Eden Glow Plug tube warmer.

[Maude]

I was on Gear4music's website looking for something else and saw the Eden glow plug was only £50.

I wasn't looking for anything like this really but I think it will be be a really handy pedal to take to practices where I'm not taking my rig, just a bass and this pedal in the pocket. 

It's meant to give some valve warmth back to solid state and class D amps. Contains a 12ax7 valve. 

Watched a few reviews and liked what I heard so ordered one. At that price it'd be rude not to, right? 😉

I'll report back when it arrives. 

 

G4M linky

[Owen]

I am very much looking forward to reading this report.

[orangepeelneil]

I bought one too recently from Gear4music for £50 but had to return it as it was faulty (high pitch squealing every time the footswitch was engaged).

I hope this was an isolated QC issue…I haven’t ordered a replacement.

 

The online videos seem good and promising..some people using it as an "always on" to warm up class D amps or a audio interface for PC recording.

 

It uses a 15V dc PSU which is an odd Voltage for effects, looks like a starved plate (low voltage)  design of which there are loads of this type and mixed /strong comments... however I'm not aware that anyone has reversed engineered a schematic.

 

I opened mine up as it was faulty and there were lots of SMT components on the rear of the PCB, so not entirely sure how significant the valve is in the circuit..

Here's a picture of the front side of the PCB from Talkbass, although mine looked a bit different.

 

Be interested to see your review and comments to whether I will buy another….

 

Neil 

 

[paul_5]

Polyester box caps and a Ruby tube - they've not skimped on components, I hope the power supply/regulator is up to snuff though.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Bottom right: D1 & D2 appear to be a classic arrangement of clipping diodes - It'll probably be these providing any dirt rather than the valve.

[Maude]

I've been reading about folks swapping valves with quite noticed effect, so it must be doing something. 

The standard 12ax7 is a bit break up heavy apparently if you're just looking for some added warmth, which I am. 

A 12au7 doesn't allow for hardly any break, where as the 12at7 is just a great balance of lots of warmth before break up, but allows for some distortion if needed. 

 

I'll see what I think about that when it arrives. 

 

[tauzero]

29 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Bottom right: D1 & D2 appear to be a classic arrangement of clipping diodes - It'll probably be these providing any dirt rather than the valve.

 

If they're Si diodes, and assuming that this is pickup-level rather than line-level, I would have thought they were there for protection as they'd clip at 1.2V p-p and a bass outputs about 150mV p-p.

[paul_5]

40 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

If they're Si diodes, and assuming that this is pickup-level rather than line-level, I would have thought they were there for protection as they'd clip at 1.2V p-p and a bass outputs about 150mV p-p.

depends whereabout in the circuit they are, if they're after the gain stage then they could be clippers - anti-parallel is the classic choice for doing this.

[Baloney Balderdash]

@orangepeelneil

 

The tube in the these units I believe run at proper high plate voltage, 200V or something like that, tubes in pedals doing nothing is widespread and quite persistent internet myth, even on pedals that do utilizes starved plate voltage, where the tubes in such circuits will actually color the tone more, not less (a tube run at optimal voltage mean less coloration and needing more gain to clip, since that was the original aim for how a tube should work, stay clean and add as little coloration as possible, which is what optimal voltage really means).

 

Also that the components are SMD is completely irrelevant to the quality, or that is the production quality will actually be more consistent and slightly less prone to unwanted noise, on the other hand it will be a lot harder to repair should a component fail at some point, that's about it, compared to hole through mounted components. 

 

Also the voltage of the power supply needed for a given unit means little, in this specific case, where it needs a 15V power supply, the voltage is ramped up internally, as it will be in most units featuring a tube, to about 200V or so.

 

My Black Finger got a stock 12V power supply, but the voltage is ramped up internally to run the tubes in it at 300V plate voltage.

 

As long as it is fed with sufficient Ampere ramping up the Valtage to whatever is a relatively trivial thing to do.

 

Ignorance is a curious phenomena, it will make people believe and come up with the craziest, completely unsupported, theories. 

 

That said the actual stock tube in the Eden Glow Plug is pretty crappy and it would benefit from a tube swap for a better quality one.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Maude]

I have had a good play with the Glow Plug this morning, and I really like it. 

Just for clarity I'll say to start with that I'm not a tone chasing aficionado. I do care about the sound of our bands and aim for the best I can, but I'm also aware that the finer nuances of tone will be lost in a busy pub at high volume, so it's pointless fussing too much over it. 

 

I was looking for an always on pedal to just give me that very slight break up of signal as generally I don't use an amp. This gives a lovely warm growl to the bass when used on lower levels, just what I wanted. Switching it on and off to A/B with my bass's tone it replaces that slight sterility with a nice fat warmth. 

There's plenty to adjust to achieve this, either plenty of 'warmth' but dial in (I hate that phrase) more dry bass, less warmth but more wet. The volume is great to balance with your dry signal if you want to switch it on and off in songs/gigs. 

The crossover works well but I've found it's best set quite high or the high notes aren't affected, but a useful feature to get just the sound you want. 

If you up the warmth you get a great Geezer Butler type tone, plenty of vintage distortion but not heading into fuzzy territory. 

I could see using a couple of these, one for always on warmth and another for vintage growl would be very effective, and probably all the effects I ever need in my current band. 

 

I think I might try a 12at7 to get a greater range of lower distortion, as the 12ax7 does indeed get growly very quickly, no bad thing though if that's what you're after. 

As for the quality of valves, I'd probably never be able to tell one from another. 

 

I've just picked up a Yamaha BB1100S fretless and it sounds great through this pedal. Set low it really brings out the growly mwah. I'm quite keen to see how it sounds with my doublebass. 

 

So there you go, for £49 as far as I'm concerned if you need something like this pedal it's a no brainer. It's simple, intuitive and sounds great.

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Maude

[Maude]

I forgot to say that this needs a 15v power supply, so if you're planning on putting it on a pedal board you'll need the dedicated supply it comes with. 

A bit of a pain but not a deal breaker. 

[dudewheresmybass]

cheers for your thoughts 

*shuffles off to google shopping *

[orangepeelneil]

Interesting reverse Engineering article here on the Eden Glowplug circuit here and modifying the onboard PSU. 

 

 

https://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?t=32533

 

Neil