Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

[lewisstorer89]

Has anyone done this?.

I have just bought the Blackstar HT Boost Valve Pedal and I intend to put it infront of a Blackstar ID amp (the solid state thats apparently as close to Valve amps as Solid state can get) to REALLY tip it into Valve goodness. Has anyone done this with SOlid State amps and Valve pedals? And what was the result?

 

[Securb]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

My old metal setup was a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 on a 4x12 cab. I drove it with a Chandler Tube Driver, the thing sounded sick. I still have the Tube Driver it is the absolute best distortion I have ever owned.

 

[guitarded]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

For a while was using a sd twin tube classic pedal into the front of a crate power block ss head. Sounded ok.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[lewisstorer89]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Thats sweet guys!. Ive used alot of Crates and even owned the GT1200h half stack. And that Jazz Roland!. Keep em coming guys!

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

As much as I love tube amps, I've used various solid states (with excellent results) for years. Roland Blues Cube BC-60, Peavey Bandit's, Dean Markley RD-40 & CD-80, etc. Some of the tube driven pedals used: BK Butler Tube Driver & Blue Tube, Ibanez Tone King.....while all of these worked well, the best result I've come across is with my old black box Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal dialed in with some hair. This old dog interacts with my guitars volume pedal better than most of the tube overdrives.

There's still nothing quite like plugging into a great sounding tube amp, but doing the overdrive thing into a ss amp can still result in some sweet tones.

 

[lewisstorer89]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

As much as I love tube amps, I've used various solid states (with excellent results) for years. Roland Blues Cube BC-60, Peavey Bandit's, Dean Markley RD-40 & CD-80, etc. Some of the tube driven pedals used: BK Butler Tube Driver & Blue Tube, Ibanez Tone King.....while all of these worked well, the best result I've come across is with my old black box Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal dialed in with some hair. This old dog interacts with my guitars volume pedal better than most of the tube overdrives.

There's still nothing quite like plugging into a great sounding tube amp, but doing the overdrive thing into a ss amp can still result in some sweet tones.

Wow thats sweet \m/..\m/ and thats so reassuring!. Im hoping to get exactly that from my Blackstar ID100. Its supposed to be the closest to a Valve amp SS can get as is but with the help of a Valve Pedal it should be KILLER. Im guna try and get some good before and after sound clips done when everything arrives

 

[Aceman]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Tubes for tone, SS for volume. Some AMPS even do that.

There is no magic formula. Whatever works, works. For example, I had a ToneZone into a Peavey SS that just sounded totally tubular. The TZ just did something good to it.

Then again, you could totally end up crapping the tone of an amp that is already supposed to be as tubby as you can get with SS.

If it sounds good, it is good. Try it all, keep what you like.

Best Tube MArshall sound I ever got was with a Boss ME-6 floor board.

 

[richard parker]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Best of luck with the pedal but it was designed to boost the input stage of a VALVE amp. The input stage of a s/s amp does not work like this. That pedal won't work well at all with a s/s amp. The amp is going to give you more gain than you'll ever need. Here's a present for you - listen all the way through and experience the godliness of Ollie Halsall.

 

[richard parker]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Sorry, I'm a little drunk and st**ed. It's 5:30 am in Ingerland. I've been in the pub all day and night. You seem like a nice guy who's looking for a great tone. My last post looks patronising to me now but I mean well. I hope you enjoy your new amp and pedal. Skip to 1:30 if you don't like the song.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

My old metal setup was a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 on a 4x12 cab. I drove it with a Chandler Tube Driver, the thing sounded sick. I still have the Tube Driver it is the absolute best distortion I have ever owned.

Pedal or rack? I had the rack version years ago, but never ran it into anything that was worth mentioning. A friend back in '87/'88 had a Tube Driver pedal, but I think it was the original BK Butler model. Can't recall exactly. Sounded great through his Marshall half-stack.

 

[lewisstorer89]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Best of luck with the pedal but it was designed to boost the input stage of a VALVE amp. The input stage of a s/s amp does not work like this. That pedal won't work well at all with a s/s amp. The amp is going to give you more gain than you'll ever need. Here's a present for you - listen all the way through and experience the godliness of Ollie Halsall.

No mate there is a low level output specifically designed for other pedals AND SOLID STATE amps mate so you must be wrong. The pedal clearly can be paired with a solid state

 

[aleclee]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

For me, the magic of a tube amp is mostly in the way the power section behaves. Between the non-linearity of the output transformer and the bounce of the high voltage power supply, you get a lot of what I like about tube amps. It's more about the way the amp reacts when I smack the strings than about the timbre after the initial attack. The number of great SS OD pedals reinforces my belief that tubes can be readily replaced for preamp distortion.

 

[Securb]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Pedal or rack? I had the rack version years ago, but never ran it into anything that was worth mentioning. A friend back in '87/'88 had a Tube Driver pedal, but I think it was the original BK Butler model. Can't recall exactly. Sounded great through his Marshall half-stack.

I have the rack which is why I don't use it as much any more. I have moved away from lugging rack gear around. It is now the pre-amp for my stack (JBL MPX 300 power amp and 8 x12) which doesn't go any where it is just for fun in the basement and jamming.

 

[richard parker]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

The HT Boost is NOT a distortion pedal. It's a tube driven clean boost designed to hit the first gain stage of a tube amp. Good luck overdriving the input of a modelling amp. You would do better with the HT Drive which produces it's own overdrive.

 

[lewisstorer89]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

The HT Boost is NOT a distortion pedal. It's a tube driven clean boost designed to hit the first gain stage of a tube amp. Good luck overdriving the input of a modelling amp. You would do better with the HT Drive which produces it's own overdrive.

I would have thought that would make it work better. Being a clean boost, I can use the SS distortion and tones and then use the Pedal for a bit of EQ adjustment but MOSTLY to add extra volume and dynamics. I dont need a Distortion pedal, I have a MAXON OD808 and the built in Gain on the ID will be fine

 

[richard parker]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

I give up

 

[Securb]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

I give up

If it works for him, it works for him. There is no right or wrong in setting up a guitar rig.

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

Sounds great to me. I have this weird solid state crate and I swear to god it's posessed or something because it's stock distortion tone is amazing and it's cleans are great too. It kinda sucks for the middle ground stuff like light overdrive or a heavier drive where you can clean up the sound with pick attack. But for $100? Pfft. Hand it over.

 

[richard parker]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

From the HT Boost handbook:

Add to this an all-valve cut and boost tone section and a high level output, specially designed to drive your valve amp hard, and you have the ultimate boost pedal.

It might be okay with the ID amp but that's not what it was designed for. Trying to use it to add volume and dynamics to solid state distortion is very unlikely to work out well.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Solid State amp boosted by Valve Pedal!?

My opinion is that one needs to separate this into two separate areas ... sound, and response.

It's very possible to use a valve pedal into a s/s amp and achieve some good tones as well as some bad ones ... it will mostly depend on the player and their choice of settings.

Response ? S/s amps don't have the same kind of response as valve (tube) amps, and thefore will respond differently to pedals, particularly those that can boost the guitar signal. You can't 'push' a transistor amp at the input like you can with valves ... with valves, the transition between clean and audibly dirty is a wide zone, and that's the area that is so-much-loved by guitar players, it's where the touch-responsiveness lays, response to guitar control settings, and the kind of warm fatness that tube tones are known for.

Transistors tend to respond differently .... by their nature, they stay clean all the way to a certain point, when they will then break over into distortion. There is really no 'mid-zone' like there is with valves. And even when staying completely clean, there is not the same kind of response to the player that there is with valves.

No doubt there are more complex s/s input stages that try to establish something closer to the response of a tube. My opinion is that any kind of booster or overdrive/distortion pedal will be much easier to use successfully into a tube amp than into a transistor amp in terms of getting good sound and response, but it should be possible to create good sounds with a pedal into a s/s amp. If you're used to valves, don't expect the same interaction with the amp when you play.