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Author Topic: what's the deal with tube pedals?  (Read 5533 times)

Offline foolintherain

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what's the deal with tube pedals?
« on: April 22, 2007, 10:28:12 PM »
what is the deal? i know and heard of transisor pedals that replicate tube driven od/distortion ad act similar to preamps. even the tone can be similar with the right tweaking but do tube pedals really make a difference? will the other pedals on the fx board react any differently when driven by a tube preamp? why not just use a tube amp on top of everything? sorry for my ignorance, i have no real experience with any tube pedals like the vtwin, tube driver... etc. so i really wouldn't know since these pedals cost a heck of a lot of money (16k?!) :-o sayang din naman pag pinag-ipunan tapos di din grabe yung difference ng hinahanap mo :lol: i've seen some pics of people using tube pedals in some threads, does anyone have any insight on their experience with these?

Offline fraudulentzodiac

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2007, 10:34:00 PM »
siguro pareho din ng difference between a tube amp and a solidstate...siguro lang.

My multiFX has a tube and solidstate pre-amp section (it's a Zoom G7 actually) and the difference I immediately noticed was I can cut through the mix easily and I felt the warmth hehe compared to what I have used before, a 707II na walang tubo.

Offline foolintherain

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2007, 10:48:45 PM »
sir, did the modulation sound much better with the tube preamp? what kind of tube preamp do you use?

Offline fraudulentzodiac

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2007, 11:08:19 PM »
sir it's a multifx so lahat sila nasa iisang katawan lang hehe. It's a Zoom G7.1ut. I can say that the modulations sounded better compared to the 707II but I can't attribute that to the tubes, or should I say tube since isa lang naman yung tube dun sa system. Check niyo sa website ng zoom kung ano ba meron sa G7.

Anyway if this helps I'm still looking for a deucetone rat (which isn't a tube pedal btw) for my drive since the G7 pre-amp still sounds digital (and tone sucking) even if it has a tube.

Offline foolintherain

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2007, 11:30:05 PM »
ahh... sorry. i was referring to analog tube pedals kasi :oops: thanks for the input anyway. i heard of the vox tonelab  but never thought zoom ended up making one as well... ok din ata if you use an analog pedal before the digital multi effects. i used to use a zoom2020 for with a turbo rat running through it. ayos yung proco! especially with a boss ge7 :-)


Offline Al_Librero

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2007, 12:22:34 AM »
like what's been said in the past, what's important is the design, not necessarily whether it uses tubes or transistors.
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Offline Targa_midbass

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2007, 03:29:06 AM »
like what's been said in the past, what's important is the design, not necessarily whether it uses tubes or transistors.
x2. I think lamang na lamang yung tubes pag "power amp" na ang pinag-uusapan, pero pag disto and other stuff na ang pinag-uusapan, you can get a close sound without using tubes pag maganda ang design IMO
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Offline Phil

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2007, 06:23:59 AM »
...some sound like sh it some sound like heaven ... you so you have to try it ...or ask people who have tried it.
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Offline foolintherain

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2007, 11:53:19 AM »
oh i see... kasi pag tube amp, na-notice ko the tone sounds as good as the tube preamp stage. i.e. 4 tubes sound better than one in the preamp in terms of the overall tone of the amp. so i guess the tube driven pedals don't really compliment the preamp stage in the way i thought it would... either way, i'm going to the yupangco swing out sale and try the vox cooltron pedal (big ben od)maybe it's best i try it with my other pedals to see how they react to each other... hehe  :lol: baka naman pangit din kung pinagsama sila.

Offline erniebong

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2007, 12:01:10 PM »
im no purist pero gusto ko ring ng tunog ng tube pre amps

Offline leech

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2007, 12:29:22 PM »
Well I guess tube pedals react much better with tube amps IMHO. I tried using my valveboy with my marshall 8040 before and didnt much like the tone, parang kulang sa dirt, grit etc.... but when I plugged it to my 6100LM, the valveboy screamed like hell, distortion, grit, tightness and thickness was defined (iba yung saturation eh, warm pa yung tone). Pero some solid state pedals also sound really great in tube amps din eh, for example yung EMMA RF-1, kinain nya ng buhay yung valveboy. hehe!! :evil: Well siguro its a matter of compatibility din between tube/SS pedals and tube/SS amps. :-) Phil is right, try the pedal out first or ask people who have tried the pedal out already, mahirap gumastos tapos madidisappoint ka lang. :-D
« Last Edit: April 23, 2007, 12:34:08 PM by leech »
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Offline foolintherain

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2007, 02:06:09 PM »
tone... tubes... tone... tubes... tone... tubes... cash? hehe  :lol: yung vtwin nasa 16k na ata tapos yung blues junior nasa 27k... haay! thanks for all the advice guys! it's not enough i try it with my other pedal, i also have to try it out with my amp as well pala... this is some amount of gas i'm gonna need for this...

Offline deltaslim

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2007, 02:43:28 PM »
yup, pinaka important dyan design.  a tube pedal is basically a tube preamp.  what makes a tube amp sound good at volume is the tube power section (which includes how the power tubes are coupled to the phase inverter to the output transformer to the speaker, etc.).    tube preamps in tube amps can sound [gooey brown stuff]. so [gooey brown stuff] preamp tone going into a nice power amp is usually equal to [gooey brown stuff] tone.  good preamp tone driving a nice power amp can produce glorious tone.  if a tube pedal is only copying tube preamp, don't expect it to sound totally like a complete tube amp.  IMO and experience, they usually don't.  some SS pedals actually do a better job performing that job and driving a real tube amp into overdrive.

there are some tube pedals now that try to include some sort of power tube proxy using a 12ax7s etc.  haven't tried one of those tho.

Offline jackbauer

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2007, 02:50:38 PM »
tube pedals only sound good when they're biased the right voltages ..that is around 120 to 450V..thats the only way to get the real tube sound..the common ones we see are starved plate tubes..

(altohugh VOX are claiming that they found a way to bias their tubes low voltage but still getting the same parameters and stability required by tube to operate the right way,but let's find out if it's real!)..

example is the "tonebone classic"..the distorion came from the OPAMPS (TL072 ata?) not the tubes..they only used it as a buffer "cathode follower"..YUN LANG..it only colored it a bit..

with the VTWIN (called as TRIAXIS circuits - combination of tubes and OPAMPS) it's power 12V but stepped up to around 400V ata?..but the problem is the input and output circuit is still OPAMP (TL072 chips again,and LM386 )..the clipping/distortion are diodes!...so the distortion came from the OPAMPS...

another thing with the triaxis is the fuzz problem when everything is cranked up..overdriving the OPAMPS..

so we really have to check before getting tube pedals..other factors are heating,microphonics..etc..

if there will be a tube pedal it should be well designed..



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Offline raphy137

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2009, 04:17:01 PM »
anu un ? effects pa tubo ?!! haha !
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Offline .bong.

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #15 on: October 30, 2009, 04:47:36 PM »
anu un ? effects pa tubo ?!! haha !

Huwat?!?!?!?  :?
.bong.

Offline jmreyes

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #16 on: October 30, 2009, 04:50:53 PM »
anu un ? effects pa tubo ?!! haha !

Do us all a favor and please stop reviving dead threads.

http://talk.philmusic.com/board/index.php/topic,12368.0.html
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Offline chubibu

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2010, 03:56:53 PM »
mga bro ask ko lng kng pde b plitan ng any brand un tube ng g9.2tt ko bsta 12ax7 dn un ipplit?

jst wanna know mga bro.tnx for help.pm me nlng if posible tnx  :-D

Offline fraudulentzodiac

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2010, 06:54:05 PM »
mga bro ask ko lng kng pde b plitan ng any brand un tube ng g9.2tt ko bsta 12ax7 dn un ipplit?

jst wanna know mga bro.tnx for help.pm me nlng if posible tnx  :-D
pwede yan

Offline leafdance

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2010, 12:38:56 AM »
@fraudulentzodiac and @chubibu

May kilala po kayo na nagbebenta ng Tubes nun sa ZOOM G9.2tt?
Tapos may kilala po kayo na marunong mag-palit nung Tubes sa ZOOM G9.2tt?
Medyo di po ako confident mag-open/opera ng ZOOM Multieffects.

Thanks! :)

Offline firemodel55

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Re: what's the deal with tube pedals?
« Reply #20 on: September 30, 2010, 06:12:46 AM »
what is the deal? i know and heard of transisor pedals that replicate tube driven od/distortion ad act similar to preamps. even the tone can be similar with the right tweaking but do tube pedals really make a difference? will the other pedals on the fx board react any differently when driven by a tube preamp? why not just use a tube amp on top of everything? sorry for my ignorance, i have no real experience with any tube pedals like the vtwin, tube driver... etc. so i really wouldn't know since these pedals cost a heck of a lot of money (16k?!) :-o sayang din naman pag pinag-ipunan tapos di din grabe yung difference ng hinahanap mo :lol: i've seen some pics of people using tube pedals in some threads, does anyone have any insight on their experience with these?

There are some tube designed pedals that sound good but some that sound bad.  But in general if I were to take my tube designed pedals in consideration I would say they sound better.  I really don't know why because I believe it has much more to do with the FX designer than it being a tube product.