is this the "mother" of tube overdrive pedals?
is it really that good? (HC reviews)
any opinions?, thanks!

Yes
Yes
and uh yes
I've been trying to spread the word about this awesome pedal for months now but no one seems to want to listen. This pedal sounds like an amp, and the fact that you can change the tube in it for a dramatic difference in sound (gain) is great. For me the stock 12AX7 was too much. You have to experiment a bit. Great pedal!!
MH

Just received one in the mail a couple of days ago. I'd concur with Hanky - yes, yes, yes. In the very short period of time I have had it, I have already found some very useful tones. Tube pre-amp overdrive produces a much less buzzy and much more full sound. The stock tube is gainy, but produces some nice class A breakup and sustain. If you don't like it, you can change it out for a less-gainy tube. I bought the Varidrive to act as an additional pre-amp in front of my single channel Matchless. It can produce tones of very similiar quality to cranking the pre-amp on my matchless. Having hi-mid-treble controls is essential to shaping the tone of any overdrive/distortion/fuzz. The varidrive is one of the few pedals on the market that has these controls (tube or ss). You can produce a wide variety of differing tone using those controls, everything from scooped mids to gritty classic tones. It is very well built and I'm excited to explore it some more.

Also think of what else is out there - Phatman, Hotbox, Real Tubes, Hot Chili Tubster, EH Hot Tubes. They are all nice pedals for this class, but they all have drawbacks which are minimized on the varidrive. Some are too expensive (hotbox), questionable in construction (EH stuff), don't have enough tone control (everyone), or don't run at class A plate voltages.

OK there's my 3 cents.

I love my Varidrive, but only after putting in a lower-powered NOS Mullard CV4003/12AT7 tube.

The stock tube was real buzzy and too high-gain.

You know what I like even better than my Varidrive, though?

It's an old Peavey TG Raxx preamp; they use 2 tubes instead of just one. I got it cheap on Ebay, and found info on the web that the clipping diodes are the only thing keeping it from sounding killer. I disconnected those and put in a Mullard CV4004/12AX7 and the old tube from the Varidrive, and it's the closest thing to power tube distortion I've heard in a preamp (I've never heard an H&K Cream Machine, however!). The controls are very sensitive, and must be tweeked for a long time before you find your sound.

I like both the Varidrive and the TG Raxx. A mild overdrive from both at the same time(Varidrive 1st, then wah, then univibe, then TG Raxx, then echo, then clean amp) gets me the closest thing to cranked, vintage Marshall tones I've heard at quiet levels.

The Varidrive has more dynamic range than the TG Raxx, which compresses quite a bit. Compression (and sustain) is a very desirable side effect, though; especially when it's not adding any noise, and the distortion is still very touch-sensitive!

For a relatively compact pedal, considering all the benefits of tonal control and tube-swapping and rugged construction, etc., nothing beats the Varidrive. Sonically, though, the modded TG Raxx can outdo the Varidrive. Mainly because it can be coaxed to achieve more of the subtlety and depth characteristic of power tubes (because it uses two tubes, neither of which are going at full-roar), while the Varidrive remains rather two-dimensional and simple-sounding no matter how you tweek it (with its single tube working its ass off).

Marc http://happybob.com/marc/