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.

Amplifiers!

My 3 faithfuls:

Top: Epiphone Valve Jr (Full tube)

A very restrictive amp as it offers a single clean channel & a knob only- how much tone can really be generated by such minimal offerings? Well, the challenge here is for the user to colour the tone through the use of pedals, which is my dislike- I prefer a straight through plug-in but having to use pedals sometimes inspire me to play differently. The head also allows connectivity to various speaker cab configuration signalling the manufacturer's intention of making it a utilitarian player, not just exclusive to bedroom performances.

Middle: Sound Drive SG-612R head (Solidstate)

This is the only head version of the Sound Drive amps in the market the rest being the combo makes. I'm hooked on this amp the day I tried it at the dealer's as it has one of the best on board drive, which is very tube-like but I'm not one to revere the tube tone excessively- a good tone is a good tone, regardless if there are any tubes in there. When I play this amp, it's definitely a straight through plug-in, nothing should get in the way of tone this good.

Bottom: Marshall JVM410H (Full tube)

I would like to thank the good people of Marshall for coming out with this amp as it sounds impressive both at low & high volume settings. To many of us, playing a full tube Marshall is more grievance than elation as majority of the Marshalls sound good only at higher volume settings but the JVM proves otherwise. The drive revison (if there is any to begin with) is also impressive; I had a love/hate relationship with this brand namely due to its drive definition which could have been better but the JVM's got everything right.