Uk Ant
New member
Earlier this year I asked the question if there were any bods on this fine forum who made they’re own stomp boxes and were based in the uk. Sporky McGuffen stepped up and introduced me to monkey fx which is an outlet for some of Sporky’s slightly oddball takes on a few things.
This lead me to realising that I needed a valve sporker. Now I’m not a great one for outboard effects as I don’t really use many… but it’s called a valve sporker, how could I not want one!
After a brief bit of communication I ordered the prototype of the valve sporker II which sporky had just finished. After a little bit of fun and games with paypal sending out the wrong address and then the post office losing it and finding it again the pedal finally arrived a few weeks ago and has been on my pedal board ever since.
So what is a valve sporker, what does it do and what does the II do over the orginal.
The valve sporker is, essentially, a tube screamer clone with bits added on. The II differs from the original mainly by the introduction of a second boost pedal and control that only comes into operation when the main bost is on.
Construction is typical boutique metal box with two, side by side, old fashioned foot switches.
Across the top are three rotary controls for squelch, distortion and gain 2. In between these are two mini switches for bass lift and soft/hard clipping.
Finally under this row of controls are the tone and boost 1 controls.
Quite the array of features, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So what do all these do, I here you all cry.
Obviously the tone, boost controls and distortion pretty much explain them selves.
The squelch introduces and kinda saggy sound you get when your battery is running low, great for those grungy stoner rock sounds.
Bass lift just cuts a chunk of low end out making the sound more crashy, great for frenzied punk songs I can tell ya.
The soft/hard clipping switch affects the manner in which the distortion works, and only if the distortion is turned up.
Soft clipping is more that sort of classic smooth tube screamer sound, while hard is distortion pedal fizzyness.
Sound wise it’s a top pedal, but it’s still just an overdrive/distortion pedal (a kinda two in one). In operation there’s a hint of bass lift when engaged, but not like the danelectro FAB over drive (which seems to remove all bass) unless the bass lift switch is engaged.
The squelch control can be a useful one as used lightly it can bring a bit more to the low mids. Turn it up and the more lo-fi you go. If you like your sound ‘dirty’ rather than just distorted then this is a great control.
Not really played that much with the distortion control, but it’s this control that will take you more in the direction of screaming metal and with the clipping switch set to ‘hard’ produces a really aggressive tone.
Build quality is pretty much as you’d expect from a boutique pedal. It’s ya standard metal box with well laid out internals and feels well screwed together.
Now the valve sporker is an ever evolving beast and I’m not sure if sporky has ever made two the same, So this prototype may not have exactly the same features as the ‘production’ model.
Over all this is a very useful pedal, especially for single channel amp users, as it allows you to switch from clean to crunchy to screaming leads with just the one pedal (which is kinda how I use it).
The array of sounds available make this a much more versatile pedal than the re-issue tube screamer, and it also came in cheaper, which is nice.
Now what I didn’t do was compare it with my digitech bad monkey, but the only thing the bad monkey has over the valve sporker is the separate bass and treble controls.
So if you want a high quality drive pedal with a difference, and sporky’s had time to make one, then you can’t go far wrong with the valve sporker II from Money FX.
This lead me to realising that I needed a valve sporker. Now I’m not a great one for outboard effects as I don’t really use many… but it’s called a valve sporker, how could I not want one!
After a brief bit of communication I ordered the prototype of the valve sporker II which sporky had just finished. After a little bit of fun and games with paypal sending out the wrong address and then the post office losing it and finding it again the pedal finally arrived a few weeks ago and has been on my pedal board ever since.
So what is a valve sporker, what does it do and what does the II do over the orginal.
The valve sporker is, essentially, a tube screamer clone with bits added on. The II differs from the original mainly by the introduction of a second boost pedal and control that only comes into operation when the main bost is on.
Construction is typical boutique metal box with two, side by side, old fashioned foot switches.
Across the top are three rotary controls for squelch, distortion and gain 2. In between these are two mini switches for bass lift and soft/hard clipping.
Finally under this row of controls are the tone and boost 1 controls.
Quite the array of features, I’m sure you’ll agree.
So what do all these do, I here you all cry.
Obviously the tone, boost controls and distortion pretty much explain them selves.
The squelch introduces and kinda saggy sound you get when your battery is running low, great for those grungy stoner rock sounds.
Bass lift just cuts a chunk of low end out making the sound more crashy, great for frenzied punk songs I can tell ya.
The soft/hard clipping switch affects the manner in which the distortion works, and only if the distortion is turned up.
Soft clipping is more that sort of classic smooth tube screamer sound, while hard is distortion pedal fizzyness.
Sound wise it’s a top pedal, but it’s still just an overdrive/distortion pedal (a kinda two in one). In operation there’s a hint of bass lift when engaged, but not like the danelectro FAB over drive (which seems to remove all bass) unless the bass lift switch is engaged.
The squelch control can be a useful one as used lightly it can bring a bit more to the low mids. Turn it up and the more lo-fi you go. If you like your sound ‘dirty’ rather than just distorted then this is a great control.
Not really played that much with the distortion control, but it’s this control that will take you more in the direction of screaming metal and with the clipping switch set to ‘hard’ produces a really aggressive tone.
Build quality is pretty much as you’d expect from a boutique pedal. It’s ya standard metal box with well laid out internals and feels well screwed together.
Now the valve sporker is an ever evolving beast and I’m not sure if sporky has ever made two the same, So this prototype may not have exactly the same features as the ‘production’ model.
Over all this is a very useful pedal, especially for single channel amp users, as it allows you to switch from clean to crunchy to screaming leads with just the one pedal (which is kinda how I use it).
The array of sounds available make this a much more versatile pedal than the re-issue tube screamer, and it also came in cheaper, which is nice.
Now what I didn’t do was compare it with my digitech bad monkey, but the only thing the bad monkey has over the valve sporker is the separate bass and treble controls.
So if you want a high quality drive pedal with a difference, and sporky’s had time to make one, then you can’t go far wrong with the valve sporker II from Money FX.
