Like his peer Pete Thorn, when Shawn Tubbs attaches his name to something, we listen. He's not only a great player who has a talent for explaining gear in an accessible way, his experience means he knows what makes great tone. So his new collaboration with REVV Amplification on the Tilt overdrive pedal is an exciting prospect.
The Nashville session man's signature pedal is all about versatility; combining vintage amp tones with the 'game changing' Tilt Boost Circuit.
It was developed over the course of a year and the result is a boost side of the pedal that offers a trio of strategic frequency choices to taper the low and an internal 18V mod for more headroom. We're intrigued!
"It's an overdrive pedal with a boost circuit that has a really cool kind of Tilt EQ and some tweaks on it," summarises Shawn in the video above. That drive side is a medium gain affair, based on "the sound that was in my head," according to Shawn. As all good things should be.
That means it's a combination of the best single channel valve amps Shawn has played in his storied career so far; "everything from a little Tweed Champ, all the way up to maybe a high-powered Tweed Twin, up to maybe a Marshall Plexi, or a JTM or JCM.
"I tried to cram all of those into one overdrive pedal as best as I could," continues Shawn. "I needed it to be crazy expressive like an amp would be, but definitely not an amp in a box. I don't see this pedal as that."
I want to be able to quickly sculpt in a tone, especially when I'm using this to drive the overdrive side of the pedal for more gain
The drive side has Gain, Volume, Bass and Treble controls. The boost that goes into that drive side has 12lb of boost level, Tilt EQ that falls between "crazy active" and transparent and three-way Tight selector for Half, Normal and Full.
"The reason the Tilt EQ is there is that I've always noticed with really great-sounding single knob boost pedals as you really start cranking it, anomalies will start showing up," reasons Shawn. "Either in the top end or the low end, so that's one of the reasons I put this style EQ on the pedal. Another reason is for workflow; I want to be able to quickly sculpt in a tone, especially when I'm using this to drive the overdrive side of the pedal for more gain, I want to be able to quickly dial things in.
"So as you turn it to the left it's basically going to add highs and take away lows, if you turn it to the right it's going to do just the opposite."
It's really worth watching Shawn's demo of the pedal to hear how this sounds in use. And the Tight switch is there to remove boomier low frequencies as required. and that depends on how you've set the Tilt EQ. Full being the most amount of low end with Normal and Half cutting it back from there.
The REVV Shawn Tubbs Signature Tilt Overdrive is £259 and available late May. More info at Revv Amplification.
