Obscure king

There was a recent hype of tube-infused drive/distortion pedals. OK, it's not that recent (like a decade ago or so) but it's there. Ibanez was in that bandwagon & the Tube King Distortion here is proof. I couldn't see where the manufacturer was going with this series (yes, there's the Overdrive version which I didn't bother with) of pedals because it was a let down in terms of practicality. The overall size & weight were wrong; it's just plain bulky & heavy, compounded by the fact that the features were 'creatively' laid out in a diamond orientation. The plus factor here remains to be tone. It might be the tube factor contributing to midrange presence & warmth, maybe aggression to a certain degree but it's something we've heard before even without tube technology in the system. In today's context, names like Positive Grid, Friedman & Wampler among others, got this covered without the extra tube inclusion. Keeping this one for nostalgia's sake. Anyway, bought this at a clearance price during one of Swee Lee's year end sale which doesn't happen any more, of course. 

Tube overdose

Do you really acquire tone nirvana upon plugging tube laden effects into a tube amp? Not quite, I tried this set up today: Ibanez Tube King + Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Mayhem + Epiphone Valve Jr head.

The TT Mayhem doesn't really need a drive-type booster to bolster its performance, I just did it to convince myself that some pedals are better left alone. What I hear from this line-up is an excess of bottom end even when my EQ for both pedals had the lower frequencies reduced.

However, I subsequently replaced the TK with a TS7 & it really made quite a difference in terms of definition; we now understand why the tubeless Tubescreamers are effective in this application.

Also, the TK's in-built noise reduction (that VOID control) unit is very effective to such an extent that my BOSS volume pedal was unnecessary in this set-up.

Ibanez: Return of the (Tube) King

So his majesty, the (Ibanez) Tube King has set foot in my humble abode. Ok, cut the shenanigans, if you are interested in the padal, please note the following:

• it's strictly adaptor powered (12V)
• it's heavy- 2kg
• it's BIG- refer to the relative size comparison above (TK999 vs TS7), so pedal board proponents, please tkae note...

Tone wise, there's definitely a marked, tube presence upon activation. As Ibanez anticipated a lower-frequency mush-out when a tube saturates, a presence feature had been wisely included to offset the predicament. The other thumbs-up feature here is the pedal's VOID control which is a noise gate pot (that knob nearest to baby bear...) & it works wonders eliminating the background hissing typical of high gain devices. The TK999 is impressive as a stand alone pedal, capable of invoking that Les Paul type wooliness in the neck humbucker & all things creamy for that matter. Despite being labelled as a 'distortion' by the manufacturer, the pedal is indeed a high octane overdrive (for all things distortion, kindly refer to Visual Sound's Son of Hyde). It works very well boosting your other, lazy/ mild-mannered overdrive or simply opiating your amp's tubes to give you that tone nirvana. If you are looking for a metal type tone assault (despite the manufacturer's allegations that it could), you are reading the wrong literature- are you drunk?