Swapping the valve in EBS Valvedrive for more gain

[electric nate]

Has anyone tried swapping the tube in the EBS valvedrive? The factory tube is a Svetlana which I rather like for a bit of heat and grind but it doesn't quite sound sharp enough or open enough for the band I'm in at the moment. It tends to sound a little compressed and murky at higher gain settings and even with the EQ flat (which for some reason is bass and treble at zero and mid at full on the valvedrive) it has a noticeable mid scoop to it.

The sound I'm after is more aggressive, lots of bite, bark and sizzle and a tighter low end. I'd prefer a mid hump to mid scoop. Can anyone recommend me some brands/models of valves to try? I'm not sure if buying a replacement 12ax7 noted for it's "high gain" or "emphasis on the mids" is going to be better or worse for bass, as all the descriptions of overdrive or frequency response characteristics manufacturers give, seem to apply mostly to guitar or hi-fi equipment.

is it worth me purchasing something like this [url="http://watfordvalves.com/product_detail.asp?id=1396"]http://watfordvalves...ail.asp?id=1396[/url] for example?

[yorick]

Not used one of these.... BUT, my Orange Terror Bass came with 12ax7's in the preamp, and changed them because they had too much gain. Not sure what the valve in the EBS is as stock.

[simwells]

Changing the valve is unlikely to noticably increase the gain as it already has a 12AX7 which is the highest gain of the 12A#7 valves. You will get slight variations in tone but it sounds more like running a boost pedal (something like the Phat Phuk) would give you this sound.

[electric nate]

The manual says it's a Svetlana 12ax7, I've yet to actually take the pedal apart and look at it though, but it was bought new so i've no reason to doubt the stock tube is still in there. From what i've read the Svetlana is one of the lower gain 12ax7's available. I'm looking for something with clear midrange and highs at high gain levels just to try to even out the scooped sound the pedal has. I guess I'm looking for something pretty unusual and specific in terms of tone, perhaps just replacing the tube isn't going to give me enough of what I want. I'm after a super-aggressive, tight high-gain metal sound I can blend with my clean signal you see. I can get extremely close by using a transistor overdrive, with the drive low and the treble high, right before the valvedrive in my signal chain.

[Prime_BASS]

Personally I don't think changing the valve will help much at all.
There are other pedal's out there that tick all your boxes though, but I think you'd prefer a distortion than a OD.

[ahpook]

[quote name='electric nate' timestamp='1333634297' post='1604588']
I'm after a super-aggressive, tight high-gain metal sound...
[/quote]

to me, that sounds like a sound best delivered by a semiconductor rather than a valve.

[electric nate]

Aye, but valves breathe a certain amount of life into the sound I think. Think of (to make an obvious example) the Peavey 5150 kinda sound. That's certainly tight and aggressive, but very much 'valvey' sounding as well. I'm not so foolish to think I can re-create the sound of an entire guitar head using one valve in a bass pedal though, but getting close would be a fine thing.

[Prime_BASS]

Personally, you want a distortion. Not many out there witha tube in it, markbass do one. Although it's 12v (IIRC).

You coould find an amazing distortion pedal you love and make it better with a tube pre. The DHA things get good reviews, even sticking a T-rex squeezer after it will give it the vavle sound.

What you are refering to is the harmonic distortion you get with tubes, and to me they just sound better compared to any other kind of preamp, SS, FET etc. Although some will argue that a good SS will sound just as good, it's still not the same.
I'm after a ~SVTIIP atm to add more preamp tubes to my signal path.

[simwells]

What are you not happy about with the transistor OD into that you previously mentioned? Are you particularly after a single pedal solution?

[umph]

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1333637649' post='1604642']
to me, that sounds like a sound best delivered by a semiconductor rather than a valve.
[/quote]

+1 ON THIS

[thodrik]

In terms of gnarly cutting overdrive I prefer the EHX English Muff'n to the EBS, which I think comes with 12AY7 tubes. Still the EBS is a top notch pre-amp for giving warmth.

On topic I'm not sure that changing to another 12ax7 valve will really drastically alter the tone of the of the pedal, though it also wouldn't exactly hurt either.

I would say though that the Valvedrive has a strange/interesting 'flat' position, which is something like bass and treble at 0 with the mids on full. Maybe start from there and start raising the treble a bit while you raise the gain. That should give a tighter grittier sound with more emphasis on mids.

[electric nate]

I tried swapping out the valve in the EBS, but that just made the pedal sound a lot worse, so I'm gonna keep it stock and save it for when i want a rich warm overdrive. I did a bit of thinking and some digging around on youtube and various forums and I have now bought an Engl E530 guitar preamp that I blend with my clean signal so I can have stupid amounts of snarling nasty gain, and a tight punchy low end. To my ears it sounds absolutely huge, way more hi-gain, sharp and accurate than any bass-specific overdrive or distortion I've come across. I couldn't find any sound clips of it being used with a bass (At some point i'll get to recording some sound clips myself if people are interested?) so it was a gamble to buy it blind but thankfully it's given me the exact sound I was after. I probably wouldn't use it without a blended clean signal though.

You guys were right though, swapping out valves was never going to get me anywhere.