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The Ultimate Tubepedal Thread


Nico de Roode

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Originally posted by dotlikeimpact

sense_of_henry, tell us more about the trimode. what's your rig? i'm mighty interested in these.

 

 

My gear is in my signature. Basically, my signal goes like this (at the moment):

 

guitar > Keeley Compressor > Fulltone OCD > Wah > Keeley TB Looper > Whammy > EB Jr. VP > Trimode > Expandora > 10-band EQ > Semaphore > DD-20. Although, I have been changing and reorganizing this almost daily.

 

I do some amp switching too, I use the Switchbone to toggle between the Peacemaker and Epiphone Valve Jr. heads. I have an LS-2 that "Y's" the Valve Jr. heads. I have taken the JCM 900 out right now, but it is always there for when I need it. The Valve Jr. heads go into my 4 X 12.

 

The Trimode is a brilliant pedal. I can cover a lot of ground with it; right from light overdrive for the clean channel all the way to heavy distorted rumble on my gain channels. I am very happy with it. You should give it a try if you can, very versatile. It effectively adds a couple more channels, each with their own choice of mid boost. The pedal lets you set one of three top end EQ profiles. Also, there is an effects loop off the high gain channel (just need an "insert" cable) which is great. There are three gain stages you can choose from and there is an intermediate drive for channel one so that you can back some off if you need to. True bypass tops it off.

 

I have a 1959 Reissue Les Paul (Historic) and an American strat so my tonal range feels almost limitless these days.

 

Give it a shot.

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sorry for the late reply: the notification won`t work... (:( );

Envelope FolloWah ("move") like the E-H Tube-Zipper,

plus:
OD/DIST/FUZZ which does tube-OD/Dist
like in the Zipper,

but:
additionally can be switched to SawTooth-mode,
which enables brass- ("honk") -sounds (sax/trumpet/trombone)
{yes, reed-sounds too...};

and:
the routing order of the 2 FX (filterdistortion)
can be reversed...
:cool:
:cool:

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I wanted to get tube pedal enthusiast reactions to Howard Davis' position on tube pedals (from his website):

"As an engineer as well as a musician, I am not a believer in pedals that contain tubes. Glass-enveloped tubes are relatively fragile and unreliable. Pedals with tubes cannot be powered with an internal battery, as tubes require too much power. A special power supply, large wall-wart, or a line cord is necessary with tube equipment. Tube pedals are significantly larger, heavier, and more expensive than their solid-state equivalents. And tubes are not even necessary to get "tube sound!" Properly designed CMOS or FET circuitry can produce beautifully tube-like even-order harmonic distortion and soft compression, with all the solid-state advantages of low power consumption, no warm-up time, lower cost, and a smaller, lighter, sturdier, more reliable pedal.

Tubes are relatively primitive devices. As they cannot produce an audio delay, they are incapable of generating echo, reverb, chorus, or flanging. Research I have done has shown them incapable of producing decent phasing or vibrato effects as well. Pedals that claim to be tube-based only use the tubes for voltage gain or overdrive distortion. A "tube" envelope-controlled filter or modulation pedal for instance may use tubes for signal gain or buffering, but op-amps, optocouplers, and other solid-state devices generate the actual effects. The tubes are used more as a selling point with tube faddists than as necessary components; in fact they are NOT necessary components.

I once evaluated a prototype "tube" pedal that contained a small light bulb. The bulb had no function other than to light up as tube filaments do; the actual filaments were not visible, so a power-wasting incandescent bulb was included, at the potential buyer's expense, strictly for appearance's sake! In fact it was actually detrimental to the unit's proper functioning due to its light leaking into the optocouplers that did the actual job the tubes were supposedly doing. Whenever I want to laugh, I think of this!

In my opinion tube-based guitar pedals, made mostly by those in the tube manufacturing and sales business seeking to create a market for their wares, are a throwback to an obsolescent technology with no advantages and many disadvantages for this application."

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Originally posted by Nico de Roode

I disagree

My matchless hotbox is a tubebased and that is a 300 volt-tube only based distortionpedal.I'm still searching for a pedal that can compete with the dynamics of the hotbox.

 

 

I read this a couple of days after I ordered a Valveboy

and I remember being a little worried about it

but then Valveboy came and I was really happy with

didn't ever have an od/distortion like it

not sure what to make of his comments now

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Originally posted by fatbackribs

Glad to hear you like your Valveboy. I've been digging mine for years. A lot of people wrote it off as a V-twin clone, but I find the Valveboy to be less compressed and much more open sounding. Do have a newer, blue, VB or an older one, (J.T. Pedals) ?

 

 

just got it last month, so it's the newer blue version

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