The TUBER Overdrive, OD
The Tuber overdrive, OD pedal, was built by the folks who later designed the Smicz brand of amplifiers. Smicz amps are high quality, hand made designs for guitar & harmonica Players. Some of the amps are battery operated & fully portable.
The Tuber overdive has no tubes, (like a lot of gear referencing tubes); don't let that part throw you. The Tuber features a healthy, organic, slightly gritty OD tone quality. It's not quite a distortion pedal, when only OD is selected. Still; it's heftier than a Dallas Rangemaster, Prescription Electronics "Germ" in OD mode, TS-808, or Klon Centuar. You can "tell" when it's on.
Across the front of the pedal; to the right of the schematic symbol for a tube, is a second footswitch: Sustain. Sustain in this case, also broadens the gain/distortion & adds volume. Stepping on the sustain footswitch; at some settings, takes you into distortion pedal land.
It's essentially a second sound, at this point. Close relatives of the Tuber's Sustain flavor, would be: slightly backed-off output of the (original, "Script"), MXR "Distortion Plus", Dearmond "Square Wave" at moderate settings, or the current, USA built: "Brown Sound" pedal. In sustain mode, could be a third cousin to the Ibanez SD-9: YET, the Tuber's overdrive voice, is clearly less distorted than the SD-9.
The Tuber's range; of overdive, to moderate distortion; with flavors on demand, fills a niche. However; the Tuber is no longer being built. If you like the sound posted below, keep your eyes open. We found one & posted samples, then another fellow wrote; he had a Tuber & he wanted to swap for a Metal type of half-rack, preamp.
Here's a comment from Bob Stern at Scmicz; sent to Tonefrenzy. He was in "Retro Music in Keene, New Hampshire and met Gary Croteau, the guy who builds the Juke amps. If you're not familiar with them, they're yet another very fine line, of handwired boutique amps. He's got 2 Tubers, that he said he would never part with. He says that they are the only thing that pushes the front end of his amps without messing up the tone. He flipped when I told him that only 50 were produced". So here's an accurate report from a guy who knows, becuase he was involved: Only fifty Tubers built, is for real.
IMHO: You never know when a search will be successful. Pick a couple of effects; limiting to "the ONLY ONE" can make you feel defeated sometimes. Occasionally, you find one that pulls your chain, better than the one you were after! Why obsess? There's no perfect pedal, no perfect band/guitar, no perfect gig, no perfect person. Hang in there, tomorrow's another day, many options. Tuber audio below.
|
