back when I pretended I played blues, this pedal was a mainstay of my sound. I always liked how they looked, and back when I got it, like 4 years ago, the wide variety of OD flavored pedals hadn't yet hit the soundscape. everything back then was prety much a variation of some sort on the ts808/ts9 circuit (not that that has necessarily changed exactly..)...so the Valvetone always was, in essence, a clone with a different voicing...

so I plugged the V810 in to a Gibson GA15-RV Goldtone set at full power. The Valvetone always had that nasty, raspy, early-mid era British tone to it, which I always liked. I find that in using the Valvetone, I am correct in believing that my tastes have indeed moved. I found the V810 does not 'blend' all that well with other ODs (a requirement for an OD cascader like me), and does not do the clean boost very well. It is a pedal that does pretty much only a few things VERY well. You want to do early Kinks, Yardbirds, Who, Small Faces type stuff? -- plug it in as it is THAT sound. You want 60's US garage sound (w/o the over the top fuzz) a la Pebbles, Back from the Grave, etc -- plug it in, That is the sound. You want Taylor era Stones rasp, plug it in. It can also do a fair Elmore James wail and some of the JL Hooker early stuff.

Still a cool pedal, and mod-able to increase/enhance it's character; but I would think that given where pedals have gone and continue to go, the utility of these numerous ts808/ts9 clones will be questioned more and more. Maybe in 2012, these puppies will be $500...who can tell with tastes..

Yeah I agree, it's got some cool tones but can't hang with some of the new offerings around here. The VT was one of the first OD pedals I tried that wasn't a Boss or a TS-X and I liked it at first. Not a bad pedal really, but when I put it up against my TBIAC recently, the VT went up for sale

So funky I can smell it!

For what it's worth, Don Butler (aka Toneman) does killer mods on the Vox pedals -- puts them right in line with the boutiques in my opinion. I've got the Distortion Booster (which actually is quite similar to the VT), and Don's mods made the pedal awesome. So much rounder and warmer, with much better harmonics. He replaced a total of 24 components in the pedal.

RD

*****
"What are you people . . . on dope?"

I just got a Vox Valvetone and it's fantastic, the best OD I've ever played through. I had a TBIAC up until recently and a Keeley modded BD-2, but I replaced them both with the Valvetone...it's get the crunch I'm after through my Sovtek MIG-50. Goes to show you that different people = differing opinions...especially when it comes to gear because tone is such a personal thing.

I still love mine as well. It does have a disctintive sort of character but I like it. I cascade it all the time with my Nobels ODR-1 and think it sounds great. Now I have tried it in the past with mid-heavy tubescreamer type pedals and did not like the results, but the Nobels is more full range. It fills in the highs and lows around the boxy Valvetone and gives me a nice fat tone.

Hey espechemode . . . I've thought about trying out a TBIAC forever. What would you say was the difference in you deciding to keep your Valvetone as opposed to the TBIAC ?

My rig -----> http://home.earthlink.net/~joeleric26/
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Soli Deo Gloria

I really wanted to like the Valvetone, but I found it to lose too much bass and it sounded more tubescreamerish than I had ever thought it would. It just didn't work for me at the time...very boxy sounding and not very touch sensitive. Maybe the Tone Man mod fixes all of these characteristics?

Still my fave crunch rythm pedal. And I agree with you on the Brittish invasion tones. Mine blended well with a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive.

Is it you or the equipment?

quote:

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Originally posted by espechemode:
I just got a Vox Valvetone and it's fantastic, the best OD I've ever played through. I had a TBIAC up until recently and a Keeley modded BD-2, but I replaced them both with the Valvetone...it's get the crunch I'm after through my Sovtek MIG-50.

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Another person with a Mig-50 who likes the Valvetone. I was the soundfelluh at a club for the last year and one of the bands that came in, their guitarist had a Les Paul>Valvetone>Sovtek rig going and it was a great mix. I think the combination of a 4x12 cab and an amp with EL34's in the power section works well in this case.

But I feel the same as Beckanon in regards to my experience with the pedal & my setup. Too much bass loss for today's standards/smaller amps...

http://dalakings.com/