Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes

THIS REVIEW FOR THE OLD GERANIUM TRANSISTOR VERSION!

When I first got it I set it down, pluged it in, turned on the amp, nothing. Hmmm...Lets see check switch, volume, ahh! I put the cord in the direct out not the effect out. So, I switch it around, nothing. Hit the switch and BOOM! Out poured the finest harmonic distortion I'd ever heard. After the idiot (moi) found out how to set it up it was easy from there just tweak the volume, tone, and OD knobs.

Well for this one I pulled out my old Charvel with Duncans (Distortion and '59) and first played through an ADA MP-1 preamp direct to my 4x12. The MP-1 was to processed for this kind of effect and I could sense it instantly. So, since I'm in amp limbo and can't decide what kind of head to get I pluged it into an old Pignose. The two fit together real nicely, actually. The hot tubes is an excellent sounding effect that is great for pushing an overdriven amp into to total mayham. Since i first got it I played it through a JCM-800 and I soiled my pants. Literaly. This thing pushed the JCM like crazy. It sounds like a Big Muff with less of a bassy mid scoop tone. Great for classic jams.

Even though this old EH stuff is notorious for cheap build quality there stuff always seems to hold up like troopers. Why? No one knows, I guess Mike really knew how to build 'em.

Never dealt with them.

This is the finest distortion I've ever played. If you have the chance to pick one up do yourself a favor and act on it!

its pretty hard to get a good sound of it but when u find it its like wham its there u just gotta werk at it
plus i had mine modified to sound much tighter less flabbery then a big muff which is wat i like
very ac/dc tone just awesome

its awesome i use it primarily as a booster

i opened it up and modified seems like a tank
tuff to modify but it was done and its much bettr now

this pedal rules thats all i have to say no need to bore u with other facts

This is pretty much a standard distortion/overdrive set up. It takes some playing time to get a sound you like, but there are almost limitless variations of that sound.

I played this with a 1978 Strat through a crate, a marshall, and a mesa boogie dual rectifier. It sounded great through all of them except the boogie. The boogie has too much natural tone for this effect, besides with the boogie gain I had no use for this pedal. Definitely worth the effort if you are looking for a vintage Big Muff sound. Also try different tubes, they come out quickly and different brands give different sound qualities.

I never had any trouble with it except the power cord can get knocked out easily during a gig (tape it in). I stomp the hell out of this and it laughs at me.

I live near the EH factory, so I deal with them in person when I need to. I never had a problem with this pedal, but they were great when I had a problem with a small stone.

This is a very versatile pedal as long as you are looking for that 60's-70's sound. You won't be getting those super death metal sounds unless you have an amp that can augment the pedal to that extent. I recently sold mine because with the mesa boogie I no longer need it, but it was quite a bit of fun while I had it.

Three knobs, all of which have a great effect on the sound

This is a real Vintage Hot Tubes, an analog, Solid State device, not the new one with tubes that sounds horrible. These vintage Hot Tubes pedals are amazing, you can go from subtle overdrive to over the top, bBig Muff distortion. this is the most usable pedal EH Ever made. It makes all my guitars sound better. Very Mid 70's sound. I have two, and i will never part with either!

Electro Harmonix stuff is notoriously cheaply made, but for some reason, these Hot tubes pedals don't die, I've had one for over 15 years without a problem!

Never Needed it.

This pedal is indespensable, a perfect design, this box lays my Ibanez TS808, and Mxr distortion+ pedals to waste, I don't even bother to use them anymore, but I always ues the Hot Tubes!

Takes ages to find a good sound, but once you do, it sounds BRILLIANT.

When I first bought this pedal it sounded horrid - it made an unbearable hum when it was on. Turned out one of the valves was loose. 5 minute job to fix. Sounds great now. Can get anything from smashing pumpkins to zakk wylde out of this pedal when plugged into my marshall TSL.
It can sound a bit harsh if you arent careful with the tone controls though

I wouldnt trust the plug - the wire is too thin and the pins that plug into the pedal could easily short out and kill the adapter, as they are completely exposed. The pedal itself is bombproof however. I also have a 1970s Big muff which still works perfectly - these pedals are built to last.

Never had any experience with them

I play anything from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Black Label Society, and this pedal can cover just about everything, except heavily scooped metal sounds ie pantera/metallica

Easy to use. Parametric EQ offers a huge range of sounds.

When I first checked this pedal I was really pissed on its sound. I really expected something different when I ordered this very potential Baby. It sounded harsh and "cheap" like a transistor pedal.
I was close to sell it.....
My last idea to make it a good one was changing the tubes. And that's it ! KICK THE ORIGINAL TUBES !
I tried some old Mullards and some Fenders. Now it sounds awesome. Warm creamy sounds, still with Bottom and Punch. Even the typical "Big Muff" Settings sound really "tubedriven" now. It's a complete different pedal now. Amazing ! Check it out, I promise you'll be surprised !!!

No probs. Very realible.

Haven't dealt with them....

I've been playing for 20 years. I play Jazz, Pop, Latin, Phunk and Rock. I compared it after changing the tubes to the Fulltone Fulldrive II, Hughes & Kettner Tubefactor and Tubeman. The HT is the best choice and I would certainly buy it again.

It's pretty easy to deal with this pedal. Pretty straight forward... It takes a little while to figure out how the "Drive" and "Gain" knobs differ and how they work together but after a few minutes of experimentation it should all be pretty clear.

I gave this pedal a 7 for sound quality but that rating certainly needs elaboration. The quality of sound emitted from this effect (being pretty much a preamp pedal with the high output of 2 12AX7s) is quite dependent on the type of amp you are using and the particular settings you use on that amp. I bought this pedal intending to use it as my primary overdrive for a Mesa/Boogie Nomad 100 2X12 combo... however, after using it for a few months I started to suspect that it was far too much pedal for far too much amp. Mesa's definitely have their own tonal characteristics as do boutique type pedals and I started to think that these two nice pieces of gear really just weren't getting along. The hot tubes dirtied up what had been a very musically useful tone on my amp... even at very low settings on the effect. So, I tried it out on a more cut and dry type of amp... i switched to my fender deluxe 1X12 and I found that the pedal really could glow in that sort of a setting. So, I'd say that if you have a nice amp with nice preamp settings that you like... don't bother with this pedal because it isn't your run of the mill overdrive/distortion unit. It is practically an amp with a tone all its own.... if you, however, have a more stripped down amp that you'd like to give a tonal boost to... this is your unit... I give it a 4 for sound quality on my nomad and a 10 with the fender... average that and you get 7.

has been reliable so far... one problem... the AC adapter is an odd shape and has a very small pin as it one of it's connection points... i have already had that break off once... so you have to be very careful with it. The unit itself is built like a tank.

When the pin on the AC adapter broke I called EHX and with no questions asked a new one was shipped to me in just 4 days. that's great service!

I play sonic youth/king crimson sorts of compositions with lots of transitiions between clean and overdriven sounds ranging from crystal clear to hardcore distortion... This unit would sit on the hardcore end of that spectrum if played with my mesa amp... it would be in the middle if used with the fender amp... If it was stolen I'd be bummed but i'd probably just replace it with something cool made by Nine Volt Nirvana because those pedals are incredible. To sum this review up I'll just say that this pedal is ALOT of pedal... play it with an amp like yours before buying it because the type of amp really will make a huge difference.

Incredibly simple to get great tones. Play around with the bass and treble a few minutes and you'll be amazed at the tone.

Sounds great with my Les Paul and awesome with my PRS Custom 22, but it's with my Strat that it really comes alive. Fattened up the sound on the Strat and totally blows away my ProCo Rat.

I took this out on a 6 month club tour and it was perfect every night.

Called tham before I bought it and they were very helpfull. Like the last guy said, thay seem very interested in input from their customers.

I've been playing for 19 years and I can tell you that this pedal is great for everything from classic 70's Rock to modern Heavy Metal. If this were stolen I would definitely buy another one.

Very simple to use. If you've ever had a tube amp, then you know how to get great sounding distortion and overdrive. If you've never had a tube amp, you'll be totally blown away by how easy it is to get an awesome sound from this pedal.

Great for everything from mild overdrive (think SRV) to classic rock (think early Led Zeppelin) to heavy metal (think Metallica). I have alot of guitars and amps but my main setup is: 1969 Gibson Les Paul, 1971 SG, 1967 335, or 1964 Fender Strat through Teese RMC 1 Wah, Foxrox Captain Coconut 2, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Fullton Distortion Pro, Analog Mike TS-808, Analog Mike Clone Chorus, Zvex SHO and Diaz Texas Tremodillo into Marshall JCM 800, Marshall Plexi, Fender Super Reverb or Diaz CD30. This pedal has replaced my Fulltone Distortion Pro and my Fulltone Fulldrive 2. Yes it's really that good.

My band plays live 4 to 5 times a week and I've been using this for over 8 months without a single problem. It always sounds great no matter whether we're playing a tiny club or private party where we have to keep the volume down to big outdoor shows where I'm using the Super Reverb and the Plexi each cranked to 10. I've been using it without a backup so far without any problems.

I've spoken with them a couple of times and they've been really cool. I never had any problems with any of their gear but they seemed very interested in hearing how their pedals perform on a daily basis.

I've been playing for over 30 years and I've been playing professionally for over 20 years and I've had every type of distortion/overdrive pedal there is. I've had everything from cheap BOSS/MXR type stuff to very expensive handmade stuff like the Klon Centaur. This pedal blows them all away. I always get complimented on my tone and this pedal is one of the main reasons. I play everything from classic rock to blues to jazz. I even do Hendrix tribute shows. If this pedal were ever stolen, I would buy another one the very same day because I use it to get the incredible tone that I use to make a living.

Purdy dang simple pedal to operate. This is a review of the old transistor version, discontinued many moons ago (in an Electric Mistress style box, with all the knobs lined up vertically on the right). Controls are the usual "volume, tone, and gain" suspects. Just keep trying to remember, this is NOT the new version. The current Hot Tubes pedal really has a 12AX7 tube in it, and has five controls. This ain't it.

This is an old (probably late 70's, early 80's) distortion pedal. Rather than preamp tubes, this has a germanium transistor in it (like classic fuzz pedals). This is a two edged sword. On the one hand, pedals (like the Fuzz Face, Big Muff, and this one) that use these were made by guys that had no clue (or didn't care) that germanium transistors have widely varying tolerances. Meaning they will sound totally different one to another. But on the plus side, when you get "a good one", germanium transistors have the biggest sounding, most natural warm overdrive tone you ever heard. I became painfully aware of this when I got a Russian made Big Muff from GC. It sounded wonderful, but stopped working one day (within a month), so I took it back and got another, and it didn't sound the same at all - it sounded bad, really edgy and blatty. Quality control back then (in those companies) wasn't quite what it is today with all the hand-matched parts and high QC with companies like Fulltone, Foxrox and the Analog Man and all this craziness (I like that kinda crazy).

Anyway, the pedal I have is definitely one of "the good ones". Sometimes, when you hear a bad one, the bass sounds weak and thin, and the high end is scratchy, crackly, and the gain is a hoarse sputter. Not so with this Hot Tubes. This has got all the harmonic gooey-ness of the best fuzz; a complex, silky midrange, warm highs, and a huge bass with a bottom end that, while not exactly the tightest, stays together and doesn't waffle. It's maybe a little fuzzy, but it doesn't sound like a fuzz. It's not really the big muff "Corgan-tone" type of pedal used for knocking walls over, either. Lower gain sounds like Beck and Hendrix and Clapton. Higher gain settings sound just like that, except with a lot more gain. Don't know how to describe the sound, really.

I've tried a couple of the newer ones, and let me be the first to tell ya, this is a totally different sound. The new version has all of the "swarm of killer bees" high end that you'll hear on a badly executed 12AX7 design. I don't own this pedal (gave it as a gift to another player, after getting a couple of Fulltone fuzzes), but I have it again temporarily to get it fixed (more below). Though temporarily stricken with a slight pang of regret, my Fulltone's do everything this one did (especially my Distortion Pro - it goes beyond). Still, this one is "just as good" as any fuzz or germanium powered distortion or overdrive that's currently on the market today. Though, if you see three or four in a store somewhere (which is unlikely), maybe one or two out of those will be really good, and the others will likely not fare as well. Or, if you really knew your stuff, you could go "bucket brigade" on a small scale and get your hands on a few of these transistors, and swap 'em out until you get a "magic" one (or if you had the right equipment and knew the value to look for).

This one has had two of the knobs (and subsequently, the pots) broken off at a gig (at the Tattoo Bar - you do the math). Except for stuff like that, it shouldn't spontaneously explode. The cosmetic condition of this one is simply terrible (paint chipped off and slightly rusted in areas), but it works great.

Have not a clue, never had to deal with EH.

This unit is actually provides an overdrive/distortion sound that works great in ANY style that a gain box will fit in, save for the heaviest of metal (definitely won't do the Metallica/Pantera sounds). Kinda sounds like a Sola Sound Tone Bender x 2, except a little warmer, and with a lot more gain. Still, because they're "classic germanium" units, you may have to play through a couple (if you have that luxury) to find a good sounding one. So, the moral of this story is, if you go to a store, play one, and it doesn't sound good, PLEASE don't write me with "You tone deaf moron...", etc. I'll likely start my response pointing out your lack of reading and comprehension skills, as this is a point I covered over and over in this review. If you find a good one, snag it, it'll probably be cheap enough. If you don't want it, someone else will.