My Arion Tubulator came today!

[ElUnoAstuto]

And this pedal is great! For $10, it blows the DS1 I just picked up away! Way more usable tones, and higher ouput as a clean/volume boost. The DS1 is just too harsh/bright/fizzy, with a handful of usable tones, whereas the Tubulator has so many usable tones. About the only unpleasant sound I found on the Tubulator was with all the knobs dimed.

I opened her up, and it's got so-so parts, nothing surprising for $10. I was surprised by the JRC 4558 chip though, I thought that was a higher-ticket TS thing, pretty cool.

With the level dimed, tone at noon, and gain at 2-3, it actually does sound pretty close to power tube breakup. When I had that 5 watt Silvertone amp, on 10, that's what the Tubulator reminds me of. With the gain dimed, you can get some great blues tones, but the thing that got me was how well this pedal cleans up!

Ever since I shielded my Strat, I find myself dialing in a nice breakup/bluesy tone and rolling back the volume for my cleans, rather than having a "clean" channel, per say. This little $10 marvel definitely delivers, with the gain dimed and the Strat's volume on 10, it's this smooth, articulate tone, and you roll the volume back to 5-6 and it cleans up real sweet.

Big thanks to Jacob and Gr8Scott for suggesting it, I was pretty skeptical!:laugh2:

I like it so much, I'm selling my DS1 and buying two more, one's gonna' stay in the box as a backup, one's gonna' be my main one, and I'm gonna' (hopefully) learn to mod pedals on the first one. If you don't have a Tubulator, go to MF and buy one!:banana:
-Jordan

 

[DankStar]

Re: My Arion Tubulator came today!

That's cool you dig it! It's definitely calling my name, even though I don't need it. I agree with your statements on the DS-1.

Regarding the chip: that thing is like 5 cents! True, a source of magic, but more from a someone-knew-how-to-use-it point of view. Not that I know my arse from a hole in the ground when it comes to design/engineering electrical stuff.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: My Arion Tubulator came today!

Glad to hear that you like it. I think they are without a doubt one of the most indispensible pedals a guitarist can have. The tone is that good, and the distortion is that sweet. To be honest though, I wouldn't sell the DS-1. I'd mod it and keep it around for applications where you want more distortion than the tubulator can deliver. Everyone has those moments when they want "more" and I think the modded DS-1 is suitable for that role. The tubulator is a wonderful overdrive and boost, but it doesn't add a ton of straight ahead distortion and sometimes there's a need for such a thing. Not always, but sometimes with really clean amps there is a need for pedals like the DS-1.

 

[nebucanazza]

Re: My Arion Tubulator came today!

Wow..I cant wait to get my hands on one.Congrats
Ideally if you have a distortion box which starts where the Tubulator ends, and goes all the way up to metal gain, you should have most bases covered.I am hoping to achieve that very thing by putting together a Tubulator and Rocktron Silver Dragon.