sounds like a wicked pedal. pictures? is it on your pedalboard yet?

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:10 am

Has anyone tried the Behringer VT911? Just how bad is it? At that low price I'm wondering whether it's a good basis for tweaking.

Major drawback seems to be lack of a complete tone stack.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 4:25 pm

Never mind, I did some checking and it seems it's pretty bad but could be modified to be usable.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:28 pm

chisa wrote:have you looked at these

http://www.butleraudio.com/tubedriver.php

I have the 5-knob, black-and-yellow version from the 90's. I opened up a couple "clicker" pots and took the clickers out pretty quickly after buying it, because they made it hard to fine-tune the drive. Eventually I dug the 12AX7 out of all the goop he put in there to protect his secret design, and put in a 12AU7 to make things more manageable. That way I can use a much wider sweep of the drive control.

It's a decent pedal, but even with the 3-knob EQ I found it hard to get the sound I was after without getting too much fizz alongside it. It's like the midrange is voiced in the wrong place; a little too high, I think. The Real Tube Driver got bumped in favor of a couple solid-state kits and then my Ruetz-modded Rat. I pull the TD out from time to time to see what I think though.

As I recall reading, my version relies on an op amp for clipping, and then uses the tube to doctor the clipped wave. So it's a hybrid. I don't know if the current Butler pedals take that same approach, but I think they do.

SpaceFace · Post by **SpaceFace** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:26 pm

I dont kow what your price range is but I have the hughes & kettner tubefactor and that pedal is just really great sounding in my opinion, luckily I got one used for a decent price because they are a bit pricey. But none the less they are great sounding.

Ro S · Post by **Ro S** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 6:46 pm

I am new to the forum. I appreciate this thread is a bit old, but I have a suggestion for reasonably price overdrive/distortion with a real tube:

The Nady TD-1 Tube Distortion

See photo below

Found these two LINKS:
http://www.dirtbox.net/reviews/1184/nad ... istortion/
http://www.nady.com/td1.html

I think this pedal is now discontinued but can be found used on ebay sometimes.

The reviews on Harmony Central are very good.

The case contruction is very rugged.

It seems to have all the same controls as a Radial Tonebone.

'Happy to mention the Nady TD1 now that I've just recently managed to buy one second hand myself for about Â£50 GBP in extremely good condition.

Johno · Post by **Johno** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:24 am

Ro S wrote:I am new to the forum. I appreciate this thread is a bit old, but I have a suggestion for reasonably price overdrive/distortion with a real tube:

The Nady TD-1 Tube Distortion

See photo below

Found these two LINKS:
http://www.dirtbox.net/reviews/1184/nad ... istortion/
http://www.nady.com/td1.html

I think this pedal is now discontinued but can be found used on ebay sometimes.

The reviews on Harmony Central are very good.

The case contruction is very rugged.

It seems to have all the same controls as a Radial Tonebone.

'Happy to mention the Nady TD1 now that I've just recently managed to buy one second hand myself for about Â£50 GBP in extremely good condition.

How do you rate the pedal?

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Jul 10, 2013 9:56 am

Hahahahaha

Tube Distortions - Opinions wanted

Nady Td-1

Re: Nady Td-1