Re: TC Electronic Tube Pilot... anyone tried one?
So I got one, LOL.
In case anyone's interested, it's a pretty cool pedal. It's not warm, but it is very tubey. It's bright and raspy, and it has tons of character. It's very clear and dynamic-sounding. It isn't all mids the way a Tube Screamer is, nor does it have the half-clean/half-overdriven kinda blend that the Tube Screamer has. It's more amp-like with a hint of rasp at lower settings. From around 8:30 to 1:00, it has a very useable gain range. With the gain past 1:00, it does get kinda fuzzy/farty. Kinda like a vintage amp pushed to its limits. Not an unusable tone, mind you, just not something I'd use the pedal for.
I use it after my TC Mocambo (which is always on for a tight high-gain rhythm tone) as a boost for leads, and it definitely does what I wanted to do. It's sort of like I raised the gain a bit and the treble
very slightly on the amp. It blends very well with my EVH's gain structure. I think that is its strongest point. It works in front of a clean channel, yes, if you don't mind bright and raspy. I feel it shines in front of an amp set to the edge of breakup all the way to full-blown high-gain, making it seem almost as if your amp got an extra grain stage.
Right now, it comes with a Bugera-branded Chinese 12AX7. I really dig the Chinese 12AX7's, but I'm going to try swapping in a JJ ECC83S to see if I can shift that emphasis a bit more towards the mids and less towards the treble. I like it as it is, though, but I just want to fine-tune it.
Recommended! I really dig this line of TC Electronic pedals. I have five, and they're all brilliant, especially for the money. Their 808-clone knocked my actual Ibanez TS808 off my board.
