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NOS valves run at proper amplifier voltages

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

The first thing we noticed was the extremely quiet switching and low noise floor. Shattering the near-silence with that first chord (inevitably something Hendrixy!) we then immediately heard the rich, warm tone of the pedal.

It's difficult to judge the validity of low-voltage valves in pedals, as it's hard to tell how much of the sonic character is coming from other circuitry; there's no such dilemma with the Tube-Vibe – this is 100 per cent valve tone!

The volume control adds enough gain for use as a solo boost. Plugging into a Class A valve amp with a clean sound on the edge of break-up dialed in, the maxed-out Tube-Vibe pushes the amp's front end into a wonderfully warm overdrive tone.

There's only one drawback: the temptation to use the pseudo-rotary effect on all of your solos, just because you can…

It can be easy to fall for some of the romantic marketing spiel regarding valve-driven effects, and we're always on our guard with such products. In this case, though, there's no question of retro gimmickry; we're talking pure valve tone here, and it's obvious as soon as you plug in.