True Vacuum Tube Overdrive Pedals
From the Klon Centaur to the Tube Screamer to the Maxon TOD-9 and all the clones and reissues, you can find hundreds of choices for the guitar participant who would like to explore the wonderful world of overdrive. The majority of the OD pedals out you can find solid state products that make use of clipping diodes or cascading gain through multiple transistor levels. There are, however, an increasing number of overdrive and distortion pedals using vacuum tubes in the transmission path. The first thing to comprehend about overdrive can be that it’s not only the pedal that matters. You’ve got to start with a good tone from the guitar and amp. If you have the amp established to where it’s simply on the advantage of breaking up, nearly every good boost pedal will send out you into a nice, organic sounding overdrive. With tube overdrive pedals, it’s vital that you understand that a lot of them operate the tubes at a much lower plate voltage than they are designed for.
The tube pedal is certainly often just a advertising gimmick because pedal manufacturers know that if indeed they drop a tube within, we are all likely to go ga-ga and buy the shiny new tube box. There are some products out there that work at higher plate voltages. The Blackstar HT-DRIVE and the new version of the Ibanez Tube King, as well as the Surprise Sound Lab Rock Block. Maxon also makes some very nice new tube structured OD/Distortion pedals. In case you are playing through a good state amp or a very clean amp, a few of these tube structured pedals could be a good bet. You can get plenty of tubey gain and overdrive and then send that sound to your amp. If, on the other hand, you already play through a tube amp and reach least some of your gain from its preamp stage, these expensive tube overdrives is probably not the easiest method to spend your money. famous guitar players and their guitars or overdrive might be the way to go.
There are different philosophies of tone away there. I usually don’t like to change my sound significantly when I stomp on a pedal. I'd like my overdrive to appear to be my clean tone, but slightly more distorted. Most guitarists use the word “transparent” to describe this. More gain but with out a drastic transformation in the EQ. the most famous guitarist is why I shy from high gain pedals. It’s also why I use the quantity knob on my guitar to get cleaner tones, rather than turning a pedal on mid-song. I've found that some overdrives respond better than others to the volume trick. Usually those are the pedals that don’t feature diode clipping. Most of the tube structured OD pedals running at high plate voltages are employing cascading gain levels and should respond well to the volume knob. The boutique pedal marketplace has a glut of great sounding gain pedals and the right one for you exists. Fortunately, the process of locating the exact right dirt box is really fun!
The pedals that I've loved most over the years are the TS-808 and its many clones, the Fuzz Face (great overdrive when you cool off your volume slightly), the Brown Audio In A Package, the Rangemaster clones, the Marshall Guv’nor (original circuit), the Fulldrive 2 (like the TS), BK Butler Tube Driver, Blackstar HT-Drive, not to mention just plugging a guitar into a good tube amp and turning everything up completely! Alex’s Bio: Alex Anest has been executing, recording and teaching music in the Southeast Michigan region since 1996. He was a founding person in the Jericho Guitar Trio, Never Nebula, and Delta 88. With Delta 88 Alex performed over the Midwest and performed at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival in 2004. Since that time he offers toured Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy with songwriter Kevin Meisel. Alex presently performs with Ryan Racine and Gas for Less and the electrical anti-jazz ensemble Giraffe. Giraffe is normally a chance for Alex to provide his many musical influences jointly - a very enjoyable, though sometimes trial for a musician who finds inspiration from artists as varied as Paco de Lucia, George Harrison, Thelonious Monk, and Jimi Hendrix. The common thread among these giants (and the goal to which Alex aspires) is the ability to transcend stylistic boundaries while keeping their own unique musical tone of voice intact.