Need help and advice on a Tube Overdrive/Distortion Pedal

[RandyRhoads]

I want to purchase a new pedal for my pedal board and I am thinking something that is possibly tube driven. I like the way Bill from Mastodon used two Tube Kings on his pedal board to get his heavy tone. I have been looking at the following pedals:
Ibanez Tube Screamer
Ibanez Tube King
Blackstar HT DUAL Tube Dual Distortion
Visual Sound V2JH Jekyll & Hyde
EHX Metal Muff
AMT ELECTRONICS DT-2 Distortion Station
Rocktron Silver Dragon

If anyone can give me any direction on this it would be great. If you need some more info to go on just ask.

[diabolical]

Check my sig - I have a few clips of the DT-2.

Personally I'd say go for an amp that has that packaged tone. Overall I think AMT and the Jekyll might be your options but try a GT-2 by Sansamp:
http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/gt2.html

The TRI-OD was in my touring setup for over 4 years and then I graduated to its bigger sibling the PSA-1 and still use it to this day.

[monwobobbo]

EH Metal Muff.

[guitarfreak5253]

What kind of amp?

[soundgardener75]

What kind of amp?

He has a Peavey VTM 60 like I do. 6L6 driven.

Check out the Fulltone GT-500 too. Words cannot describe how awesome this pedal is with a tube amp.

[guitarfreak5253]

What kind of amp?

He has a Peavey VTM 60 like I do. 6L6 driven.

Check out the Fulltone GT-500 too. Words cannot describe how awesome this pedal is with a tube amp.

Is that the Vypyr series?

[monwobobbo]

What kind of amp?

He has a Peavey VTM 60 like I do. 6L6 driven.

Check out the Fulltone GT-500 too. Words cannot describe how awesome this pedal is with a tube amp.

Is that the Vypyr series?

not a vypyr its an older all tube amp from the late 80s (could be early 90s not positive). they are decent amps and can be found fairly cheap.

[soundgardener75]

What kind of amp?

He has a Peavey VTM 60 like I do. 6L6 driven.

Check out the Fulltone GT-500 too. Words cannot describe how awesome this pedal is with a tube amp.

Is that the Vypyr series?

nnnNO! Check out Soundgarden's Louder Than Love and Badmotorfinger, as the VTM 120 was the main amp used for those albums. And Candlebox's debut album too.

[polishcomedy]

AMT California
Digitech Hardwire Valve Distortion

I'd stay away from Jekyll & Hyde. It's pretty weak and thin.

[guitarfreak5253]

nnnNO! Check out Soundgarden's Louder Than Love and Badmotorfinger, as the VTM 120 was the main amp used for those albums. And Candlebox's debut album too.

Oh, ok Because google.com, peavey.com and music123 search came up with nothing. I am assuming they are no longer in production.

For the thread, I'd recommend a good overdrive over a good distortion. Why? A good overdrive accents an already good tone, no matter what that tone is. A good distortion gives a good tone regardless of other factors, but what happens when you get tired of that tone? Buy a new distortion pedal? Just my view on things.

Now this is very IMO, but here's something to think about. For solid state amps that can sound a bit 'cold' a Tube Screamer is great because it simulates a nice tube warmth and wooliness. This wooliness can get muddy if you don't watch what you are doing though, pair it up with a dark sounding amp and things can get messy. If you've got a high gain amp with full tube signal path and you want to add some cut to it, get a BOSS SD-1, it's more transparent than a TS and has much higher output. Great for busting out solos or crunching up a clean sound.

Now if you don't like either of these pedals, think about the tonality of your amp and what I just said and try to find a pedal that compliments it.

[realdeadone]

i use Twin Tube Mayhem and im happy with it. i combine it with a tubescreamer. you should try that too.

[RandyRhoads]

All of the advice has been great and I really appreciate it all. I think that I have found and made my choice though. I have been doing a great of reading and searching since I posted this and my choice is going to be the Radial Tonebone Hot British Overdrive/Distortion pedal.

I might see if I can snag the EH Metal Muff from my friend as well.

I will let you guys know how everything goes.

[2manyguitars]

I want to purchase a new pedal for my pedal board and I am thinking something that is possibly tube driven. I like the way Bill from Mastodon used two Tube Kings on his pedal board to get his heavy tone. I have been looking at the following pedals:
Ibanez Tube Screamer
Ibanez Tube King
Blackstar HT DUAL Tube Dual Distortion
Visual Sound V2JH Jekyll & Hyde
EHX Metal Muff
AMT ELECTRONICS DT-2 Distortion Station
Rocktron Silver Dragon

If anyone can give me any direction on this it would be great. If you need some more info to go on just ask.

I just got a Blackstar HT last week. I can't tell you how much I love it. I play through a vintage Kustom tuck n' roll head and wanted to round out my sound so I picked up one of these babies. Straight into the amp it sounds like a Marshall. Plus you have a clean/crunch channel and a lead that you can adjust the gain and volume seperately and there is an ISF knob that takes the tone from American to British and anywhere in between. Mainly I will be running it on the clean setting in fromt of my POD. All my preset tones that I have saved seem to jump out of the cab now. I also set up a "bypass setting" on the POD so I can run the HT straight to the amp. The tone and sustain on the HT are amazing. my 2 cents.

[RandyRhoads]

Ok, so I have decided against getting the Tonebone for different varying reasons. Also, I have been talking to my guitar tech and he said that using a overdrive/distortion pedal that is using a tube in it with a tube head will just create a lot of noise and muddy up my tone.

So I have some other pedals that I have been looking into that aren't tube driven, which I will list later when I get home from work.

But is this true what my guitar tech said??? I am not sure and I have found nothing to say it is true or false. I also know that the amps that Bill (from MASTODON) are tube driven and that his tone doesn't sound like mud at all. I also know that he doesn't use any kind of noise gate.

Hhhmmmmmm???????????

[guitarfreak5253]

Also, I have been talking to my guitar tech and he said that using a overdrive/distortion pedal that is using a tube in it with a tube head will just create a lot of noise and muddy up my tone.

But is this true what my guitar tech said??? I am not sure and I have found nothing to say it is true or false. I also know that the amps that Bill (from MASTODON) are tube driven and that his tone doesn't sound like mud at all. I also know that he doesn't use any kind of noise gate.

Yes to the above, the below huh? I think there is a misunderstanding. Tube distortion pedals are generally for those players who don't have a tube amp because they supply that warm soft-clipping that tube amps do so well. If you put this in front of a tube amp however it does muddy things, so you might want something more transparent with more definition to it (hint SD-1) Just having a tube amp doesn't mean the sound will be muddy though. You might even want to look into a clean boost which does not affect the tone at all going into the front end, just boosts it a bit.