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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
 Posted - 08/09/2008 : 18:33:40
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Gilmour and Eric Johnson swear by theirs......Gilmour has goe as far as having Pete Cornish design his pedalboard with valve/tube buffers etc..... |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 06:09:37
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
edited
overall i have mixed feelings on overdrive pedals with tubes in them.
my #1 feeling agrees 100% here:
quote:
Why not just run the guitar into a proper tube amp?
my #2 feeling is that most true well-designed tube distortion pedals cost nearly as much (or half as much) as a good tube amp.
my #3 feeling is that they don't really sound much better than most hybrid amps drive section that has a tube in there.
my #4 feeling is that they do give a really crunchy gain at lower volumes than most amps need, and that's neat, but it's hard to ignore feelings 1-3.
i suppose if i had some money to burn, why not. unfortunately, i'm not in that position.
Hi Zentropa
Just to diverge a bit, & I may have asked this before.
Have you used or played the EXH English Muff'n
it's a twin 12AT7 tuble 300VDC feeding the plates pedal, meant to emulate the older medium gain characteristics of a JCM800.
I picked one up for way too little without the AC power adapter.
I've read the, a lot of the guys up the gain a bit by changing one of the tubes to a 12AX7 (I think it's T1)
Any opinions?
Regards Dr. Bob |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 06:38:09
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Dr Bob:
the pedals i'm working from reference are the mesa v-twin, tube works tube driver, ibanez tube king, and a couple of other random ones.
i also used to play rack heads w/ tube preamps.
haven't used an english muff'n.
my thoughts on em were that they work in a way. you can get the tube crunch, but you still have to open up on the amp to get the dynamics of a tube overdrive.
imo their best use is through a tube amp w/ solid state rectifier or one with like 2 preamp tubes and a tube rectifier. the thing that's put me off from em a lot is the cost on the majority of them and how close it gets to actually getting a high gain tube amp. i will try to demo an EHX one soon though as i know that's more price friendly.
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 15:50:57
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Hi Zentropa
quote:
i will try to demo an EHX one soon though as i know that's more price friendly.
Thanks in advance.
Any chance you can find out, which tube they mean, when they say the change tube one for a 12AX7.
Do they mean numerically left to right?
Or do they mean T1 schematically? if it's T1 then it's the tube on the right looking down from the top, as it sits on the floor.
I found that it was pretty good, but didn't quite do it for me, in the hour or so, I tested it after building up an AC supply to the spec required by EHX.
Still for what I paid for it,
needless to say I ran really fast after dishing out my cash. (just kidding), but it was relatively cheap, for a NOS pedal in Oz dollars.
BTW, did you get around to demo-ing or buying the Fender 75?
Regards Dr. Bob
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Edited by - Dr. Bob on 08/10/2008 15:52:00 |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 16:04:58
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i will try to take a closer look at them. there's only 1 store that carries em and they're 35 miles away.
somethin i've found about any tube pedal or tube preamp section on a hybrid amp... is that they sort of force a set texture/sound onto the guitar, and often i haven't liked it as much as a high gain tube amp's drive.
i didn't end up getting the 75. they had a head @$350 and a combo @$450. the head sold right away. the combo is still there.
ended up picking up a marshall jcm2000 dsl401 in a cash/trade deal that let me unload a ton of crap i haven't used in 5+ years for full used value and only had to cover 1/3 of it in cash. yesterday i took my gf to hear the other amp i had been considering (a NOS peavey xxx efx40). after much deliberation and her trying to talk me into buying it (even though i was going to pass on it) she convinced me to get it after saying she'd pay for part of it as my b-day present. we're picking that up on monday. |
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Laurie
Double Platinum Member
Canada
4854 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 16:29:17
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
they're 35 miles away.
In what direction? 
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Laurie
Double Platinum Member
Canada
4854 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 16:30:43
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quote:
Originally posted by zentropa
ended up picking up a marshall jcm2000 dsl401 in a cash/trade deal that let me unload a ton of crap i haven't used in 5+ years for full used value and only had to cover 1/3 of it in cash. yesterday i took my gf to hear the other amp i had been considering (a NOS peavey xxx efx40). after much deliberation and her trying to talk me into buying it (even though i was going to pass on it) she convinced me to get it after saying she'd pay for part of it as my b-day present. we're picking that up on monday.
Congrats on the new gear! Your gf ROCKS  |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 16:35:41
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 Happy Birthday SOON Zentropa -- 21 again-again?
What day-date in Aug is your B-day?
If you can keep a secret, mine was last weekend,
but don't let anyone else know..  Mum's the word OK?
The PV amp sounds like a nice present.
Regards Dr. Bob |
Edited by - Dr. Bob on 08/10/2008 16:42:12 |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 16:59:45
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hehe. my gf plays a bit. i think i've had like 5-6 diff amps over at her apartment. originally i had planned on picking it up if they were willing to go $450 and she was giving me the financial responsibility lecture. now that i had decided not to buy it i decided to take her to hear it so she could understand why i was rackin my brain tryin to budget a way to make it work out or not a couple of weeks before.
when we left the store she was like "umm... so why don't you want to get that now?" "i don't have the money for it" "but it's a good deal right?" "yeah" "so you're sure you can't find a way to get it?" after about an hour of me coming up with reasons why i shouldn't get it, and her coming up with reasons why i should get it, she basically said she would cover ~$100 of it for my b-day. i called up the store and paid for it on my credit card and we're picking it up on monday.
basically she told me she thought it would make me happy. i called her on it and she admitted that she really liked how it sounded :P
basically, out of the amps i've owned since we met (jcm 900, silver jubilee, 5150, valve king 112, valve king 8, jcm2000 1x12, princeton 65, peavey 15 watt, and a couple of others i can't recall) she liked the sound of the xxx better than all of them heh.
her b-day present from me was a hello kitty squire (the hardtail one w/ a humbucker), a fender champion 110, and a boss OS-2.
i'm turning 30 on sept. 3.
now i just have to sell a bunch of crap ASAP.
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Edited by - zentropa on 08/10/2008 17:00:05 |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 17:59:35
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Your a real lucky guy to have a gf like that.... happy birthday...... and a belated one to the Doc as well.......
my amps are pretty old..my two main amps are early 70's(the marshall isn't even master volume) and cranking them up in most situations in a big no go.....plus the fact that running them dirty after the pedalboard wouldn't really work....the twin tube gives me a more'organic' sound to work with...if it is the same as my marshall running with a healthy dose of volume,probably not,all distortion/overdrives are a compromise and only a simulation of a real distorting valve amp plus for what i do a dirty sounding amp all of the time wouldn't work.... but i do manage to get both amps valve power section going pretty good so there is a nice fat sound coming out which i think along with the speakers also plays a vital and important part of the overall sound,a lot of the younger guys seem to think the pushing the preamp distortion without turning up the master volume is the way to go.... what works best for me is a good loud clean sound with the twin tube looking after crunch and lead duties......
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2008 : 18:24:50
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happy b-day Dr. Bob.
Franz:
that's a situation where i think a tube pedal is a good time for one.
vintage amp that is tried & true and volume/dynamics limits or requirements.
the only times i really oppose them are when someone has like a line6 spider combo and someone tries to convince em that a $350 tube pedal is the way to go for tone... as long as they are looked at more from a functional pedal standpoint than a holy grail of tone i generally don't have a problem with em.
as a whole, it's a balance, but too often i find them presented as an amp replacement and it's usually the really expensive ones that are mentioned.
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cctsim
Silver Member
United Kingdom
418 Posts |
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 08/11/2008 : 11:39:08
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quote:
Originally posted by cctsim
There is apparently a tube overdrive running off a 9 volt battery:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=63479.0
I haven't tried myself though.
Hi cctsim & Guys
I have a similar design, breadboarded up somewhere.
These types of Starved Plate tube dirt pedals, only seem to work well with the Old 12AU7, nd not with the more common 12AX7 tubes.
It can sound really cool & crunchy, or because of it's design, it can emulate the worst FARTing sounds ever.
This is caused by the triode effectively becoming a (diode), 1/2 wave rectifier.
(simply caused by excessive input volts on the Grid, from a set of high output Humbuckers.
I didn't have a Single coil guitar at the time to test it with.
I kid you not, it really sounds like FARTing
If I ever find it in the Garage again, I'll post some pics.
Regards Dr. Bob |
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zentropa
Gold Member
USA
837 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2008 : 17:28:40
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in an effort to derail this thread even further :P
picked up my new amp on monday. $450 NOS. my first NEW amp purchase since 1996.
the effects aren't terrible but leave a bit to be desired... although it might be more that it seems to suck some tone whenever they get kicked on. kind of a neat amp though. the rhythm channel sounds VERY much like a jcm800. the clean is decently warm. the ultra is way over the top... not quite on par with a 5150, but in that ballpark.
channels/effects/lead boost are footswitchable, or you can toggle the footswitch and program in 3 presets. downside is that the rhythm/clean channels are shared and have to be switched manually. if i ever get another one of these i suppose i'd go for the super 60 1x12 or the 2x12 version as those have true 3 channel operation. sounds great at both high and low volumes. pretty decent amp for the money.
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Dr. Bob
Moderator
Australia
6593 Posts |
Posted - 08/13/2008 : 17:45:11
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Looks Nice Zentropa...
Congrats.
Hey Zen, what actual day-date is your real birthday?
Regards Dr. Bob |
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Topic |
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Tube in compact pedal
