Hey does anyone know of any decent tube driven distortion/overdrive pedals out there.

Most of them are probably pretty good. I guess you're looking for people's experiences. The examples (sorry, can't link at the moment but easy to search these) that come to mind most readily for me are:

B.K. Butler Tube Driver -- A classic, this, and still used by players such as Eric Johnson, Dave Gilmour and Billy Gibbons... those are the only three names that ever seem to come up, but hey, that ain't bad. Have to get them hand made by Butler at $299.

Hermida Zen tube overdrive -- This one gets rave reviews, but you'll spend a good few months on the waiting list before Mr Hermida lets you know whether or not you've scored one. I've seen them on eBay in the US but never as far afield as Australia (where I am).

Matchless Hotbox -- Another one I'd have liked to get my hands on, but pricey (like their amps). People seem more inclined to let these go, so maybe they're not as good as some others.

Mesa/Boogie V-Twin -- This one I actually have, and love. Unfortunately it's no longer in production as M/B couldn't sell it for enough to justify the cost of production... and they weren't exactly cheap. I bought mine off eBay; best place to find these. It's not (strictly speaking) a distortion box, it's a 3-channel preamp. You could maybe pick one up for $300 or so, less if you're patient. Good fun to mess around with different flavours of tube in the V-Twin, as they slot in like R2D2 in an X-Wing.

Fuchs Plush Valve Job -- These seem quite cool, but you can't change the tube without voiding the warranty. It just sits there in its glass box looking pretty, so I don't know what happens when it wears out... unless it's not actually getting worked very hard. I have another pedal by Fuchs that's great, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it actually works really well. They just don't want you tinkering with it, which is a shame. $250, anyway, cheaper from some retailers I'm sure.

All of these pedals run from mains power; that's how it is with tubes. Some of them (like the Tube Driver) have the transformer inside the pedal housing instead of in a wall wart.

Hi cshelton. Blackstar is a company started by some ex-Marshall employees. As well as amps they make a range of five tube overdrive pedals, from a clean boost through to high distortion:

http://www.blackstaramps.co.uk/products/ht/index.html

They are priced higher than a Boss Compact pedal, but a lot less than some other boutique names - and there's no waiting list.

I have the Blackstar HT-Dual pedal which, as you'll see from that website, is particularly flexible. There's a lot of disagreement about what a tube in a pedal really contributes to the circuit. I'm not qualified to talk about that, but I can tell you that these Blackstars immediately became my favorite drive/distortion pedals. They sound absolutely excellent.

Couple of nice features. They have a speaker emulated output so you can DI them straight into a desk, recorder or whatever. And they all feature a knob (called "ISF") that fine tunes the pedal for an American or British amp sound - or anywhere in between. I expected that to be a silly novelty feature, but I found I really liked it.

They also come with their own power supply, which is a big relief in the world of guitar pedals!

Recommended.

Cheers - C

Check out the devices made by "Damage Control" with tubes in them. My favorite is the "Womanizer" :


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8310089344

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Been using the TS9s for years. I pick them up on eBay or CL for around $50, replace the IC chip and a few resistors. They're easy to mod and retain value well.