Hot Chili Tube Co. Tubester DS-1

Ease of use depends on what you're trying to do. It gets an excellent thick, mid-hump tone pretty easily. If you want more subtle tones you'll have to tweak and in the end it might not be the right pedal for you, unless you have it modded.

The inputs are a pain, but can be dealt with. Fuse holder placement is annoying.

Mine has the silver wire option and I use a GE/JAN 12AX7

The sound quality ranges from excellent to muddy back to excellent. I've reviewed it before (and I still have it on my board so that tells ya something) and I'm reviewing again to corroborate the review concerning the volume knob (which clued me into that, so thanks).

Strat -> some pedals -> Tubester -> Twin. It's second to last in my chain so I'm not going to list everything, but it does like to be primed by my Tim.

Ok, cranking the volume pot makes this pedal sound extremely open, dynamic, well, like a Tim but with valve color/warmth. I usually leave both voltage and gain at 3 (about 10:00) and the tone pot maxed). Chords are great when set like this, and it does the slight break up thing to a nice grind. The issue here is volume, since when bypassed it's not at unity.

That said, with volume around 7/8 and the tone cranked, and gain/voltage are as mentioned above, it gets a very thick, mid-hump thing that I haven't heard done any better. So while I'm considering a mod, I don't think I want to loose the one-trick-pony piece that I like so much. I have other pedals that do the slight break up thing well, but for the over the top solo, this thing just nails it for me. Also, when set like this, I can get it just above unity so it's at the right level for soloing.

I'd rate it a ten if I could get it to do both clean chords and amazing thick solo tones.

I've had it for years, no issues.

I've talked with Don before, he was very cool and answered any questions I had.

I play rock/blues/funk/soul. To me this is a great pedal for screaming solos in the thick Marshall realm. It's a mid-hup pedal with a copious supply of attitude. If one were to mod it it could possibly be more versatile, but I'm not willing to lose the one tone I love so much.

Dom made a great pedal, if you can find one, grab it!

Pretty simple machine. Tone control is just a high end rolloff, no drama here. I like it all the way up, but others might have a really bright signal they need to soften up a bit.

This is what I buy effects for- to sound great. I think of the Tubester as more of another gain stage for my amp (Blackface Fender Bandmaster) than I do an effect. I'm not the kind of guy who has 9 boxes on the floor; as the matter of fact, I like the sound of just a guitar and amp. The Tubester just gives me more of that sound, with hair around it. It is very quiet for a tube effect, of course that can vary from tube to tube. I have yet to try different tubes in the unit, just haven't felt the need.

Just like all the reviews here say - you could probably run over it with a truck and it would still work. Never had a hiccup from mine.

Haven't talked to the company yet, but see all the other reviews.

I have been playing for 28 years, mostly classic rock (was new rock back when I started playing, sonny! *geezers away*). The Tubester just makes good tone that much better, when you need that extra gain. I would have to save my lunch money and buy another if it were stolen, or hunt thief down and take it back.

I'm not thrilled with having the input jack on the left side.
I still don't know why the case is made from tank armor [we are musicians, not soldiers].
Two volume outputs are a bonus but for what? [more on this later]
super industrial strength AC power cord is durable but cumbersome and easily disconnects from the Tubester.
Cadmium II plating looks cool but will wear quickly.
It must weight about 5 to 7 pounds [we are musicians, not body builders].

Due to it's size, weight and massive power cord the Tubester is a pain to lug around. It is a monstrocity on a pedal board and it's massive size and weight are not necessary. It could easily go on a serious diet.

As you read on you will see that I believe the Tubester lacks tone control and seriously needs a boost circuit and switch.

I posted back in December a bleak response to the sound from the Tubester. I retracted my review after the owner on the company [a charming fellow named Don] contacted me and suggested that maybe something was wrong with my used Tubester. So I spent a few more months toying with the Tubester and am post a new review after having discovered a way to get a decent tone from this gadget.

No other review on this pedal speaks on this but what I found to be the most important knob on the Tubester is the VOLUME knob. All the raving reviews and no one mentions where they set their volume knob.
The volume control makes a huge diffence to the sound this pedal makes. Initially, I adjustment the volume to obtains equal volumes between the active and bypassed settings. BAD MISTAKE!

I have since found that the Tubester sounds best with the VOLUME knob set to full blast! The voltage set between 5 and full blast and the gain around well below 1. The gain knob might as well be called the mud knob. You have to have some gain to have volume but by the time the gain is to the 1 position there is no more volume, just mud.

So with the volume and voltage cranking and the gain to almost off, I get a very nice sweet, singing distortion. Lots of bounce and breathing. Harmonics are produced and feedback is musical.

Of course, when I switch to bypass mode I might of as well just stop playing because I can't hear my amplifier anymore. This really sucks!

I have also been able to get similair sounds using a Boss C/S-3 Compressor/Sustainer as a clean boost to drive the Tubester. Don even mentioned that he likes to use a Ibanez TS-808 to boost the Tubester.

I'm using a Fender 2000 American Series Stratocaster with a Yngwie Malmsteen HS-3 humbucker in the bridge and several small Fender amplifiers to test the Tubester.

I have tried several tubes in the Tubester. I like the way the Groove Tube 12AX7 sounds since I'm a Marshall player mostly.

On a dirty channel the Tubester can take me to Yngwie land with the lower frequencies cancelling out and the higher frequencies staying clean and punchy. Totally useless for pounding out chords but way cool for soloing.

So, obviously [at least to Don and I ]the Tubester needs a boost, a hotter signal fed to it. I'm looking at the useless second volume knob on the Tubester and am wondering if I can go inside and rewire the Tubester to use the second volume circuitry to rig a booster circuit to the input section or maybe ditch the useless gain knob and reroute it boost the imput signal. I would also add a second switch to activate the boost circuit. Hell, there's plenty of room inside the Tubester for, well, another Tubester!

Now for the tone knob. It must be the most passive tone control I've ever encountered. As subtle as a presence control on an old Marshall. A second or third tone control would be a welcome addition. I set the tone knob anywhere from 5 to full up as it doesn't make much difference.

If Don had had the foresight to add a bass, mid and treble tone section he might of been able to attract a whole host on heavier guitar players.

Another nice feature would have been to reduce the gain. Since I set the gain to below 1 and still must have some gain to have any volume at all, well, somewhere a small resister is sorely needed there.

Floor noise is like any other distortion device without a built in gate. It is neither excessive nor impressive.

I do feel the voltage adjustment is the coolest thing about the Tubester. Without that the Tubester would have no nitch. Being able crank the voltage is what makes the Tubester sound alive instead of flat.

This thing seems pretty sturdy and being so simple inside not much can go wrong.

It was very nice that Don contacted me after my lack luster review but he's not God. He didn't offer to look at my possibly troubled Tubester nor offer to send me a user manual.

His website lacks any sound files, user instruction or chatroom.

I bought this because of the reviews here on Harmony Central.

The list price of over $300 is hysterical when you realize that if the Tubester was made in China it would sell for maybe $25.

I've been playing lead guitar since 1969. I have five Marshall halfstacks mostly from the 70's, 3 vintage Les Pauls, a real 1964 Fender Stratocaster I bought from Norms Rare Guitars in Reseda California back in 1979 and about 4 Gibson and Fender tube amps from the 60's and 70's. I also have a bunch of vinatage and newer effects pedals.

I play blues, rock, grunge and metal lead guitar.

I believe the greatest guitar tones were produces back in the 70's from bands like UFO, Aerosmith, Pat Travors, Heart, Scorpions [ok, 80's], Blue Oyster Cult [Godzilla], etc...

I'm still to try the Tubester on a loud Marshall. Maybe I'll post again should I try it.

The Tubester is simply to use, as any effects pedal should be. The chicken head knobs allow you to easily to determine settings. There are 5 controls: Tone, Volume, Gain, Volume B, and Voltage. The voltage control gives you the unique ability to adjust current flow to the tube and thereby increase sound combinations. There is a heavy duty removable cord that plugs in the side and the fuse is located neatly underneath. The input and two ouput jacks are all on one side -- I would have prefered them to be on opposite sides. There is a power LED indicator on the side as well as one on top for the footswitch. The manual is informative and provides sample settings and control descriptions.

I am using a modified Strat with Texas Specials, bass frets and a Pau Ferro fretboard. I use a Fender Blues Junior amplifier with Monster cables all around. For my initial tests, I ran the effects like this: Guitar/Tubester/Liquid Sound H2O Chorus-Echo/Amp. I experienced no noise except some static when adjusting the Voltage control, which I was told is normal by Tubester designer Don Wilcox. After working with this pedal for about 2 hours, I determined the possible sound combinations are endless. The pedal possesses an amazingly rich tone which I have not found in any other effects unit and delivers great classic, country & western, and hard rock sounds. For pure metal, however, better stick with digital and solid state.

The pedal is built with the most heavy duty materials I have seen in an effects unit. The outer casing is made of heavy guage steel and will probably last through the next ice age. The bottom is devoid of obstructions making it ready to mount on a pedal board. Details like quality soldering, point-to-point wiring, rubber sleeved wire splices, machine screws with locking washers, protective bezels around the LED indicators, etc, make the Tubester a high quality product.

Don and Lola Wilcox are the masterminds of the Hot Chili Tube Company and work overtime to make the customer happy. Although the shipping company lost the first order, Don sent out a new one ASAP. He also took the time to really talk to me on the phone and answer my questions. He genuinely enjoys what he does and stands behind his product. Try to get that kind of support out of the big companies -- it just won't happen.

I play in a Christian band although my influences were bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, VH, AC/DC, SRV, Guns n Roses, and Aerosmith. I write music and I have been playing guitar for 20 years, although I have played music much longer. The Tubester has become the cornerstone of my equipment and I plan on refining my sound around it. For the price paid, I cannot imagine a better upgade to my gear.

Lot of exploring to do even though the layout is simple. You can get a lot of tones and textures if you are willing to tweek with each guitar. The higher voltage knob the voltage knob setting the brighter and cleaner it sounds. I find myself adjusting the tone knob much more than on other pedals.

When I first got it I thought it was broken. It sounded harsh and the knobs did not respond as I wanted them to. I looked inside and found a sovtek 12ax7wa. I don't know a lot about tubes but I know crap when I hear it. I dug around and found an old GE 12au7.

With the 12au7 the pedal really got sweet. Great crunch tones. Very smooth. Changing the tube changes the sound of the pedal much more than any other tube pedal I have tried. No one can accuse this pedal of using a tube just for looks. The distortion characteristics are completely different from one tube to the next.

Anyone who complains about the lack of gain is tone retarded. The man who is willing to trade tone for gain deserves neither.

I drive this thing with two clean boost pedals to get those higher gain sounds and it responds just like an overdriven amp would, better yet I can get those tones at bedroom level since they are being created in the pedal instead of the amp. Lots of pedals can do a good job of increasing your gain; not many can deliver the real tube tone this pedal offers.

A few months ago a switched from a crappy fender with channel switching to a single ended groove tubes soul o 45 combo. I love the sound of the amp but I was in transister ic chip pergatory trying to get a distortion sound untill this pedal delivered me. I own so many tin can tone crucifiers (some much more expensive. I had all but given up on finding any pedal that could create the creamy smooth overdrive I crave.

It is ultra quite and transparent. I would recomend this pedal to anyone who needs another overdrive channel on their amp. Truely the finishing touch on my rig.

Very sturdy. All good components. I imagine it will hold up as long as your amp.

Does tubester sound amazing or does every other pedal just sound so horrible that the tubester sounds incredible by contrast?

I think I will be selling a lot of distortion boxs soon.

I give the Tubester an eight for ease of use because it's not your "typical" 2 knob overdrive pedal. There is quite alot of interaction between the tone/gain/voltage controls. Once you dial in the sound you're looking for though, you can't help but smile . . .

I'm using the Tubester mainly with a non master volume amp, and I believe this is the exact application the pedal was made for. It's actually fairly transparent and has a very low noise floor which is expecially nice for a tube based circuit. Depending on the tube installed, you can go for a more of an overdrive tone (12au7) or have a more aggressive/distorted sound (12ax7). That's what's very cool about this pedal (and I'd assume most tube based pedals), just by changing the tube you can have all sorts of sounds. The Tubester came with an electro harmonix 12au7, I have in there now a mullard 12au7 and have tried a jan philips 12ax7. This is a very good pedal, everything I was hoping for and more. Congrats to Don on an excellent product . . .

The Tubester is built very solidly, and weighs in around 5 lbs. Upon opening to change the tube it appears to have excellent workmanship/parts etc. I can't really imagine anything going wrong save for the switch or the tube unless the pedal itself was abused in some way . . .

I bought it directly from Don and he was very helpful and honest about the Tubester. It sure is a relief to know that if anything went wrong I'd be well taken care of. Don is top notch in every way, and a real pleasure to deal with . . .

The Tubester is an excellent tube based overdrive/distortion pedal. What sold me on this particular unit was the variable voltage control, something which sets the Tubester apart from the other numerous tube pedals out there. It really is an interesting design that sounds awesome with a non master volume amp. I prefer the 12au7 mullard that's in there now, but for a different sound the 12ax7 could come in very handy. I've been playing for a long time (roughly thirty years) and have tried numerous pedals over the years and the Tubester definitely can hold it's own against the best. I play mostly 60's/70's style of rock/blues and this pedal is perfectly suited for that type of gig. I'm very happy with my purchase, and highly recommend the Tubester to anyone looking to buy a tube based overdrive/distortion pedal.

I think the Tubester Pedal is pretty strait forward, I found it easy to use.

I think the Tubester really shows what a tube is made of. I agree with some of the other reveiwers a Good tube will sound Good, a great tube Will sound Great, a bad tube WILL sound BAD. Be warned!
For a nice smooth lightweight distortion I like the Mullard 12AU7 or a Amperex Bugle Boy long plate with the D getter. For a really great over the top distortion that sounds real rightgeous I like the Mullard 7025, way better then the RCA 7025 in my opinion, allot richer sounding. My favorite sounding distortion though comes from the Sylvania Gold Brand 5751 with gold pins. I was blessed enough to find a couple of these on ebay and man-o-man SWEEEEEEEEEEET!!!
The Tubester allows you to taylor make your OWN distortion, get that signiture sound or just duplicate your favorite rock stars sound, you can do it with the Tubester! This is my run guitar>Fultone Wah(awesome)> Toadworks "Mr. Squishy"(Nice Effect!)>Analogman Compressor(Awesome)>Analogman Chorus (Sweet!!!)>Maxon CS-9 Chorus( Blends well with distortion!!!) >Maxon AD900 analog delay(the Best There Is!!!)>Tubester>Little Lanailei Reverb (I haven't found a better real spring unit for the money)>Marshall TSL602(with Mullards all around and Celestion G12H Anniversary speakers; careful when you buy a Marshall nowadays as quality controll isn't what it used to be with that company, I sent two of them back to Same Day Music). All I can say is that with the Tubester I can get any feeling I'm looking for as it offers so many fine distortions for you to use.

Give me some time with the unit, but it seems to be built like a tank!

It really adds to your set up! It melds to a variety of playing styles. Be sure to save your money for NOS tubes. Remember with this unit if you don't take the time to find the tubes you can grove to you won't or probably won't like this unit. If you love awsome over the top distortion get some Mullard 7025's as they aren't as popular as their 12AX7 so is cheaper and in the tubester they sound better. If you are looking for a nice distortion try a Jan GE 5751 for a reasonable price. If your looking for that Fender black tweed sound try an RCA AU7. If you have the money get one of these pedals, if you don't have the money...get it!!!

I left the knobs where they were when I first plugged it in. They were all at 11 o'clock. I knew I had found an outstanding overdrive because it blew me away. I've had a ton of overdrive boxes and I think that this is one of simplest ones to use. The reason is because it's hard to dial in a sound that isn't useful. I agree with some other reviews that's it's possible to get this thing sounding very muddy but I'm hopeing when I change the tube that'll change. The voltage control is very handy. I play a lot of jazz and groove tunes but I also do ZZ Top, Cream, Van Halen, etc. This control allows a little more versatility than most overdrives and it's very simple to use.

I use an American Deluxe Fat Strat through a Fender Deville and a Traynor 15YVC20. My chain of pedals goes Tubester->H&K Replex->H&K Rotosphere. The Rotosphere is stereo so I use the Tubesters outputs into the Shpere and then run it to both my amps. I leave the Tubester on almost constantly and control my OD from the guitar. This is the most transparent OD I've ever plugged into. Every adjustment of my guitar is very clear. My strat sounds amazing when the volume is on 5. Enough said. I've never used a tube OD pedal before and I think I found one of the best ones out there.

Well when I lifted it out of the case I couldn't believe the weight. It's gotta be 5 pounds. You could probably run it over with your car and it would still work(don't take my word for it). On the other hand, anything electronic has a chance of failure. I'm a working musician in vegas and I believe that one should always be prepared to cover their a#$ in sticky gig situations. Afterall I'm getting paid to play. So I always use a backup. Naturally it would be nice to have two of these in case one went but at the price that's not going to happen. So I use a Jekyll and Hyde as backup. My advice is have a backup for everything. I'm giving an eight because nothing I've ever used is 100% dependable

I haven't had the pleasure, but there are many who have. Read some of the other reviews.

This unit matches my style perfectly. It's versatility is nice yet it's also got it's nitch. When it comes to outboard OD and Effects I believe that less is more. I've been playing for 6 years and play gigs on a regular basis here in Vegas. I play everything, even country now and then. And even though I play mostly cover music I still have my own style as does everyone else. If it were lost I would buy another because it's a great unit. The price is very high but I'm sure they know that we players will pay a lot for good sound. I guess that's wise on their part. I love the fact that this unit sounds so transparent. I'll never swith back to a chip driven overdrive pedal. The Jekyll and Hyde makes my strat and tele sound the same and backing of the volume with that unit is pointless. The Tubester allows a player to be in control of every aspect of their playing from the guitar--which is how it should be. This unit is uncomparable to any solid state overdrive. Mostly because it's on a higher level. I've had tons of OD pedals, still do. None of them are being used except the Hot Chili Tubester. A great thing that the tubester has is the B out put with volume control I don't need to run a splitter box anymore. I feel so free having 3 outstanding pedals running to a great amp. It sounds awesome. One thing that would be cool is if it had drive control for the B output. But how much can a guy ask for. So if you need a controlable drive that will blow most out of the water then this is the one. If you just need as much gain as you can get and don't care what your guitar sounds like then don't waste your money. It's all a matter of perspective.

Pretty simple to get a good sound once you get used the difference between voltage and gain. Voltage seems to add saturation/clipping and gain adds the grit. The tone knob takes getting used to as well, but it's all pretty straight forward after about ten minutes. I like that though, because it's very tweakable.

The significant pedals I put before it are: Super Duper > Fatdrive > Varidrive > Tubester. Right now it's the end of my chain. I use a 73 Strat (staggered poles) and a '68 Twin.

The Tubester is awesome! I have an early version ('98) with the silver wire option. It's been true bypassed (all the newer models are now) and I have a GE NOS 12AU7 in it. It sounds great! I like the gain around 3 and the voltage at 5 with the tone cranked. It sounds like a saturated Delux! The more I use it, the more I realize that it's capable of many different tones. I use it as a second stage overdrive or as a first stage depending on if the Varidrive is engaged. I usually use the Varidrive to give a slight breakup to my Twin, so the Tubester is the solo tone if I can turn off the Varidrive, or run together they scream!

Built like a brick-you-know-what. I'm going to gig w/o a backup. The only gripe would be placement of the fuse holder that protrudes almost above where the power cord connects. But again, Hot Chili has moved these on the newer models (I kinda like having an early one though...). Components are all very high quality (jacks have been replaced recently with Switchcraft, in the new models high quality jacks are standard) and everything else is extremely solid.

Don has been very cool answering my questions! He genuinely cares about making tone people pleased and does a great job of it! I can tell if I need anything he'll work with me to remedy any issue.

It's an awesome tube overdrive pedal. The only one I can compare it to is the Varidrive. All other tube overdrives I've heard have been very weak in comparison. It truly is like adding another stage to whatever amp you use it with. I would suggest using it with a tube amp though, because it's possible you could lose some of the tone if you ran a solid-state amp (though it would probably fatten it up). I would also suggest another pedal if all you want it to add a slight break up. It seems like it's mostly designed to range from mild overdrive to a really thick Marshally saturated tone (which it does awesome!). The Varidrive seems more versatile in the low end of overdrive and is better suited for that slightly broken up sound. The Tubester will do the slight break up thing, but there isn't much room to tweak it there, though I hit a sweet spot pretty quick when I tried it. I guess I just like it better in a more pushed capacity but it will do both. It's an awesome piece!

I picked up my 2001 Tubester second-hand, so this piece came with the old 12AU7 in the socket and the true-bypass switching.

The Tubester has 5 knobs: volume controls for each of its two outputs, Gain, Voltage and Tone. Those last three are highly interactive controls, and a change to any one of them will effect the intensity of the distortion. It's a tricky proposition, and I wouldn't want to knudge one the wrong way on a dark stage.

I'm adding to the volume of reviews on this piece to make the following point: this is not a subtle box. There is no clean boost here, and not much that could be called "low gain overdrive." The range of clipping effects runs from the hot and nasty overdrive of Duane Allman at the Fillmore and early '70s Johnny Winter to the high gain sounds of Aerosmith or early EVH. If you're over age 25, you can probably remember a time when guys were laying out big money to have their Marshall heads heavily modded with additional preamp gain stages to produce the sounds which come out of the Tubester at most settings... and that's with a low-gain 12AU7 installed, not a high-gain 12AX7A or 7025. One thing (aside from flexibility) which is superior to those old mods: the Tubester retains your bass frequencies.

If you want that gritty, screaming Plexi preamp sound (as opposed to the smoother buzz from the JCMs or the Mesa DRs) in front of virtually any basic tube amp, here it is. If you're looking for that "smooth blues" thing now playing on the Weather Channel, you're in the wrong neighborhood and are about to get your ass kicked.

Well... my problem with the Tubester in terms of reliability has to do with the placement of the fuse holder. First of all, it's located in a position where the retaining cap could easily be stepped on. Second, the cap on mine can be popped off with a bit of finger pressure and is about to be replaced with a holder which locks into place more securely. Given the voltage flowing through this circuit, that's a very bad thing.

Otherwise, the internals on this box look solid- not exactly HiWatt quality, but good enough that I'm not expecting any parts failures.

Can't speak to it, haven't heard back from the company re. the fuse holder.

It's about as good a straight distortion preamp as I've heard- no ss stompbox I've ever tried is going to come close, and the only other box which can cop all of these sounds is the SIB Varidrive. The Tubester will hotrod even the most vanilla-sounding Bassman/Showman for classic rock tones, on that you can be sure.