Jacques ultimate overdrive
The TUBE
BLOWER
INTRODUCTION : The Tubeblower overdrive pedal
The TUBEBLOWER
is an ultimate overdrive pedal featuring extended gain range as well
as active bass and treble boosters.
Preserving the original qualities
of your guitar and amp, it still allows complete tonal flexibility
that
can be expected from tube-like based overdrive device .
From clean boost
---with normal output pick-ups-- to >raging valve-flavored tone, and of
course classic overdrive,
its two tonal boosters will escort you
to your own personal overdrive heaven.
No surprise, the TUBEBLOWER is the
best selling pedal of my all line.
CHAPTER 1 : On the west side of overdrive
I have been
trying to crack the coveted secret of perfect overdrive for years now,
collecting
every pedal bearing the magic name and its sister.
Lots of these pedals have
real qualities but it is obvious that the best remains at this day the vintage
Ibanez ts808.
January 2002: One
of my good music friend finds a fourth ts808 for my collection. I nicknamed
this pedal WEST.
The moment I unpacked WEST , its sheer perfection struck my
collector senses: this lady had everything.
The right paint chips at the right
places, the right wear of soulful gigs and , most of all, the righteous tone.
CHAPTER 2 : Going west for wider horizons
While there is no such thing
as
a shrink of frequency range when you push up a vintage JTM45 or a Tweed Deluxe,
most overdrive pedals have nothing more to offer than a nice midrangey distortion
tone for a raging tube amp impersonization.
If you except the legendary ts808
of course, which , preserving full frequency range while miming maxed tube amp
reactions,
has become the most valuable overdrive ever.
Auditioning WEST with
other overdrive contenders was just getting a new pair of ears,
making once
again this particular pedal champ of the champs.
CHAPTER 3 : The Goldminer
wish list
Putting together all the
numerous emails I have received these last 3 years about overdrives,
here is
the top ten wish list I have put up ,
and have become the exact definition
of my TUBEBLOWER pedal :
1- more gain
2- morphing continuously from clean to more gain
3- bass boost-which occurs naturally on pushing Marshall amps
4- treble boost-which occurs naturally when pushing black face Fender amps
5- normal price
6- complete library of settings
7- a full single coil AND humbuckers compatibility
8- respect of the amp you plug in.
9- respect of the guitar and of the dynamics of your playing
10- and last but not least: a classic, serious, heavy look
CHAPTER 4 : OK corral Gainfight
I guess you know by now what I did. The whole TUBEBLOWER project was to get these ten points WITH THE TONE OF THE 'WEST' ts808. Here is for example the range of the TUBEBLOWER's DRIVE pot which was the real challenge :
This nice picture shows us that the TUBEBLOWER can go much CLEANER and distort much more than ts808. Does this sound too good to be true to your ears? I have evidence to proof it.
The
Tubeblower doing bass duty on
Ron Thal French
tour
CHAPTER 5 : Slap that Bass !
This is another
place where the TUBEBLOWER is gaining unanimity: Bassdom !!!.
Because the
TB preserves full frequency range
AND dynamics,
bass players has
made it their favorite for a punchier tone on stage.
Up to now, no
bassist who tried it could give it back to me. Serious.
DURAN
DURAN John Taylor with his beloved TUBEBLOWER
APPENDIX : High mp3 noon
a COMPLETE demo of the TUBEBLOWER featuring all
its possible settings on numerous guitars and amps.
You will be the judge.
Claude
Engel, maybe the
most sought-after guitarist and composer in France, holds on to his Tubeblower
and rely on it for the "Autour du Blues" live gigs featuring
Basile Leroux, Deny Lable, Paul Personne, J.J. Goldman, Manu Galvin, Francis
Cabrel,Tanya St-Val, Dick Rivers, Michael Jones, Axel Bauer, and a lot more
famous French musicians.