TC Electronic TUBE PILOT OVERDRIVE 12AX7-Equipped Real Tube Overdrive Pedal with Warm and Expressive Sound

I read the reviews and knew that the stock valve -- a Bugera AX7 in mine -- wasn't great. I also read that, although it is clearly a B.K. Butler Tube Driver wannabe, it didn't hit those tones. But for £60 delivered, I took a punt on it. As expected, the stock performance was pretty awful. Way too much gain under 12 o'clock and a fairly unpleasant break-up. So I did what I had planned to do all along and replaced the valve with a high quality £20 JJ Tesla 6072A/12AY7 (which has approx. half the gain of an AX7). In short, it's actually one hell of a pedal. I don't have a Tube Driver, but I was able to dial in my Helix's "Valve Driver" (Tube Driver) model to sound very close to the Tube Pilot + JJ 12AY7, so it's actually really similar. In absolute terms, set up correctly with a high headroom clean amp, there's masses of touch sensitivity and dynamics. Running the gain at half past one on the dial, and with my Strat's neck pickup into a Helix Hiwatt model or my Hamstead Artist 20, I am getting very credible Gilmour Shine On tones. At £80, it's probably the best value pedal and one of the best overdrive pedals (period) that I own. One final thing. I'm feeding it plenty of juice. It *requires* 400mA, so I fed it from a 500mA outlet from a good quality power supply. I have a sneaking suspicion that others may not have fed it enough power. I 3-starred it for versatility because it has no tone controls, but that's not a deal breaker. It's a bargain.

Well made and has a really lovely warm overdriven sound. I have 5 other overdrive pedals of different price ranges and types. Very happy with this one. Definitely brings its own unique warm tone to the party. Lots of low end growl when you turn up the drive. Yet it is surprisingly quiet with only very slight hum when at maximimum drive and output. I use it on a pedal board that goes into a di box and into laptop and studio monitors, so i dont use an amp. This pedal is now 2nd in the pedal chain and really adds that real tube sound. It works great on its own but also with the other pedals such as blues breaker, boost, delay and chorus placed after it. Being a real tube it is so responsive to how you play. Pick lightly with guitar volume rolled off and its quite clean but yet stiĺl warm sounding with good definition. Bring up the volume and/ or pick hard and it distorts beautifully. It doesnt have tone controls but I can tweak that with my eq pedal. With single coils it sounds wonderful. With humbuckers it sounds a lot heavier, more like fuzz. Its an absolutely brilliant pedal and would be worth the investment if it was 3 times the price. If you dont have a valve amp and want that warm organic drive then for 60 quid you cant go wrong with this pedal. Also there's the option to swap out the tube for another type if you should want to. I wont be changing though as love the sound of it. Its now a permanent fixture on my board for sure. No frills, just well made and sounds wonderful. Highly recommend.

I’ve been trying to build a Gilmour pedal board on a budget and wanted something for the Butler Tube Driver sound at a reasonable price. Didn’t fancy a BD2 so I thought I’d try this. Absolutely made up with it. It’s now a permanent fixture on my board and sounds sweet with an MXR Dynacomp and Marshall Jackhammer (as a boost) running in to it. It draws 400 milliamps so you need to have the right power supply and you need to let the 12ax7 tube warm up a bit first. Just be aware that it enhances whatever tone you put into it. Don’t expect it to transform a dull or dreary amp into a Marshall Plexi, but it does sing with right gear.

With a few modifications its working well. As it comes not so... every distortion pedal for 20 quit does it better but a few modifications specialy on the cathode changin cap and resistor makes it better. Also the tube inselfs its not the best. I give 3 stars because its a nice project to play arround with.

Very impressive product, particularly given the price. You get very effective and useable valve overdrive sounds from it, and you also get the dynamic range & feel you would expect from a valve pre-amp. It's definitely at the higher gain end of things, but you can still get semi-clean sounds. The only slight problem with this is that the level control is at parity when it is turned a long way down, so there isn't much fine adjustment - it's either loud or really loud. The only other very minor grumble is it's quite a big unit - probably only about 1 cm longer & wider than something like a standard Boss pedal - but it does seem very big & chunky on a pedal board, particularly if you've got it alongside compact pedals. Having said that, the positive is that it is very robust and solid feeling, and the controls are big & easy to use . No small& fiddly little knobs here. Basically you should just buy it. Great pedal, great fun and at that price, you can't really go wrong.

My old Gibson U2 CAR sounds just fantastic through this. I precede it with an opto-couple compressor that I built myself using an old DOD effects case, the workings of which had previously spat the dummy. Infinite sustain with my AC30 on a "fairly modest" volume - and a lovely snarly growly tone for those rock chops. No Substitute For Tubes! Buy Two!

I bought this pedal to add a bit of natural valve warmth to a digital amp simulator. It does the job at a tiny fraction of the price of more expensive alternatives. Hint: it works best if you keep the bass frequencies low on the input side.

Love it.... Haven't even scratched the top of what it can do yet let alone what it'll be like with some of my NOS mullards or brimar tubes

Je recherchais une pédale a lampe pour réchauffer mon ampli fender transistor. Très bonne surprise Pédale simple mais tres efficace. Un son chaud et qui envoie très bonne overdrive du moment qu il y a une lampe c est autre chose.satisfait de mon achat valeur sûre

Me parece un artilugio magnífico por el precio que vale. Con sólo dos controles puedes explorar diferentes maneras de sacar sonido a tu guitarra con una calidad y una naturalidad que hace que te olvides de pedales más caros y con más controles. Si hace falta dar color para éso puedes poner detrás un pedal de EQ o cualquier otro, porque además se lleva de maravilla con otros efectos. Por ejemplo, los pitch shifter a mí me suenan más natural cuando combino con este TC Electronic. Puede que más adelante me atreva a cambiar la válvula por otra mejor, que es algo que he visto recomendado en más de un sitio. De momento, muy contento con su sonido y creo que este pedal por sonido, precio, sencillez y robustez, es un imprescindible en el arsenal de cualquier músico.

Ottimo ed economico overdrive valvolare, regolazioni elementari ma efficaci (Tube Drive, Level). L'overdrive è abbastanza trasparente, non colora "troppo" il suono originale della chitarra (non c'è regolazione di tono per "scolpire" il suono). E' molto versatile, regolando opportunamente il livello di uscita ed il drive è possibile ottenere suoni sporchi/distorti a parità di volume di ingresso, oppure può essere usato come clean/dirty booster. Anche con i controlli regolati al massimo resta sempre "utilizzabile". Non necessita di "riscaldamento" per funzionare, la valvola lavora immediatamente. Il pedale consuma (da dato di targa) circa mezzo ampere (10x rispetto ai 50mA o meno dei distorsori discreti tradizionali), probabilmente per questo motivo non è possibile alimentarlo a batterie. Dopo alcuni minuti di funzionamento tende a scaldare lievemente lo chassis metallico tra lo stomp ed i potenziometri a conferma che la valvola c'è!!!

I am using this pedal for initial signal in my small from factor blues pedal setup. Using the Out level at noon and the tube drive at 9:00 o'clock is what works for me. YMMV. This allows me to have the touch sensitive breakup yet still create bell tone clarity when required. Thanks and the price was unbelievable. One thing to note is I find using a power brick having at least 400mA feeds this pedal's needs very nicely.

I love this pedal! I've tried 13 different OD pedals, which were all way more expensive. And I like this one the best. Actually I bought two! Strangely, I didn't love it going into a completely clean amp, as the treble was a bit much. However, it's perfect to boost an already mildly-dirty tone. I use it to boost my Marshall ST20 into super creamy tube sustained saturation. P.S. I tried different tubes as other reviewers said, and I found that the "cheaper" one that is in there actually sounded the smoothest. I even tried a 12AY7. So yeah, TC knew what they were doing with the stock tube. Great pedal for an incredible value.