Radial Hot British

WhoFan

Tommyologist
A local store has a Radial Hot British pedal on sale for $199... Canadian... normal price was $279.... anyways it looks interesting and was wondering what opinions some of you may have on that pedal....

In the glass case they also have some other Radial products that look good... Like a Tri-mode distortion pedal of some sort
 
Re: Radial Hot British

The Hot British sounds awesome...but I also think the Tri-Mode would sound great although I've never tried it myself. The Hot British will basically turn any amp, no matter how clean, into something that sounds very high gain and "British" like.

Hmm that's a bit of a crap description...it has a lot of distortion, more than you need in fact, and it can sound anything from scooped to mid heavy. It cuts really well too. If you're looking for a great distortion then you'll get it out of this...just be careful if it's second hand because the switches go sometimes...they can be easily replaced though.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

i'm looking at lots of quality pedals to give my Classic 30 a hot rodded stack sound when needed.... I find the C30 is great amp to have pedals in front of it... the Hot British looks really interesting, it is new i think, just been hanging around the store a long time... the fact it's tube caught my eye..... The Tri-Mode i'll have to look into more.. i just had a quick peek
 
Re: Radial Hot British

The tube should not be a defining factor in your choice, as the ToneBone uses a 'starved plate' approach(same as a few others like the Rocktron Silver Dragon).The base sound of the pedal itself should be good, and the tube isnt all important.However,when you buy a tube based pedal you have to deal with extra size, a bulky wall-wart, and sometimes noisy operation.

That being said, the ToneBones usually get good reviews all around, but you have other options.The Carl Martin Plexitone and MI Audio Crunch Box seem to be quite popular.Do give these a try too, dont let the tube lure you into thinking its superior to non-tube based boxes.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

Yeah, my tech said that apparently the tube actually doens't do much at all in the pedal.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

I have a Tri-mode and a Plexitone - whilst they are similar, they are also quite different.

The Plexitone is more, well "Plexi" and the Tri-mode is more like having a three channel amp.

Another option (But one I have not tried yet) is Seymour Duncan's SFX-003.

Starving a tube, "tech-noise" - like a lot of tube inside of amps that are really running in class "A" mode are starved.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

I have the "Classic" version of this ToneBone ...

It's an amazing little pedal - also my Fender DRRI is screaming when playing with the TB - and I've spent alot of money for different stuff until I've got this one ... absolutely silent-BTW !!

But what others already mentioned ... there are alternatives available - the Damage Control Demonizer/Womanizer, Baldringer Dual Drive - but they are too expensive perhaps ... ?? :smack:

Roger
 
Re: Radial Hot British

i had a better look at the trimode... saddly the store is packed with Xmas shoppers from here until the new year... i may wait until January to give it a blast without 10 kids bashing out loud out of tune noise!!!!! Besides boxing day is coming
 
Re: Radial Hot British

I tried one and I was VERY impressed. It's just beautiful sounding. Though again... It was a Gibby LP with an all tube amp (Laney LC15). Still though it's easily one of the best distortion pedals out there, though of course twice the price of anything else that is available here (very few brands, hell I was surprised that Radial was distributed in Edinburgh).
It won't do extreeme metal but there IS a lot of gain there.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

I have a classic, have tried the Hot British and use a Silver Dragon and SFX-03. They are all very different. The Tubes in the Classic, HB and Dragon are in the circut but really do not function as you might expect a tube work. While I like the Dragon, I ahve not found hte Radial pedals so interesting. I actually perfer the Marshall Gov'2 and Jackhammer for those tones. The Dragon's first stage does a great tweed distortion to me. The Second has a more modern tone. The SFX-03 has a real smooth distortion to it and I like it as well, especially for leads.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

alot of the times the tubes arent used like in amps (boosting signal) and the distortion doesnt even come from the tube its just in there for selling purposes but some arent like that (SFX-03) instead they work like proper preamps and use tubes to their potential.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

Yeah, my tech said that apparently the tube actually doens't do much at all in the pedal.

That's BS. I have the Hot British and granted the tube it is not doing much for gain, but there is a DEFINITE audible difference when I change the tube between a JJ ECC83 , EH 12AX7 and Ruby (Chinese) 12AX7.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

I have found that changing the tube has an effect on the gain, smoothness and noise from my Rocktron Silver Dragon.I tried a 12AX7, 12AY7 and 12AU7,but the base sound and voicing of the pedal did not really get affected.I settled on the 12AY7 as it hit the sweet spot.Now my pedal goes from light OD to high gain, with lesser noise and more smoothness(compared to the 12AX7 it had earlier)
I dunno how the Hot British would be affected with a tube change,you dont see people trying that often.
However,my point was that being a tube pedal does not necessarily make it better than non-tube based ones.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

i'm looking at lots of quality pedals to give my Classic 30 a hot rodded stack sound when needed.... I find the C30 is great amp to have pedals in front of it... the Hot British looks really interesting, it is new i think, just been hanging around the store a long time... the fact it's tube caught my eye..... The Tri-Mode i'll have to look into more.. i just had a quick peek

The classic series already sounds pretty darn british to me... It's the cabs on the amps that suck. Get a CLOSED BACK 2x12 or 4x12.

Hell, a decent cab can be had for a little more than a upper range pedal.
 
Re: Radial Hot British

The classic series already sounds pretty darn british to me... It's the cabs on the amps that suck. Get a CLOSED BACK 2x12 or 4x12.

Hell, a decent cab can be had for a little more than a upper range pedal.


i aready have a sealed back ext cab for my C30 combo... as well as a 4x12 for my C50 head... i have that covered.... Thanks for the idea anyways.. I use the Classic series gain channel with some guitars and with others i use a pedal in the clean channel.. I have found that the C30 set up with a pedal board with various OD's and Distortion pedals, plus a few chorus's and stuff is the BOMB!!!! serious multi tones out of a compact amp set up.. I can switch between the C 30's own dirt and then add fuzz pedals and stuff in the Clean channels for different tunes.... It has so far been the best Club rig i have ever put together
 
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