Page 2 of 5

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 3:35 pm
by Helter
The ehx hot tubes with tubes in it is $58 on amazon right now. Never played one though. Doommeow posted it in the deals thread.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:27 pm
by rustywire
I currently have an Ibanez TK999HT in my B/S/T listing that meets your criteria.
It's a real sleeper.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8a046Jy08Q[/youtube]

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:33 pm
by skullservant
THAT LAYOUT WHYYYYYY

I'm curious what the differences are between the original US and this version

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 7:46 pm
by Derelict78
The tube works pedals are legit. I had a blue one years ago that was stolen and it sounded wonderful on bass.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:05 pm
by rustywire
skullservant wrote:THAT LAYOUT WHYYYYYY

I'm curious what the differences are between the original US and this version
The original was starved plate design and ran off the standard 9V Boss PSU.
The red v2 puts 250v to the plate, and uses 12v 500mA PSU with an additional internal transformer.
This also has an optional, adjustable gate.

It's currently the pedal I've owned the longest...

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:29 pm
by doommeow
insubordination wrote:All the Kingsley pedals are tube-based, and not the usual starved tube design of EHX, Fryette SAS, etc. They start around $250 but are well built and in my experience sound great. I had the Squire preamp and dug it quite a bit, but it sounds like you'd want more of an OD.

There is also this thing I found recently and have been considering buying but am gunshy for some reason: http://reverb.com/item/58419-bravo-audi ... boost-nice
If the Fryette literature and various other reviews/comments I've read are to be believed, the SAS is NOT a starved design, but is the real deal.

200V? Dunno. But sounds killer. Picked up my first one when GC dropped the price to $99, couldn't help myself when they dropped again to $49 so I'm running two ( :picard: ) on my guitar board. I haven't looked in awhile, but at recently as last month GC still had some @ approx 99. And IIRC the Boostassio is a similar circuit but w/o the bias control. Never seen one of those for sale, new or used.


I think someone mentioned the Vox Cooltron line, but weren't they releasing a new tube-based line? Tube Garage?

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:08 pm
by theavondon
I should pick up one of those SASs.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:14 pm
by doommeow
theavondon wrote:I should pick up one of those SASs.
For anyone remotely into dirt, they are a no
brainer.

Whenever I imagine paring down my rig, I know I could get by with just my two sas unit or the sas and some sort of fuzz.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:18 pm
by theavondon
And, the GC outlet store in Dallas is blowing them out.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:16 pm
by Ghost Hip
English Muffn with the right toobs in it is pretty gnarly. I think sticking with 12ay7s is the way to go but fuckin try everything.

But yeah, i'd like to try more tube pedals as well.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:37 pm
by doommeow
Anyone know how the hot tubes compares to the drive section of the tube zipper?

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:56 pm
by theAntihero
Behringer makes the vt-999 and its pretty damn cool can get pretty fuzzy too.

The smaller vt911 however is the single worst pedal i have ever had the displeasure of playing

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:44 am
by ALLisNOISE
I have SiB Varidrive, the second iteration in black. I love it. It huge and fuzzy, and sounds like the second channel of an amp. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that I seem to run out of volume knob pretty quick. It doesn't have a drop, but I want a bigger bump when I kick it on, if you know what I mean.

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:47 am
by HorseyBoy
Derelict78 wrote:The tube works pedals are legit. I had a blue one years ago that was stolen and it sounded wonderful on bass.
Yeah, another vote for the Tube Works/GK Butler Tube Drivers. I've used a couple over the years and they've worked a treat. Pretty sure J Mascis still has one in his rig. If you can pick one up cheap (and often you can - people think they're 'broken' when all they need is a new tube), do it!

Re: Any decent tube pedals out there that don't cost a ton?

Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:06 pm
by Jero
skullservant wrote:And I know Jero is all about the FLIP line of tube based pedals as well. I hope he chimes in!
:lol: I am indeed. I don't know how much the tube part influences me however. They are low voltage, 9-12v from power supply depending on the model, but there may be some doubling going on within the circuits, though it'd still be low/starved. I think for the most part, they simply use the preamp tube as a recovery/gain stage.

With the Tube Echo, it's the same as their MD-3 digital delay, but has the tube portion for filtering/warmth on the repeats ("analog/tape" knobs). They did make an analog delay in the FLIP series as well, and it sounds great, but used more for verb/slapback as it had a very short delay time (200ms I think).

The Metal Monster has an additional tube gain stage with clipping diodes, after the opamps and other clipping, but before the active eq...basically it's the bees knees. I haven't used a ton of metal-amp-in-a-pedal type things, but this one takes the cake. Kind of a one trick pony in that regard though. I can't use it for anything other than thrash and melodic death metal type stuff, but that's exactly why I have it so :animal: Plus, hitting it with another dist/fuzz creates :!!!: .

With the Fuzz Monster and Bass Driver, I haven't traced them yet, but I imagine it's the same recovery/filter type setup. None of the drive pedals are lacking in the eq department for sure. I haven't tried any others :(
theAntihero wrote:Behringer makes the vt-999 and its pretty damn cool can get pretty fuzzy too.
The smaller vt911 however is the single worst pedal i have ever had the displeasure of playing
Had the 999 for a short run, and it does sound pretty good. Not sure if that had anything to do with the tube though. Didn't really open it up, but I'm pretty sure it was the typical starved plate. It ran at 9v if I remember correctly and I don't think there was a power trans in there. Plus it was way to big to justify. Again, it did sound pretty good, regardless.
HorseyBoy wrote:
Derelict78 wrote:The tube works pedals are legit. I had a blue one years ago that was stolen and it sounded wonderful on bass.
Yeah, another vote for the Tube Works/GK Butler Tube Drivers. I've used a couple over the years and they've worked a treat. Pretty sure J Mascis still has one in his rig. If you can pick one up cheap (and often you can - people think they're 'broken' when all they need is a new tube), do it!
Yea he does. There's another company that made them, and can be had for CHEAP but can't remember the name. Phantasmogorovich had one for sale a couple months ago for $40 I think :eek: