Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

bloodswords

bloodswords

New member
greetings everyone :cool2:

what's everyone's take on tube equipped pedals- are they really more revered in tone? i've tried a few lately & it seems that majority of these pedals have unlit tubes despite the pedals being activated- what's the wisdom with tube inclusion then?
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

a lot of it is marketing, sometimes it does help 'warm up' the sound. my take is that the revered 'tube tone' comes from power tubes getting hit with lots of volts, not lower-voltage preamp tubes, but the best thing is plug into them. don't worry about how it is made- decide if you like the sound first.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

The interesting thing about many tube based pedals is that they are used in starvation mode, I believe, and end up functioning very similarly to clipping diodes. The Duncan and a few other tube based pedals actually use the tubes to amplify the signal, and that is more similar to an actual amp. I wouldn't put any more stake in a pedal because it's tube, just as I wouldn't avoid a pedal because it's not. One of my favorite modulation pedals is the EHX Wiggler. It's tube based, but honestly I have no idea how much that contributes to the tone.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

the gain doesn't actually come from the tubes. How can you expect a tube to do that at 9v? The most it does is add a touch of compression but it sucks alot of people in who think it is actually giving them tube gain.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

stick with the duncan or damage control ones.
The H&K one is pretty killer also.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

Beer$ said:
How can you expect a tube to do that at 9v?
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The Z. Vex Nano only runs on 12 volts and probably needs a lot more power than one of those pedals with a single tube in it, and that thing distorts like none other.

It doesn't take much power to distort a single 6021.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

If you hit a valve with low voltage you can still get gain out of it, just very little dynamics and virtually no headroom.

To me, a simple 12AX7 in a pedal has 1) its sound and 2) its mojo/tube feel/whatever you want to call it.

With low voltage you get number 1...With high voltage (say, 250V, more is better) you get both, along with more headroom and dynamics.
Now some people don't hear 2)... I personally am perfectly fine with transistor/opamp pedals through a valve amp. Though I did play one of these new Blackstar pedals and valve or not (loads of opamps in there), it sounded amazing and really had what I associate with that tube sound.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

It doesn't take much to distort a transistor either ? ;) At low voltage, tubes simply don't act and respond like they do in an amp. They're more like transistors and that's the sound you get. I presume you know the Vox Cooltron pedals ?
And the opamps in the Blackstar pedals aren't there to produce the distortion. like they are in the Mesa V-Twin. I expected more from Mesa than a solid state pedal with "two light bulbs" ..

Here's a good long read for you lads about me testdriving the Blackstar pedals and a bit about the technology:
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=114203
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

I don't know what they do... it's possible that they boost the signal further before entering the tube, kinda like sticking a clean boost in front of an amp? Or simply to help get the voltage up as there's no transformer in.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

V -twin ,Demonizer ,Twin-tube ,Silver Dragon...all great pedals.
But many others use it just for marketing...
Rotosphere is a great sounding pedal too!H&K knows how to make great pedals!
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

I had the Vox Bulldog and that also sounded more "alive" than the typical solid state pedal.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

It really depends on the pedal and whether the company gets it right. I've tried a few of the Vox cooltron pedals, but when i played the same model in a different stores the results were quite varied in tonal quality.

I have however tried the Barber Direct Drive and the Xotic BB Preamp and they were great. Not sure if these have tubes in them, but I plan on taking a closer look at both soon.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

They don't.

A tube pedal looks BIG. Way bigger than most usually. Also, usually thicker.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

The only tube-equipped pedal I owned was a nightmare in the reliability department, and the tone itself wasn't that great. It was a Radial Tonebone Hot British. Haven't tried any others so i can't really comment.
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

B2D said:
The only tube-equipped pedal I owned was a nightmare in the reliability department, and the tone itself wasn't that great. It was a Radial Tonebone Hot British. Haven't tried any others so i can't really comment.
Click to expand...

Dude you scaring me, I really like that one and was debating one vs. Demonizer, allthough I could see Demonizer being more versitile ... BTW, can you use Demonizer like a pre-amp and send it say, straight into Peavey 50/50?
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

Dr.Mavashi said:
Dude you scaring me, I really like that one and was debating one vs. Demonizer, allthough I could see Demonizer being more versitile ... BTW, can you use Demonizer like a pre-amp and send it say, straight into Peavey 50/50?
Click to expand...

Yes ofcourse!And it sounds good!
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

i'm intrigued by the overall tone on offer than the functionality of unlit tubes. was testing a few lately (as mentioned), came across Guyatone's Metal Monster & it was a hit with me after trying it A/B with a Krank Distortus Maximus (no tube here...). the saturation is amazing but the unlit tube inside made many of my peers wonder if i was duped...

metalmonster.gif
 
Re: Tube equipped pedals- love/ hate?

The Damage controls pedals have LEDs lighting up the tubes. Same for the blackstar pedals.
 
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