Show us your tube pedal(s)!

[Baloney Balderdash]

So as the tittle says, post pictures of those of your pedals that utilizes tubes, and eventual write a bit about them too, like how they work and how/why you personally like and utilize them.

 

At one point I owned whole 5 of the now unfortunately discontinued EHX series of big pedals equipped with 2 preamp tubes running at proper high 300V voltage, which included some  truly great pedals, that went for really amazingly affordable prices compared to what you actually got for your money.

Tube pedals that utilizes tubes run at proper high voltage and doesn't starve the tubes will usually cost a fair deal more than what was the case with this series of pedals.

 

The 5 EHX tube pedals I owned was: the Black Finger optical compressor, the Tube Zipper envelope filter with build in fuzz, no less than 2 The Wiggler tremolo and vibrato, actual offering whole 4 different types of each of the 2 effects, and a LPB-2ube 2 channel/stereo tube preamp, on which you could bridge the two channels as well, and that way use it as a tube overdrive.

However I sold 3 of those and now only own the Black Finger and the Tube Zipper, though the envelope filter circuit in the Tube Zipper is faulty, so only the build in fuzz works, though a great fuzz, at least for guitar, not really all that well suited for bass, and especially great if followed by an EQ pedal of some sort, as it doesn't offer any form of control over the EQ, even if it is actually possible to control the tone of the fuzz to some degree if you mess with the envelope filter controls, despite it not really working as an actual envelope filter anymore.

 

The Tube Zipper honestly doesn't see much use though, even if, as said, the build in fuzz that still works actually sounds really great for guitar, but the Black Finger I am extremely happy I didn't sell and still own, since I use it for both my guitar setup and my bass setup as an always on pedal, last in the chain, just before my amp, and I have used it as a tube overdrive for my guitar as well previously, as it sort of doubles as both an actual compressor and/or a tube preamp and/or tube overdrive, since it is possible to basically dial the optical compression circuit completely out of the equation if wanted, and I guess the way I use it currently it actually have the function as much as my tube preamp stage as an actual compressor.

The Black Finger is quite probably my number one single most favorite and important pedal that I own, adjusted right it just improves the tone of everything running through it amazingly great, and I actually consider it as a quite essential part of both my basic bass and guitar tone, and wouldn't know what other pedal could possibly replace it satisfactory for me, so I seriously ponder on finding a used second one to keep as a spare, in the case that, God forbid it, something should happen to my current one beyond repair.

But at the moment my Black Finger does actually seem to work flawlessly with no momentarily acting up episodes or other apparent warning signs of potential troubles lurking around the corner of any kind in the near future, well, that is except for the 3 pots having developed some scratchiness, I strongly assume due to me having left the pedal sitting exposed on a quite dusty floor for quite a long period of time, and not because the pots in any possible way are actually worn out, and it doesn't even really expose any issue whatsoever as long as I am not actually in need of adjusting it's settings, and even then it is only a matter of wiggling the pots a bit back and forth to remove the scratch from the desired position of the pot when setting them, all in all actually making me quite confident that a couple of generous puffs of spray  into the pots with a cleaning agent dedicated to cleaning electronic parts, followed up by, immediately afterwards, before the cleaning agent vaporizes, firmly wiggling the pots in full back and forth turns a couple of times will get rid of this minor annoyance of an issue entirely and completely, which I really ought to pull myself together to do sometime soon.    

 

Really regret selling the LPB-2ube, as it was a truly great tube preamp and with the two channels bridged a great tube overdrive as well, even if it is a fairly basic tube preamp, without any form of control over the EQ, only offering an  input sensitivity selector switch shared for the two channels, that can be set to either high or low sensitivity, and then respectively an input gain and output volume control for each of the two channels, a limitation, if one should feel it being such, that though easily could be made up for if needed to by placing some sort of equalizer after and/or before the pedal..

 And I kind of would wish I had kept one of the 2 The Wiggler pedals I had as well, since it was capable of some great sounding tremolo and vibrato effects. 

I wouldn't have mind getting my hands on the remaining 3 pedals of that series either, a tube version of the Hot Tubes pedal overdrive pedal, that featured an extended EQ control section compared to the original solid state version, the Eglish Muff''n, which is supposed to be a take of a Marshall-esque preamp/overdrive/distortion,  and not least the Tube EQ, which is a fairly unique tube equalizer that also had the ability to double as a wah-esque frequency sweep filter by connecting an optional expression pedal. 

 

Anyway here's a picture of my beloved and very precious EHX Black Finger tube driven optical compressor, that has the ability to double as a tube preamp/tube overdrive pedal as well:

And while the controls might appear as somewhat limiting, combined they actually offer a pretty wide variety of, actually substantial different and very useful, settings, the Pre Gain control, which essentially is adjusting the input gain, and which beside having the capability of being used for dialing in various degrees of tube coloration, as the input tube is gradually pressed harder and harder as the input gain is increased, or even overdriving the input tube, ranging from all to just a slight touch of subtle edge of breakup hair and grid, all the way up to a sort of an upper medium gain type of overdrive (though the latter only really being achievable with the Sqush/Norm selector switch set to normal mode), it also sort of works like a threshold control for the compression, somewhat interacting with the Compress control, which, as far as I understood it, sort of works as a combined threshold and compression rate control, and then finally the 4 possible combinations the 2 2 way switches, respectively being a Lamp/Led optical compression circuit source selector, and a Sqsh/Norm selector, offering control over various attack time and compression rate settings, depending on how they are combined, as well as those different combinations partially will effect the EQ of the compression, as in how much compression is applied to which frequencies, the Post Gain control really just adjusting the overall output volume, functioning as a fairly standard master volume/make up gain control, and how high you need to turn it up of course depending on the Pre Gain and other general compression settings, though it will be capable of boosting the pedals overall volume level well above unity gain (though again exactly how much will be determined by the other settings of the pedal's controls), but unlike the Input Gain, it will stay clean the whole way up to its maximum boost capacity, and never at any point reaching a breakup point, regardless of what other settings are used.

And I guess since the tubes actually plays a fairly big role in how this pedal works I should really mention which tubes that I uses, which happens to be the exact same kind it came with from stock, namely 2 EHX 12AX7EH ones.

 

Also here's a professional bass player that uses the EHX Black Finger primarily as his always on tube preamp stage (he mentions it briefly and demonstrates it shortly around the 04:37 to 05:44 time stamp of the video):

 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[paul_5]

Here's my current squeeze. 

Stay tuned for an update...

 

[Baloney Balderdash]

6 hours ago, paul_5 said:

Here's my current squeeze. 

Stay tuned for an update...

 

Looks interesting, curiously awaiting the promised update.

[itu]

I have a Dean Markley Overlord. Its sound is suitable for bass, because of its eq. I did a capacitor update and put some extra shielding to certain areas, it is a 230 V pedal.

[paul_5]

22 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Looks interesting, curiously awaiting the promised update.

I've had a play about this week with wiring a footswitch in parallel with the 'Colour' and 'boost' switches - effectively allowing me to switch them both on or off without having to bend down and flick 2 switches. 

To this end I've used an old 9 pin serial lead (needs 9 wires to do it properly and add an LED) and it seems to work very well.

 

The Boost channel is required, as the 'Colour' switch adds more overdrive (a good thing) but compresses the signal which effectively reduces the output. I can also preset the 'Boost' to a second channel for parts when the whole band gets louder (and dirtier!). 

I've replaced the 'Boost' switch (which was originally an ON-ON toggle) with an ON-OFF-ON toggle, effectively taking the original switch out of the equation, as the part of the circuitry is a bit more complicated, and I don't want to upset anything.

It’s very much at the ‘proof of concept’ stage, so I decided to run the cable through one of the holes above the tube:

 

inside the DHA:

 

and the tiny foot switch; much smaller than a standard o/d pedal, so takes up less room on my board, and the power for the LED is taken from the DHA, so it’s not a drain on my 9v supply.

 

The next step will be to put ‘proper’ sockets on the pedals, so that it can be used with or without extra switches...

Edited June 7, 2020 by paul_5
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