EBS Valve Drive

Well, with 2 buttons and an EQ it is quite easy to tune your sound. As every pedal it starts working when you plug in the power.

I use it as a pedal for my Ibanez EDB700 bass and a Marshall stack on a base and it sounds solid. I play britpop music, so I need slightly overdriven bass, though this is good for more heavy styles. (Muse - Hysteria, or RHCP is a right example for that). Really you can get a well overdriven sound almost for each style. With it's EQ you can have as a deep sound as well as a hard hi-freq sound.

It is important to state - this is a true tube overdrive and distortion. (or preamp)

Besides - it is a good DI-box - it gives a nice form for the signal with a good attack.

There isn't much noise with it, though when you use it while recording bass you can hear noises when you compress the sound.

Overall - very nice, especially for gigs. It is worth it price.

I do use it without a backup just because I don't have any other alternatives. It is quite difficult to have them in Russia )

I have used it for a year and yet didn't had any problems.

I started playing bass ~2 years ago after playing guitars for 5 years.

Overall this is a nice pedal for me. I used it with several amps only with my Ibanez EDB700 bass and I am quite glad to have it. I used to purchase it via internet and delivery in UK and had to bring it to Russia. It was definitely worth these difficulties.

Just plug in your bass and play - I suppose it to be a really well done tube-overdriven pedal.

This pedal is super straight forward. Simple layout.

I use this pedal through my Kern pre and Stewart 1.6 power amp. I play a Modulus SS-5. OMG I've got tone IMO.
Once I acquired the Kern I needed a pedal for the grit. (The Kern has no true over drive capabilities.) I have the Sansamp programmable pedal but it is a little too much color for me with regard to using all of the time.

The Valve Drive is the pedal of choice for me hands down.

Only had the pedal for two months but it looks like it is built like a tank.

Never had to use them

Made in China...probably by people who are under paid. That is my only gripe. "Designed and developed by EBS Sweden" but made in China and sold at "near boutique" prices around the world.

That bit of "holier than tho" aside; This is a great pedal.

I've been playing bass for 28 years.

As I said, I have a Kern BP777 so I have a great foundation to build from. Adding EBS grit to the Kern is like heaven on earth. Like an SVT on steroids on a hot summer day!!

If it were stolen I would track the fool down and beat him to death with it! Yes, it's built that well. I wish I had the money to get a spare but this thing cost me $300. Not cheap.

I hope that EBS paid those people in China well because they did a great job. I give it an 8 just because of the price. If it cost $200-$225 I'd give it a 15...Yep it's that good

It's easy to get a good overdrive out of this pedal, because it is a real tube overdrive pre-amp in a pedal box. It sounds great right away. Just dial in and toggle between overdrive types. There is nothing really confusing or unclear about using this pre-amp pedal. The EQ and gain dials work well. Only thing that could go wrong is mistakenly setting the switches on the back panel to a lower db setting or mute when the pedal is switched off. This is a really straight forward pedal control wise. I really like the ability to switch between overdrive vintage and modern overdrive types with a simple foot switch. The red and green indicator light showing which overdrive you are using is really helpful too. Both overdrive types are very consistent in terms of EQ and gain, so you don't get a dramatic shift if you want to use both overdrives in the same song.

I don't give this 10 rating lightly. This pedal gives me the Drive Like Jehu, Don Caballero, Shellac, Uzeda, Red Scare, Sleeptime Trio etc. bass sound I love. As you can see, I play post-hardcore/math-rock/spazz-core (or whatever adjective you use for this kind of music). If you love overdrive on bass and normally play with overdrive (I always play with this pedal on), then you have found your pedal. I prefer the modern overdrive setting, because it adds the warmth, grit, sharpness, and body I really need when I play chords and hefty staccato lines. The modern setting sounds like my Ampeg SVT (original 1974-75), if it was really maxed out with lots of warmth and bite; which is hard to achieve without going deaf. Your signal gets really sharp, big, and warm, just lovely really.
The vintage overdrive is quite unique and really thick. It has a great fuzzy tone and makes your notes sound meaty. The unique quality of the vintage setting comes from the ghost fuzz or quieter double fuzz you can hear. This is hard to explain, but you hear your note and a little warm fuzz on top about quarter of the volume of the main signal.
The sound of this pedal for my SVT (I have the 8x10 cab to match) is like the sweet sound of a Marshall JCM 800 breaking up really well for bass. Just as the Ibanez tube-screamer and Big Muff work really well for guitar amps, bass players really get a classic of their own with this pedal. Incidently, the Tube-Screamer works well with the SVT and bass amps too, but it just doesn't have the real grit, sharpness, and warmth of this EBS pedal.
I just got an Ampeg SVT III Pro as a back-up to my vintage 70's SVT for gigs and haven't had to chance to try the EBS with it yet, but I can say the all-tube SVT, 8x10 cab and EBS Value Drive is a truly wonderful match.

I've had this pedal for about 4 months, so I'm not qualified to say if this pedal is reliable yet. I would change to tube about once a year or two, but that's it for now. I don't think I need a back up for gigging.

Since I've had my pedal for only a few months, I hope to never have to talk to EBS customer support.

I love this pedal. I've been playing for 20 years or so and this is most satisfied I've been with an overdrive or distortion pedal. I play an Fender American Jazz Bass and as I've said, I play a full SVT rig with a 70's head and newer 2001 8x10 cab. What sets this overdrive pedal apart is that it is tube pre-amp, so it really gives your sound a wonderful push, heft, break-up, and warmth that really can't be done without a tube. I've seen other reviewers compare this unit to the San Amp Bassdriver DI, which is another great overdrive pedal. But the EBS pedal is better if you are looking for a sharp, thick tube overdrive sound for bass. The Sans Amp is too thin for my taste and sort of over compresses your signal and sounds a bit "fake" and stale compared to the EBS Value Drive. I own the Sans Amp Bassdriver DI and it can really improve some amps, but it colors the sound of your amp's tone too much when you need overdrive. The only reason the EBS Valuedrive doesn't get a 10 is because its pricey, but if you're serious about natural full overdrive you have to pay up, I suppose.

easy peasy, fast response, clear decision making, no way back kind of thing

fat. chuggy bass sound, like allthose nice valvey chuggy bass lines on records. Shellac (do they use valves?)

I dont like its gain all the way up that sounds bad, but below 70 % its awesome huge authoritive sound, eq is light but cunning, more of a correction tool than extreme coloration tool. Use it with Pbass and transistor amps

Really improves the tone a great deal, saves on having a tube head IMO.

I just use it for making things fat and rounder edged

hmmmm, the switches have gone on mine pretty fast needed to be replaced, I took comfort in the fact that I never really would want to bypass it, but for those that do my bypass switch went and would sometimes crackle or make a weaker signal wen engaged, couple of wacks and it would come back

shame really

they sent me out a repalcement switch right away, but I have a feeling EBS stuff could suffer a bit from that 'Huge company' rush production problem.

obviosuly I am just one opinion amongst a million

at the end of the day its a dope piece, shame mine was not so reliable, but its a big advantage to have this pedal, for those without tubes it brings you such a portable version of them.

a great piece, just wish mine was not having problems. also for the price it should not.

The 3 band eq provides quite a bit of tonal variability and the gain can take you from barely gritty to a rather saturated sound. I found that the settings suggested by the manual (i.e. relatively scooped settings) weren't particularly appealing to my ear. The tone was a bit more boomy than I prefer, but I suspect that these settings might be more applicable to users who want to sweeten up their solid state amp. I got much more growl and attack by rolling the midrange all the way up and the treble/bass all the way back, as suggested by the manual to achieve a flat response. Then I dialed in a bit more bass and treble to taste. I got a much more kick ass tone this way. It took a couple of practice sessions to really nail the tone I was after, but take my word for it -- what you're looking for is somewhere in this bad-boy.

I am running a Fender US Precision through the Valve Drive into a 1980's all-tube NONMASTER SVT-II. I play in a heavy, riff-oriented stoner/metal/doom outfit (American Centaur) and this pedal nails the growling, overdriven tone that I was looking for. Since we're a three piece I needed to fill out the sound when the guitarist decides to go all widdly-widdly and the Valve Drive is just the ticket. Since my amp does not have a separate gain control, I really wanted a pedal that would simulate a pre-amp with adjustable gain so I could really push the power tubes. Other reviews that I've read suggested that this pedal really excels at warming up solid state tone, but I've found that the pedal sounds fantastic with a tube head as well. The inherent tone of the amp still shines through, but now I have a lot more flexibility in terms of gain and eq. The pedal is very quiet as well -- no hiss, hum or other unwanted noise, but you can get some nice, harmonic feedback when desired.

I've only had the pedal for about a month, but no problems so far. It's built very solidly and I've never noticed any heat coming from the chassis that houses the tube. I do not anticipate any reliability issues from my experience so far.

I haven't had any need to contact EBS.

I've been experimenting with a number of pedals, trying to get the ideal overdrive that I have in my head: The Blackbox Xray had been my overdrive for over a year now, but was always a bit too brittle/snappy for my tastes. The Valve Drive is much richer and full sounding, but still provides great attack and grit. I've also tried the Precision Electronics Depth Charge with disappointing results. Very noisy and difficult to control, especially with faster parts. I always felt like the distortion was introducing a some mild phasing effects. Not good. I also tried the Rocktron Silver Dragon when I decided I wanted to go with a real-tube pedal. It could get pretty gnarly, but it was just bit too "guitarish" sounding.

I kind of went out on a limb, dropping over 300 bones for this little beauty without ever trying it out, but I couldn't be happier. This is one sweet piece of gear and I'm finally pleased with my tone.

needs some tweaking to find the right sound, but as one could expect.

StingRay4/EBSmulticomp/EBSvalvedrive/Ampegsvt3pro/EBS neo112
Sound is million miles away from the OD's crowd,rich and natural but oddly, as I wanted a vintage OD, the modern channel satisfies me much more. I find that the vintage has some kind of BossODB3/Line6bass podXT metallic sound (spring/buzz????) to the highs, that I don't like at all and find unnatural though it comes from a tube. Modern channel is absolutely fantastic: I can get my ampeg's natural drive with the master at 9 o'clock. Can match a Geezler "paranoid" sound at any volume: end of my OD's quest.
9 for the disappointing vintage channel

seems solid

for anyone looking for the tube sound without the hassles, this thing is uncomparable in my op. I got a good bargain on ebay with Papasound, who is a great trustworthy seller. I won't recommend it as a preamp, but the OD is killer

You have five knobs and two switches on top for on/bypass and for vintage/modern sound, the knobs are placed in a recess so you won't step on them or break them. The placing of the knobs is a little backwards, beginning from right to left with drive, bass, mid, treble and volume. But - you get used. With modern switch activated you get more gain, or buzz, but the vintage makes it... vintage. On the back you have two jacks for in and out, a defeat switch and a gain switch ; set and forget.
Ease of use? Well, you won't ever need a manual.

Like sauce on the potatoes...

Set the drive low and volume high you get a FAT sound, reminding of the fat switch on old Fender Bassman heads. More drive gives grit, dirt all the way up to useless. If you set the drive at around 9 o'clock you have a good allround tube amp sound and when you switch to modern style you get distortion without changing settings. The pedal sounds really, really good for guitar as well.

I use the pedal with my Eden rig and EBS combo.

Noise level is low, unless you have full volume and full treble, then it is "noticable". Lightyears away from many other pedals.

Have used it only briefly, a new product. All my other EBS gear is high quality, both soundwise and in construction, so I rely on it.

I phoned them some year ago and they took their time to help. I think I even talked to one of the bosses, don't remember the name. Nice guy, though...

I play all different styles, but will use the pedal for rock and pop music. Gives nice chunky old school tube sound, all from just fat to overheated SVT.

I bought a Sans Amp Programmable Bass Driver a while ago. Soundwise I prefer the EBS, but the Sans Amp is more versatile. Remember that the EBS Valve Drive is a PEDAL. The Sans Amp is a fully grown PREAMP with lots of more possibilities, DI, speaker emulator etc.

I'd say for me is EBS on stage and Sans Amp in the studio. They both SOUND very good, but it FEELS better playing live through the EBS.