Valve based distortion boxes

[Reggie Love]

I'm currently looking at the Vox Big Ben Overdrive... any users or other contenders?

[George Necola]

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp...izer-Ship.html

demonizier


womanizer


Tubeman II from hughes & Kettner, and 100's of 19" rackunits from the 80 and 90's.

I like the MESA studiopreamp & triaxis. in my rack is a J.Butler design tube II preamp. after modification it kills kills kills

you need a good amp for good distortion and add stompboxes for FX or varations in sound.

[cramseur]

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic...very very nice overdrive.

[Pasta4lnch]

I tried the budda one. it didn't blow my skirt up . . . the sound clips that musician's friend has of the soldano one sounds pretty nice . . .

[Reggie Love]

Originally Posted by cramseur

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic...very very nice overdrive.

I had ruled this out at £200, but after some research you can pick the up for £136 from Thomann... certainly looks the biz and there have been some comments made about the click when using the footswitch on the Vox...

[Reggie Love]

Originally Posted by George Necola

http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp...izer-Ship.html

demonizier


womanizer


Tubeman II from hughes & Kettner, and 100's of 19" rackunits from the 80 and 90's.

I like the MESA studiopreamp & triaxis. in my rack is a J.Butler design tube II preamp. after modification it kills kills kills

you need a good amp for good distortion and add stompboxes for FX or varations in sound.

I'm sure the '-izers' sound great! Can I risk a small sh*tstorm by saying they look pants! (I must be getting old)....

What's the retail? (I think the womanizer might be the one to check out. Heavy metal is lead or depleated uranium to me...)

[jbuntz]

I liked the Soldano supercharger really well when I had it.

[Matt Grondin]

Jimmy Herring gets a fantastic tone using the Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor, but alot of that tone comes from his cranked blackface Super Reverb with Tone Tubby speakers and his fingers. I personally like Analog Man's King of Tone, but it's not valve-based (I love the British nomenclature).

[covert]

Mesa Bottle Rocket, or for bigger bucks the V-Twin. I really like the older Hughes and Kettner half rack preamp units. Also worth looking for are the Matrix boxes. They were originally called Mini Boogee, until Mesa objected, then changed to Mini Matrix.

[Messiah]

I don't really think that having a valve based pedal for overdrive is that necessary.
If you have a nice valve amp, you don't need a valve pedal to drive it.
If you don't have a valve amp, a valve based pedal won't make it sound like one.

I agree with the comment about the '-izer' pedals looking rubbish, I can imagine the comments from the other guys in the band...

I have had numerous overdrive pedals over the years. I didn't think the Mesa V-Twin was anything special, and if anything I found it lacked focus and bite, too much compression (and not the kind I like).

The very first comment mentioned the Big Ben Overdrive, I currently have the Vox 'Over the Top Boost' which is valve based. I'm finding it quite cool, I like the sound. It has the compression on the bottom end and bite on the top end that I like. The other nice aspect of this pedal is the gain stage goes from very subtle to heavy drive/sustain and everywhere in between. The EQ is also very drastic (in a good way) and lets you get lots of different tones out of it.

I also have a T-Rex Moller which I'm really digging. This baby lets you blend your dry signal with the drive, my Telecasters adore it!

Lovetone Brown Source is one of my favourites of all time, catch one if you can!

[jetpackbassist]

Originally Posted by Reggie Love

I'm sure the '-izers' sound great! Can I risk a small sh*tstorm by saying they look pants! (I must be getting old)....

What's the retail? (I think the womanizer might be the one to check out. Heavy metal is lead or depleated uranium to me...)

they look like poop, for real... but the womanizer sounds quite nice! it's got a ton of character and tweakability, and all kinds of spacey funky colors.

they generally sell for about USD $299

[Pohaku]

A Matchless HotBox if you can find one. The DirtBox is more "high gain" if you want that. Only available used, of course.

[jetpackbassist]

another honorable mention is the radial tonebone Classic or Hot British.

and although it isn't valvey, the fulltone OCD kicks major boot.

[Tim L]

Bad Cat X-Treme Tone... it's based on the Hot Cat preamp section.

Awesome piece of kit IMVHO!

[LoopQuantum]

Radial ToneBone Hot British.....sweeeeet. Me likey. Had one for 3 months. I use it too much.

[tons.of.tone]

I had a Mesa V-Twin that was pretty sweet. I also played through the Bottle Rocket and loved it.

I moved to a Triaxis, which is why I no longer have the V-Twin (don't know that I can reccomend that for everyone, though).

[Protools Guy]

Radial Tonebone Trimode

[astroboy81]

hi guys,,i need a distortion for my fender blues deluxe any suggestion? im heading for the tone of weezer or nirvana..thanks