Some of the gear i am most passionate about. The gear that makes me freakin crawl on the floor because i am in awe of its truth. What i mean by it’s Truth is its integrity and the way it expresses itself. Pedals and amps are living breathing machines and objects. Most people don’t think of it that way but i look at these things as an extension of who i am. Obviously who i am and what i play is what my “sound” is and i feel like the things i use to express that are just as much a part of me as my fingers or my eyes. So looking at this way about gear is a way for me to further connect with it and it helps me to decide what will make my sound come out the best. 

If i could just go pick up any old amp tomorrow i would most definitely have to pick up a freaking Tophat 33 Deluxe. Its a little freaking 33 watt combo amp. But the integrity and the rawness of its sound are exactly what i want. this amp just displays the raw and true sound of a guitar that hits my ears in just the right way. 

If i could just go pick up any ole guitar tomorrow i would seriously save my money. I have become so in love with my 72’ tele deluxe. It is seriously my favorite guitar ever. If i could change anything about it i would give it a bigsby and maybe replace the pickups but it’s exactly what i want out of a guitar. It is my perfect guitar. 

Effectrode’s Bio on their Tube Drive:

The Tube Drive is simple to use and flexible enough to authentically reproduce a wide pallette of tones from mellow blues, to classic rock overdrive and thick, supersaturated modern guitar tones. The secret is three dual triode tubes, where signal clipping occurs over 6 cascaded tube gain stages. In practice this means the pedal responds empathically to pick attack with a smooth and graceful breakup characteristic on low drive settings, producing an expressive warm blues tone. Increasing the drive introduces rich and musical harmonic overtones that pack serious punch for a larger-than-life, “hot-rodded” amp tone. The tone quality of the Tube Drive exceptionally musical, organic and sounds distinctly different to pushing an amp with a solid-state booster or hybrid transistor/tube overdrive pedal and it won’t mask the natural sound of your guitar and amplifier.

My Review:

This pedal is a boutique enthusiasts dream. The Tube Drive is the only pedal you can buy that has a complete tube guitar pre-amp inside. 100% analog, class-A, all-tube. That means no silicon in the signal path. This gives the Tube Drive fine control over a wide range of gain characteristics from mild breakup to creamy saturation.

I mean, it’s beautiful. The pedal was made so that you could swap out the tubes with other 12AX7’s unlike most other tube pedals. Even a step further, you can swap them out with 12AT7’s, 12AV7’s, 5751, or 5965 pre-amp tubes. And all these can be in almost any combination you want. That means very different gain structures, which means amazing versatility. There really aren’t many pedals that can toe up to this one. I look forward to making a follow up video when I get mine this winter. 

For the love of gear, this is Jared.