Aria TD-1

The manual is very basic, the controls are also very straight forward but as with most valve products you need to tweak and explore different settings to find the sweet spots.

First impressions are this is a monster!
It is'nt noisy and the bypass is great.
You really have to play around with it and it sounds different depending on guitar and amp, again like anything with valves.
The pedal is loud and there is more than enough gain for most players.
I bought this for a 'Stoner Rock' band i joined as i wanted a dirty 70s valve sound through my solid state Crate Powerblock and 4x12 cabinet. The pedal delivers this sound in spades!
The distortion is not compressed, you will struggle to get tight Dimebag rythyms from this, think more Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, QOTSA, Motorhead and Nirvana.
It is raw around the edges, great for a grunge sound or old Rock/Metal. However, the highs shine through with a lot of clarity on solo work and you get some nice smooth sustain.

I tried it though my Marshall JCM2000 to start with, the valve driving valves driving more valves can get insane. The treble past 11 o'clock gets harsh and the pedal begins to enter full on Fuzz territory, similar with the gain- set at 12 o'clock is more than plenty. The treble is most effective between 7.00 and 11.00.

I then tried it through the solid state Crate, wow. Just what i wanted; dirty rumbling low end with plenty of mids to cut through. It sounds valve as well.
My favourate settings are: Gain 12.00, Low 3.00, High 8.00 and Level 2.00.

Inbetween all this going on i decided to swap the chinese 12AX7 pre amp valve for a Sovtek 12AT7, this is another great thing with these kind of tube pedals- you can explore different valves and modify things to your taste. It is a simple job to change the valve as well.
The 12AT7 is supposedly a cleaner lower voltage valve and it did tame things down slightly but the clarity was a big improvement.
I intend to try some other valves soon but at the moment im quite settled on this set up.

Because of the price, the diversirty and the fact the pedal delivers what i wanted i am going to score this high. But if you want tight Metallica sounds you are better looking elsewhere.

It seems solidly built. My only concern is at a gig some div might knock beer over the grill and the thing might fry.
I would gig without back up, although it may be worth having a spare fuse and valve to hand, i dunno, i am new to these valve pedals.

Bought new and never dealt with Aria so no opinion.

I've been playing 19 years, played in all sorts of bands and like a bit of everything. I own a Crate solid state and a Marshall JCM 2000 as mentioned, a fair size collection of guitars from vintage 64 Fender Jaguar to a Classic series BC Rich Bich.
My only regret is writing this review before i tried my single coil Strat or Jag through the pedal, this review is based on humbucker guitars. In my experience though, anything bordering on Fuzz usually works well with single coils.

Im quite sold on this pedal and the idea of being able to modify it, it also sounds like valve distortion so if it went missing i would not hesitate to buy another. In fact im already considering trying another one out by a different brand just from curiosity.

The other thing i love about this pedal is it delivers the sound i want for my current band, its not a distortion for all genres as mentioned but if you want authentic dirty rock n roll look no further. I own about 25 dirt pedals, Boss, EHX, Line 6, Ibanez, Dod, etc. None of them does what this does.

Part of me wishes the EQ range was much bigger but it was 75 quid new! Not ??300 like Mesa Boogie, you get what you pay for.
It would be interesting to hear this against its rivals like the Ibanez Tube King and EHX Hot Tubes which are incidently more expensive.

Great pedal for little money. Well done Aria!!

Very simple, 4 controls as above. Easy to get a good sound, but after a while you'll find yourself fiddling - and the sounds just keep getting better!

A bit nitty gritty, but I find the jack inputs very stiff - they hold well, but I've set my full rig up before (fender hot rod p bass - aphex bass exciter - this pedal - aphex compressor - ashdown mag 300 combo + ELK 2/10 extension cab) and not realised the lead wasn't all the way in, still sounded fine though!

Careful turning it on at the mains - makes a bit of a pop if your amp is already on!

If you want a really dirty sound this is a great pedal. Through my amp I can get an awesome kick, and really tight sound. Seems to cut some of the lower frequencies on high sustained notes (bass chords), but other than that the sound is great.

Trying different valves could be great fun.

Seems like it's built very well, I've had a few situations where i've clicked the pedal off, and the distortion LED is still signalling it's on. Also, it's developed a huge buzz in the last week or so - could just be a loose earth connection.

Verrrry happy gigging without a backup!

n/a

If you want filth, this is your pedal!

Fairly simple - 4 controls (Drive, Lo, High, Level) and a footswitch. Takes a bit of playing round with both the pedal, guitar and your amp to get a decent sound, though.

At first it seems like this pedal has an extremely high gain, with lots of distortion even with the drive dialled right back. But, by reducing the volume and tone on your guitar it sounds much better, with quite a nice overdriven tone. My gripes with it would be that the Lo end setting hardly changes past a 12 'o'clock setting, while its necessary to keep the High control right back to avoid a horrible loss of the lower frequencies. Again, gain a bit too much (I never get anywhere near the middle settings on Drive) but the Level control works well to drive tube amps that bit harder.
I play a tele and 335 semi through this into a 10w tube practice amp or a Marshall 100w - remarkably quiet with a true bypass (no power needed for bypass signal to pass through).

Tough metal case - would be very hard to damage this baby.
Wouldn't hesitate to gig without a backup.

Quite a nice buy, this. A bit harsh at first, but with some playing round can produce a few lovely sounds. Real tube driven, so I might try changing the tube around and seeing what else it can do!
I play bluesy rock and indie/alternative mostly (think White Stripes/Bluetones/Gomez/Manics/Bloc Party) for 6 or so years and it fits in well.
I also use an old Pearl OD-05 overdrive pedal which is more versatile, but using two overdrive/distortion pedals gives a load of new sounds.
Overall, a mean pedal thats well worth having.

This has 4 knobs, drive, high, low and level. You get get it out of the box and getting sounding good within 5 minutes. It might take awhile to acctually get your sound from it tho. I thought i had the sound i wanted then after a couple of weeks i played around with the knobs some more and got a completly different sound one that i more happy with.

I currently play an Epiphone emily the strange SG, the rest of my effects rig consists of a cry baby wah, zoom 505 multi effects and a cyclone chorus. I play just a small 15 watt Fender frontman amp.

The best thing about this peddle is that its got a damn heavy sound to it. Before i bought it i walked into my guitar shop and they told me they had the ideal peddle for me...they called it a box of death!

You can dial in a pretty wide selection of sounds, from a really bottom heavy crunch to crazy distored highs!

The only real niggle i have and its a very small one (and at times it something i really like anyway..) is that the as you start cranking the drive up the effect is less notable when you start nearing "11 o-clock"

I can stomp on the button and it turns off, i can stop on the button and it turns on. Not much else to depend on here.
If i were to gig with it i wouldnt worry about a backup, as it is i am thinking of taking the zoom out of my rig when i play live.

Ive never delt with the company but i did have it repaired by my guitar shop.

It seems that one of the plastic washers that go between the nut on the input jack and the unit cracked, so i had it replaced with a rubber one. Its the same sort of thing they use on the strab buttons of accoustic guitars (i had mine replaced with one for a maton)

I like to play alot of different styles of music, i mostly play a mix of hardcore punk/thrash/screamo/grind. It suits those styles down to the bone if your after a heavy sound. Ive found it also works well for playing stoner/doom metal if you crank the drive all the way up, crank the low up and the highs down and have the tone knob on your guitar down in a Drop C tuning.

If this thing were stolen i would buy another one for sure, its an awesome sounding peddle for the price that you pay. Ive had alot of people compare it to the Boss Metal Zone and say it is so much better than a metal zone (which i was considering purchasing at the time) and at around half the price how could you go wrong?

Quite straight forward, Drive, Low, High & Level, cant get much simpler then that!!!
Straight out of the box I was able to play around and get a wide variety of overdriven tones without too much headaches.

Very nice, I am using a Rickenbacker 4003 bass through the TD-1 then into a compressor through to a Laney G300 Biampable stack, the drive sound is nice and authentic, no noise or hiss, just a very warm natural sound that breaks up nicley.
I blend the low quite heavy so that it sounds like it only distorts the high frequencies without lossing any bottom end, altough i have driven it quite hard in the botom end and still doesnt loose any bottom end (just not my sound).

No dramas as yet, seems well built,very sturdy and strong, I can see it giving me problems for a long time, unless i spill a dring on it/through the tube vent.
I do use it aqt gigs and am quite confidant with it!!!

N/A

I play, melodic rock type music with a very vintage Brit Rock influence, ie the Who, Kinks etc..., I have been playing for about 16 years and have never really used any effects with my bass setup, I have however wanted for a long time wanted to capture that vintage tube driven sound for certain songs, Distortion is not a big part of my sound, but when I do use it , I want it to sound authentice!!!
I think this little box is great, and for the price compared to other solide state tubeism emulators it is a great deal!!!!
The only thing that I wish it had was that you could wind the drive knob right back and get a clean tube sound as it starts to distort even on zero, I guess it is a distortion box after all so it should do that, but I would really love to have the benefit of a clen tube pre amp as well. I have been told though that you can change the dynamics of the drive by changing the actuall tube?? I have gone there yet, but if and when the tube ever burns out, I may toy with a different type???
I cant say that I would replace it if stolen as Distortion is not a big part of my sound, but i could imagine in time, i will start to bring the sound more into my music and will depend on it more an more, so in the next 12 months I would say i prob would replace it if stolen!!
If you want a great sounding REAL tube drive, you cannot go past this!!!