Barber Electronics Tone Pump 2

The 'Tone' knob on channel 1 and the 'Bass' knob on channel 2 are pretty self-explanatory, however the 'Bass' knob is really useful to match the bass level of your clean amp. This is cool. The 'Pump' knob on both channels takes a bit of playing around to nail down it's function. Overall, it's pretty easy to use. The fact that it has 2 channels gives you a real '2-in-1' deal.

I use a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia with various Strats and LP's. The Tone Pump II emulates a cranked tube amp very well. That's were the 'Pump' knob comes in. The higher the 'Pump', the more 'tube saturation' you seem to experience. It seems like you are getting more 'overdrive' as you turn it up, but you are really getting more of the compression artifacts you get the more you crank the power section of a good tube amp. At higher settings, everything does seem to pump. A very cleaver idea and a great sounding piece. A friend I play with said to me "Everytime I love your tone, I look down and the Tone Pump is on." He has about $8,000.00 in hardware himself, so that is high praise coming from him. This is not a metalhead pedal, but for blues or classic rock, WOW! Think Dickey Betts, Don Felder, or Buddy Guy O.D. tone. It should be the first O.D.in line if you have more than one because an O.D. in front of it will cause too much compression of the sound. It works best with a non-master volume amp, but with a good tube amp, it still is very good.

David Barber handmakes his pedals in a small shop. See his website for a list of parts. I have had no issues in 2 1/2 years of moderate use/abuse playing live without a backup. He uses a pretty sturdy outside case and the innards are top notch. Jacks in the front of the box might make it a litte easier to fit on a pedalboard. I give most boutique stuff a higher rating than a mass produced piece due to the handbuilt/higher quality component aspect and David's stuff is no exception.

While I have not needed repairs, I have e-mailed and called down to David a few times. Each e-mail was promptly returned and he is a real gentleman as a business owner on the phone. Other reviews, including repairs, indicate the same.

If you want a great blues or classic rock pedal this is a great choice. No Boss pedal or Tube Moaner will come close to it. It will do any style except metal.

HAVE TO GIVE A 9 BECAUSE ONE HAS TO REMOVE THE BASE IN ORDER TO ACCESS THE TRIM POTS. Very hard to get a bad sound out of it. Editing patches? Hmmm.... Good manual.

Gibson Custom, Carvin Bel Air with extention 3x12. No noise. Not weak in any way. Tactile experience.

Reliable so far. Do not expect any problems. Would like to give a top banana rating but have not had it long enough.

Do not expect to need any.

Trying to create my own thing soundwise. Have used many pedals in the last 22 years of playing, and wish that this had been made and discovered long ago. Purchased post internet research. Thank you to previous reviews, a great find, and recommended. Lets have more outlets for this product in the U.K.

Fairly self explanatory.

This is a grest sounding pedal, and the bass trim knob is a feature that once use, makes one wonder "Gee, I wonder why all OD pedals don't have this?"
This pedal is absolutely true bypass and incredibly versatile. I personally can't get a bad sound out of it. I love it.
Oh yeah, I've had it and have been playing with it for over 2 years, and it sounds great.

My rig: a Grosh Retro Classic w/DiMarzio Virtual Vintage 2.0 pickups (and a Fender custom shop strat) into (in order from the guitar to the amp) a Klon, my Tone Pump II, and a Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe into a Clark Piedmont occasionally doubled with a Tone King Comet 40 B.

The damn thing is built like a tank. I use without a backup all the time.

I've had several e-mail concersations with Mr Barber and he always responded to me professionally and just seems like he really cares about his products.

Okay, thought I'd jump in and contribute, as I'm always tweaking my tone and looking for new ovedrive pedals to get that dialed sound for my rig, and I've been reading a shit load of opinions about the Klon. That pedal seems to generate more disagreement/praise than any other pedal. Weird. Personally, I love the Klon. I think it's a great pedal, and it's on 90% of the time I'm playing. Sometimes for boost, sometimes for overdrive. I also use the TP a whole lot for extra gain, or as a different tone color to contrast with the Klon. Between them, I've got a pretty damn fly setup. I can get just about any tone I want. Some gentleman below was curious about A/B comparisons of the 2. Well, they're pretty much totally different pedals. They sound-different. The Klon really focuses the sound of my amp and kind of pinches the sonic range a little more towards the middle of the spectrum. Not unlike what happens to your amp when you start to push it hard. pretty cool. the TP really allows me to keep my whole spectrum, but it sounds a little buzzier to me. Not worse, just different. I like them both and use them both.
Long story short, don't believe the hype, people. Seems like some tweakers out there are just down on the Klon, no matter what. I know a guy that has a Klon that never uses it. He hates it. I love mine though. That pedal is designed to be used with an amp that's being pushed. The Tone Pump, is, well, a tone pump. It's a great pedal and I love it. I've even let my poor Solid State friends use it with their rigs and it made a huge difference. Bottom line, Barber makes great stuff. I love it and it's staying on my pedal board along with the Klon and probably a Banzai pedal of some sort in the future. You can never have too much overdrive, right?

If you're a hopeless addict for overdrive like me, in my humble opinion you can't go wrong with this in your quiver. Just one more sonic crayon to color wtih, if you know what I mean. One day I hope to have 32 different ovedrive pedals on my board to cover any possible thing I want to do. (!) if anybody has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them if I can.

My pedal was made in 2001. Newer ones have the open-air mod as a standard feature I believe, so I am sort of stuck with this older version, as Dave Barber constantly tweaks and improves his designs.
Tone Pump with 6 knobs- bass, tone (treble), and two volume and drive knobs for each seperate channel.
These Tone Pumps have had a troubled history. First there was the original Tone Pump with 4 knobs, then came the Tone Pump 2 with the same four knobs but with an additional internal trimmer for the bass bias, then came the pedal I am reviewing- the 6 knob Tone Pump which eliminated the internal trimmer in favor of a regular knob (bass) on top of the pedal.

If a regular tubescreamer splits your original input signal and remixes the dry (clean) and effected signal back together as its output, then this Tone Pump pedal sounds like its just pure effected signal with no dry/clean signal mixed back in- the sound is very pure.
This pedal sounds best with the pedal volume up past 1:00 as theres alot of volume boost available, which really kicks up the preamp tube in my Marshall AVT 50 watt amp. Im using a Gibson Les Paul Standard which is the best guitar in the world. The distortion from the pedal goes from totally clean to sort of Robben Ford-ish heavy tubescreamer tones- good harmonics, dynamics are good if you have those pedal volume knobs set high.

This may be one of the best built pedals Ive ever seen- military specs throughout- this pedal will last a lifetime!

Barber is the best- a real class act- I would never sell this pedal or his discontinued Nuance Foot Grenade overdrive pedal.

This pedal is very expensive and sounds alot "drier" than a traditional tubie like the Maxon OD-808. Barber aimed for a different sound and he certainly got it, though this pedal needs to really be used at loud gig volumes- its not so hot as a low volume practice pedal.
The pedal's layout is extraordinary- one switch turns the effect on/off, and another switch chooses between two channels (green and red LED's) while seperate volume and gain knobs control either channel for total flexibility. The bass and tone knobs work with both channels. Brilliant design and not too noisy. Nice control over the bass and treble. This is a keeper folks!

it is pretty easy to get a good sound out of it. my old tone pump with only 1 tone control is easier, but this has 2 volume and pump controls--addressing the 1 weakness of the 3 knob TP, completely independent gain and volume levels for the 2 channels...the manual is pretty good

this sounds very good. the tone pump is 1 of my 2 favorite overdrive boutique pedals. my other favorite is the robert keeley modded ts-9/808. very quiet. i have a custom relic strat w/ lidy fralins p/ups, matchless hurricane, top hat club deluxe, barber tone pump, burn unit II, dual unit, keeley compressor, fulltone clyde,ibanez analog delay, alfonso hermida modified analogman clone clone, alfonso hermida modified vox reissue tone bender, voodoo lab analog chorus, demeter tremulator, 5 robert keeley modified ts-9/808's...i play blues and classic rock. witht he keeley comporessor and the tone pump II i can get slighly boosted fat tones to sustain for days, screaming fat leads... all with a strat and a clean amp!!!!!

i have 6 barber pedals, all very well made. very dependable...

dave barber has always been very helpful, although my questions about the edge hog seemed to end prematurely...

it is expensive, buit worth it, perfect for blues and classic rock. because of the 2 channels a desert island overdrive pedal pick right up there with a dual robert keeley ts-9/808 setup...

It's so simple. Three controls. Volume,Tone,Pump. Dial in Tone to taste and Pump for gain. The manual is easy to understand.

My setup is either a Gibson 1959 Les Paul reissue or PRS McCarty>Boss Tu-2tuner>Dynacomp>Clyde wah>Klon>Tone Pump 2>T.C.Chorus>T.C.Delay>Mesa Boogie MkIII+ext.cab. both with Ev speakers.The Tone Pump is used for overdrive and the Klon for boost (both from Bob @Perfectnote, and a great guy). This is a very quiet unit. Even at apartment dweller level, almast dead quiet. No need for a Hush unit. I set the tone low due to inherent highs in the Boogie. The Pump settings are usually medium to high depending on sound I want. You will get from Hendrix fuzz at lower settings,Clapton Cream with "Woman-Tone" with the tone low on guitar/or Tone Pump/or both. Go higher on the pump for SRV, still higher,add tone for Santana with endless sustain. ZZ top/David Grissom "crunch"is easy,just dial in tone and pump to taste.

Totally dependable. Built to withstand a direct hit from a Daisy Cutter bomb (good for cave dwellers)!Never leave home without it!

I have had no problems with this unit for almost a year now. David Barber is a scholar and a gentleman,with an outstanding knowledge of "tonetronics".Ihave nagged him regarding other product/mods,etc. David is totally ascessable, either by email or telephone. He only wants one thing. His customers to be happy. Bottom line.

Overall, the best overdrive I have ever used. I play blues mostly.Some rock. Been playing of and on about 30 years.Have owned several overdrive pedals,all in a graveyard or in someone's arsenal.Nothing comes closer to obtaining virtually any beautiful,glorious,(even "greasy")overdrive, at ANY volume.It leaves me wanting for nothing,leaves the music come through. This unit just makes me want to play more, there is such responsiveness, even to pick attack!That's saying something in a overdrive unit. Together with my Klon for clean boost,I need not say more.

This is one of the easiest pedals I've had as far as dialing up a good tone, but don't expect to go from your strat to your paul without tweaking the tone setting.

I'm using this pedal with a Dr. Z Maz 38 and a '64' Fender Tremolux, it treats each a little differently, you just need to know that you're going to reach down and back off a little treble with the fender to get great tone. Guitars are a '70' Les Paul Custom, a '71' Strat and a PRS Custom 22, I wouldn't hesitate using this pedal with any of them, it's all good!

So far, so good, it's built like a tank so I don't expect problems, and now that the pedals are available through a retail outlet, I can deal with the store for warranty work.

Haven't had to deal with them yet, but I've heard good things.

These days I'm just playing with friends doing some covers, but we do a wide variety and I can get really spectacular tones for anything we do out of this pedal, and it's easily the most musical overdrive unit I've ever worked with. I just can't seem to give anything a 10 though, because with so much talent making equipment right now, that 10 may be right around the corner, but I think that the tone pump is as good as it gets for now.

Pretty much like any other overdrive - there's level, EQ and overdrive ("pump") pots. Set it the way you like and away you go. My only gripe so far has been that the LEDs are just above the switches, when you have a foot on the switch and want to see the switch status your toe covers the LED. Not a big deal though

I had been using a TS-5 (plastic Tubescreamer) and a Boss overdrive as a boost. I tried a friend's Klon Centaur. The one time I used the Klon I was *very* impressed. Not wanting to shell out that much $, I tried the Tone Pump. It's hard to tell how close it gets to the Klon, because I can't A/B them, but I get the feeling it get's pretty damn close. I don't tend to use the boost feature, partially because I tend to forget it's there. When I do use it, it sounds fine.

Seems to be built like a brick - no problems yet. I have one of the 2K models with the decals instead of paint. One of the decals has curled up and is threatening to fall off any day. Not a biggy in my book.

As others have said, Dave seems totally responsible, approachable reachable and honorable.

I picked this pedal up more than a year ago and it's worked very well for me. I play alt.country in a large-ish band. We average 4 gigs a month at venues from book stores, to medium sized clubs to large halls. I initially used the TPII as a cleanish boost after a Tube Screamer. Lately I've used it as my basic overdrive (switched on most of the time)with an MXR Micro Amp as a clean boost. Both configs work well. My amp is usually a SF Twin Reverb, though I've also used it with old Ampegs, a Vox, a Sovtek - no problem. Guitars vary but the guitar I've used most with this is a Schecter Tele. I've also used vintage Gibsons (LP Standard and SG)and others. There are no guitars I've used that it doesn't like. With the Tele and the Twin I can get a nice snarly sound that works well with country rock. I can see the comparison to a Tube Screamer, it does a lot of the same things, but it's got much more clarity. Notes seem to "pop" from the guitar more with the TPII (that's good). It seems brighter than the FullDrives I've heard (never used one). I had hoped that the boost feature would let me ditch my clean boost pedal, but it doesn't work that way. It's not enough of a volume boost, more of a gain boost. I see the new ones actually have two banks of controls. I almost wish I had held out for one of those - then I probably *could* eliminate the clean boost pedal from my pedal board. I wish these were sold in stores so I could try out the other Barber Pedals, though Dave does have a generous return policy and there is something nice about getting it straight from the guy who built it. I own a few pedals, my other overdrives have been a Boss Dual Overdrive, Boss Blues Driver and a SoundTank TS-5 Tubescreamer. I've been playing guitar for close to 30 years. If I lost the TPII now it would be a good excuse to get one of the newer (and improved?) ones. I'm rating this as a 9 so I can save 10 for something amazing. I'd say this pedal is pretty damn nice.

Easy to use. Like any good equipment, takes tweaking to find personal preferences and fine-tune the subtleties. Manual is short and sweet.

Are you kidding me? With my Suhr Strat, Fender Vibrolux set on 4.5 - loud for this particular amp - and slaved to a Hot Plate to fend off the tinnutis, with settings at 10:30, 10:30 and 2:30 for volume, tone, and pump, the Tone Pump delivers vintage SRV. When I switch to my Suhr Telly w/ bridge pickup selected and a little studio delay, it's Jimmy Page's end of "Stairway to Heaven" solo tone - exactly. When I back down the knobs on the Tone Pump to a clean setting and fingerpick my Telly, it's Mark Knopfler; add compression and delay again, and it's Adrian Legge (sp?). Ditch the compression and delay, add reverb and plink and plunk the Telly and it's Albert Collins. Talk about versatility!

Sturdy, reliable. Opened it up; very well made. I use it every time I plug in. I always gig with it.

Never contacted them. Haven't needed to.

"10" all the way. I've been playing professionally for 24 years. I still gig occasionally, but, mostly, I'm a full-time professional studio musician. I've tried so many different effects, guitars, amps and setups and, no matter what, was always in "search mode" for something that was better than what I had - something that could give me the tones that made me drool. My search is over, but I still drool.

Very easy to use. Three knobs; volume, tone and pump. Two footswitches for the two channels of overdrive.
I haven't been able to get a bad sound out of this pedal.

The tone pump has two distinct (but related) personalities. The first (green led) channel is pretty tube screamerish. Sounds great.
The second (red led) channel has a little more gain and a bit more harmonic richness when fully cranked it has an almost rat-like quality to it although a bit warmer to my ear (note: when i compare it to a rat i'm speaking of tonal/textural qualities, it definitely has nowhere near the degree of distortion that a rat has).
A nice feature is the bass trimpot inside. You can adjust the bass response of the pedal exactly to your liking. I wish my Rat had this!
The tone pump is very quiet and is true bypass.

Beautifully constructed and seems very solid. The battery rattles a little and the vinyl stickers peeled up, but other than that, it seems like a rock.

I've never needed customer support. I did drop Mr. Barber an e-mail to tell him how much i enjoy the tone pump (i normally never write manufacturers unless i have a question or problem). He responded right away to my letter so i suspect their customer support is good.

I realize this not an inexpensive pedal and there are a lot of great sounding tubescreamer clones out there. However, i really like the tone of this pedal, i listened to and compared many other overdrives (including the Fulldrive, Red Snapper, Baby Blue and tubescreamer) before springing for the Tone Pump.
The second channel and the bass trim pot and build quality make it irreplacable for me. This is my most used pedal (along with my Z.Vex super hard on).