SIB Varidrive? The Tubester DS-1? Not the Soldano..I had a Soldano amp..that was enough.
I'm getting real tired of the usual OD/distortion boxes and never owned a tube-driven one.
<Alex Oropeza>
Posted
Both great...
Tubester-fatter/more compressed-great variety of distortion types (i.e. can be more of a geek box if desired)
Varidrive-flatter eq/less colored-I found it better for over-drive then all out distortion
Two really great boxes but really aimed at different tone-imho.
You might want to check out the Tonebone, I found it to be more flexible than either the Varidrive, or the Tubester. If EricB would pop in on this, I think he'd agree.
I haven't heard anything good about the Hot Tubes. I forgot about Tonebone...but I would lean toward a unit with the higher gain, yet have some ability to clean up.
<Alex Oropeza>
Posted
The I had a very hard time trying to get the Tubester to clean up... I tried a hell of alot of different tubes by the way. The Varidrive cleaned up nice but still had a very high output level (hotter than everything else on my board) The Tonebone cleans up nice, and has three gain stages that allow high gain and mild od sounds, plus it has really usefull eq. I think that Tube pedals in general are a hard beast to tame though, they're less apt to easily be dialed in imho
Alex
<Carl>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by Alex Oropeza: The I had a very hard time trying to get the Tubester to clean up... I tried a hell of alot of different tubes by the way. The Varidrive cleaned up nice but still had a very high output level (hotter than everything else on my board) The Tonebone cleans up nice, and has three gain stages that allow high gain and mild od sounds, plus it has really usefull eq. I think that Tube pedals in general are a hard beast to tame though, they're less apt to easily be dialed in imho
Alex
I've been thru a hell of alot of distortion pedals and it looks like I'm going back to a $39 Boss DS-1 or DS-2..!!!! None I tried have the right combination of gain...clean-up ability, and tone control.
<Alex Oropeza>
Posted
Woooo really??? Have you ever tried the Blackstone??? It cleans up amazinging well with the volume knob (the best I've used) Plus it's has two channels, and does not color. Check it out at least.
Alex
<Carl>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by Alex Oropeza: Woooo really??? Have you ever tried the Blackstone??? It cleans up amazinging well with the volume knob (the best I've used) Plus it's has two channels, and does not color. Check it out at least.
Alex
Never tried it.
<Trebor Renkluaf>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by Alex Oropeza: The I had a very hard time trying to get the Tubester to clean up... I tried a hell of alot of different tubes by the way. The Varidrive cleaned up nice but still had a very high output level (hotter than everything else on my board) The Tonebone cleans up nice, and has three gain stages that allow high gain and mild od sounds, plus it has really usefull eq. I think that Tube pedals in general are a hard beast to tame though, they're less apt to easily be dialed in imho Alex
Yes the Varidrive does clean up well, especially with single coils (Rick plays a strat mostly). I don't know what you mean about it having a very high output level as it has seperate volume and gain controls, and on mine they are not interactive in any way. It's also true bypass. I have the Tone Bone Classic and find it also has killer tones, and is maybe a tad more versatile than the Varidrive. However, I find mine does not clean up well at all: tunring down my guitars volume just gets me a lower volume distorted tone.
<Trebor Renkluaf>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by Alex Oropeza: Woooo really??? Have you ever tried the Blackstone??? It cleans up amazinging well with the volume knob (the best I've used) Plus it's has two channels, and does not color. Check it out at least. Alex
Yes the Blackstone does clean up well, but that's the only thing I liked about it. You can read my review up at HC. Talk about an overhyped pedal imho.
<Carl>
Posted
Yes the Blackstone does clean up well, but that's the only thing I liked about it. You can read my review up at HC. Talk about an overhyped pedal imho.
[/B][/QUOTE]
I shy away from stuff with internal adjustments!!
<Gary>
Posted
I don't think there's a high-gain tube distortion pedal that can clean up very well. I have a Varidrive and a Tonebone Hot British - the Varidrive can't do screaming lead tones, and the Hot British can't be set to scream and then clean up. OTOH I have a Lovetone Big Cheese that can clean up perfectly no matter how high its gain is set. But who knows whether you'd like its tone - it's a very complex sounding distortion/fuzz, in the same ballpark with a Big Muff, Hotcake, or DS-1.
<ericb>
Posted
I've owned the SIB in the past, and still have the Chandler Tube Driver, and the 2 Tonebones. The SIB I had didn't offer enough gain for me to really call it a distortion pedal and though it had lots of eq'ing, I didn't like the eq'ing much. My favorite tube in it was a 12ay7. The Chandler I have is an old one, but the one with the wallwart attached. It has been modded with a mid control which is great. This pedal mushes out with 12ax7's and seems to sound nice with a 12at7 which is a tube I normally don't like much. It's really good with some amps, but never really achieves "great" to me. I've heard the even older ones with in internal power supply are nicer but I haven't played one. I've had the Tonebones for about 3 years or so. The Classic Distortion with a "bassman-type" amp is my favorite. The Hot British also is my favorite at what it does, but I tend to favor the Classic a bit more maybe..I go back and forth with them... I've been resting them as I have lots of higher gain amps now, but brought out the Classic yesterday and used it with my Orange OR120 and it's perfect. I also have other distortions including the Boss Ds1 which is surprisingly good, but the Tonebone is much better in most instances for me. The DS1 DOES clean up better , and I'd imagine if Denis from Tonebone is still available for conversation he might possibly be able to make his pedals do that too.. ?? I don't know.................I've had loads of other distortions too, and most don't work well with med-hi gain amps, or really harmonically complex amps. Then you need more transparent boosts. I felt really bad when a friend of mine (in FLA....RICO) bought the Tonebone Classic and I don't really think he liked it nearly as much as I do, but he has lots of Tweedy gainy, and other harmonically rich amps and perhaps that's why. .. I have had lots of others thank me for the recommendations though and say they're the best pedals they've owned. What it comes down to is personal taste and matching with your amps.
ERIC
<fungobat>
Posted
the siegmund is the best built, best value and best sound. you can even run it pure clean for a boost
<rickbob>
Posted
for an overdrive or clean boost the Siegmund is very good. also has a setting to be a good preamp for bass, mics, ect. and will crunch nicely when pushed. for high gain it's not the pedal tho it responds great to distortion pedals put in front of it. i read mention elsewhere that Siegmund is developing a two tube high gain pedal so that'll be interesting. so many pedals...
<Alex Oropeza>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by Trebor Renkluaf:
quote:Originally posted by Alex Oropeza: [b]Woooo really??? Have you ever tried the Blackstone??? It cleans up amazinging well with the volume knob (the best I've used) Plus it's has two channels, and does not color. Check it out at least. Alex
Yes the Blackstone does clean up well, but that's the only thing I liked about it. You can read my review up at HC. Talk about an overhyped pedal imho.
[/B]
In response to your Varidrive post... What I meant was that it was hard for me to get the tone I wanted out of it at the volume I needed. To my ears the unit didn't sound as good at lower volume levels.
As far as the Blackstone goes... I never knew there ever was hype over it. If you're after a non-colored/non-compressed-mild od, I'd be hard pressed to recommend a nicer pedal. I won't say much for it's heavier od timbre's however.
And yes the Tonebone does not clean up well with the volume knob. In my prior post I was commenting on it's ability to get very mild to almost no od with the unit itself.
<Alex Oropeza>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by rickbob: for an overdrive or clean boost the Siegmund is very good. also has a setting to be a good preamp for bass, mics, ect. and will crunch nicely when pushed. for high gain it's not the pedal tho it responds great to distortion pedals put in front of it. i read mention elsewhere that Siegmund is developing a two tube high gain pedal so that'll be interesting. so many pedals...
The siegmund sounds interesting, i just wish it used standard 12ax7 tubes so that I could outfit it more tomy needs if necessary
<Gary>
Posted
quote:Originally posted by ericb: I felt really bad when a friend of mine (in FLA....RICO) bought the Tonebone Classic and I don't really think he liked it nearly as much as I do
Rik likes amps that sound really great and pedals that sound really awful.
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