I am starting a new series of videos and blog posts that I am calling “Pedal Deals” for now. The basic premise is to highlight some pedals that people might not know about, or have dismissed based on their price, but are actually great sounding or inspiring. As I have been getting into higher end gear over the last couple years, I am guilty as much as anyone as dismissing some of the old staples as too “pedestrian”. So let’s take a look back through some old favorites and try out some new pedals that are either at a deep discount or simply budget minded from the beginning.
The first pedal I wanted to highlight is the old series of pedals by Tube Works. These pedals are designed by B. K. Butler of Tube Driver fame (used probably most famously by Eric Johnson) and use a 12ax7 running at good voltages to generate the overdrive tones. The Blue Tube is a low to medium gain pedal, good for pushing an amp that’s already overdriving, or adding organic tube overdrive in front of a clean amp.
One popular mod is to replace the original foot switch with a high quality true bypass switch. The originals were somewhat prone to failure with heavy use, and the mod is very inexpensive especially if you can solder at even a basic level. Another much less common mod, is a power conversion. The original pedals have a permanent 110v power cable attached. This is a much more difficult mod but can make the pedal work much better on modern pedalboards.
One interesting feature on these pedals are the knobs. They are what I can best refer to as “clicky” knobs. As you turn them they have notches you can feel giving you more exact settings and making it easier to reproduce them. Not sure how robust they are, but I haven’t seen any fail on the pedals I’ve had in the past.
The Blue Tube and other old style Tube Works pedals can be consistently had for under $150 USD (at time of writing), and if you keep an eye out and are patient, can be found for around $100. At this price they are competing with inexpensive solid state overdrive pedals and are definitely a good deal that could give you some interesting texture and tones outside of what’s normally available.
One last thought is something I still have to try, but I wonder how well these tube based overdrive pedals would work in front of a cheap solid state amp? As these pedals do sag and compress as a tube should, they may be able to add some of the feel and life of a tube amp to a solid state practice amp. I will test this out when I get a chance to borrow a practice amp.
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