ShortScale.org

I've been doing a bit of research on these lately, im curious and suspicious as to whether or not one of these products would give me a Valve sound through the Crate Powerblock.

Up to yet i've found the fairly cheap Biyang tube overdrive to the mid-priced Blackstone HT, Aria TD-1, EHX hot tubes and Ibanez tube king up to the expensive Mesa Boogie stuff. It seems they all get mixed reviews like: "you need to swap those chinese tubes for blah blah blah..." or "this pedal rulez with my Ibanez Jem and Line 6 spyder".

So whats the crack?
Im sure i remember Lamp raving about the Blackstone and a few other people. Please tell!

I had one of these and I loved it. I even used it a couple times straight into a PA. Very nice chunky overdrive.



The only thing I did not like about it was that all of the pots were notched. That said, it had killer tone and was a workhorse most of the time I was gigging regularly.

Maybe hard to get ahold of over there though, not sure.

What pre-amp tube was in it Mickie, can you remember?
I know you get what you pay for but if its generally all down to the tube then upgrading a cheaper model would be the obvious way to go.

Fran wrote:What pre-amp tube was in it Mickie, can you remember?
I know you get what you pay for but if its generally all down to the tube then upgrading a cheaper model would be the obvious way to go.

It used 12A series tubes.
I used to switch them around (especially when recording). Personally I liked it best with JJ at7, but used ax7's and au7's at differnet times. But that pedal with a tele into my old super reverb was amazing tone....

Thanks, this is quite interesting stuff. I like the idea of a hugely modifiable pedal but im still curious as to the benefits with solid state amplification.

it will make a so/so amp sound great and a great amp sound amazing basicly. I have been wanting to get another tube pedal ever sicne I sold that one. I don't mind non tube OD pedals for some grit or some boost, but they never gace the same PUSH as the SIB did. I swear you could feel the difference. For comparison sake, I played it along side a voodoo labs sparkle drive, MXR Zack Wylde, HBE power screamer, and fulltone OCD on my guitar rig at one time or another. I always had 2-3 OD pedals at a time on my boards when I used the super.

I can believe the volume thing, our bass player has a Tube Booster, no name thing custom built. It sometimes makes me feel sick its that loud

There's a local shop with the Aria TD-1 in, i may just go and try that out on monday. Its about £70 which does'nt seem bad.

have you looked at these

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

Thanks for the link.
$299 is out of my range for what it is, i could pick up an old Carlsbro or Laney valve head for that kind of money. Cheers though

I'm quite impressed with the Ibanez demo, love that low end boost!

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has this been mentioned yet???

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the envelope thing isn't too useful to me but the drive is nice

Haze wrote:has this been mentioned yet???

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the envelope thing isn't too useful to me but the drive is nice

Zero control over the tone of the drive- seems like buying a rocket bike to go to the shops..

I looked at the EHX Hot Tubes but it got bad reviews. That Zipper sounds awesome at the end but not really what im after.

what about the english muffin pedal, that sounds really good.


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Thanks Rob but again, i was'nt impressed. I cant hear any definition with them demos, it just sounds fizzy, almost like a Kinks tone on steroids.

They're running them into slighly diry amps on both vids- a SHIT way to demo a dirt pedal.

It doesn't sound too bad at all on the second video, but the awful audio quality doesn't help matters at all.

Alas, it's another dirtyish amp sample, but this one sounds a bit more realisitic:

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Yeah, its a bit better. I still think that Ibanez Tube King sounds the best up to yet though. My confidence in EHX is'nt great either, their standard pedals usually break so throwing a few tubes into the equation worries me somewhat.

Yeah, I'd go with that- every EHX pedal I've had experience with has had something go wrong with it- normally bypass related.

chisa wrote:have you looked at these

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

Every one I've tried was curiously fuzzy. DID NOT LIKE.

I guess I'm not Eric Johnson.

Out of all the tube drive pedals that I've heard, I find Radial's Tonebone Classic sounds the best . Might be a bit out of your price range, though...

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