Rocktron Silver Dragon

It's very easy to use, just use the manual stock settings to start with, then go from there. Just adjust it to whwre you like it.

I use this with a les Paul and a fender Power Tele thru a chandler tube echo into a crate vc3112 and a music man 112amp and it sounds awesome. Great tube sustain and feedback if you so desire. I no longer use the second channel on the crate for over drive, just the "silver Dragon" Huge amount of gain. I love the Slayer mode. I wish that you could have some
preset ability to store different gain settings.

Seems to be very well built. I have used it on 10 gigs no problem.
The power supply cord is a little short for me.

Hope I never need it.

Great value, if stolen I would replace it right away.

This thing is simple, Homer Simpson could set it up and Lisa would totally jam out on it. Adjust it to where you like it. very much like a gain tube amp.

People who are thinking this will augment a high gain tube amp will be disappointed. It works great on my Spider II, with the cleanest amp model tone setting. It is basically unusable on my Bravo 112 amp. You will want to run this through an amp, using it direct out into the mixer sounded very cheesy, it seems to be built to feed tone to an amp. It has a classic gain amp sound, not really Marshall, not really anything I can think of, a generic but good sounding tube tone. The Slayer mode is addicting, the tube only would be good for mellower stuff, blues, etc.

It seems moderately sturdy, reliability only time will tell, I just got this, so this is a first report. I normally wouldn't comment so soon, but this thing needs some exposure. The tube is connected, I looked inside, it is definitely connected, so the guy saying the tube isn't even hooked up would not be my first choice in technicians.

Hope I never need it, almost nobody supports anything nowadays.

It has a pretty fair sound for under $100.00 pedal. Great for giving solid state amps some tone finally, that seems to me what this thing is really for, giving solid state amps listenable sound. I use this through the Spider II into a mixer, then the DAW. I'm getting some decent tone with it, better than any of the other 8 or 10 amps/modelers collecting dust around here.

It is very easy to understand so in that sense it is easy to use but the flexibility will demand that you experiment. With the Roar control, a little goes a long way.

I use a variety of guitars: Strat loaded with vintage EMG's (with the raised poles and active EQ), Dean Vendetta 4.0, Epiphone Firebird VII, and Santana SE through a Crate VC5310. The Silver Dragon isn't noisy at all unless you turn the gain up all the way. Also, I've never heard the whistling sounds others have complained about. This pedal is very warm and rich sounding in the Awaken mode and solos are over the top when you kick in the Slayer mode. It sounds great with all my guitars but it absolutely gels with my Dean. I don't tamper with success, so I'm not gonna change tubes unless I have to. Other tubes possibly do sound better, but I won't know until this one craps out. I have no complaints with the factory supplied tube.

I've only used it on one gig to this date, so reliability is yet to be determined. It appears to be built rock-solid.

I've never dealt with Rocktron, but from what I've heard they are very responsive to their customers.

I play mostly classic rock and blues with some funk here and there. The Silver Dragon absolutely kicks ass in both Awaken and Slayer modes. It is very quiet, has true bypass and is a great contrast to my Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive. I've been playing 38 years and had a lot of gear but most of them didn't live up to their hype but this unit delivers in spades. I don't keep 'em very long at all if I'm not impressed fairly quickly and this thing caught me holding my breath during the first few minutes I had it hooked up. If it were lost or stolen, a new one would would be a high priority. I'm glad I got one before Rocktron gets wise and raises the price. It is easily worth twice what I paid for it.

Pretty darn straightforward. Shared EQ for Awaken and Slayer. Most of the knobs have a very limited range where they sound good which might be confusing at first... The symmetry control could have been left off completely, so that's kind of confusing. :) Changing the tube is a major pain. Having to use the odd ball 13V adaptor (this is certainly due to the tube circuit) is also also a pain.

Overall, par for the course, given the features....

One thing I don't think anyone has noted on this pedal is that it is True Bypass, which is very cool.

That said, I found this pedal to be a massive disappointment. Based on the reviews here, I was hoping for something that could cover medium crunch to serious high gain and do it via two stages (i.e. Give me a 3 channel amp using only my Tube Amp's Clean channel). Basically, a poor man's Tone Bone, V-Twin, GTO, type pedal.

Really, it is just very limited, tonally. The EQ controls only sound good through a very limited range of their sweep for starters. It's almost impossible to dial in something that sounds good outside a very limited range. There is way too much high end roll-off/filtering going on too. The direct out on this thing almost sounds like a cab emulator is enabled. That may be cool for a modeller but not in front of an amp that's driving a real cab. Unresponsive mud city.

And really the "Slayer" mode (which was critical for me) just does not do it for me. I honestly thought the pedal was broken the first time I tried it, because it is way more subtle than people have presented it here. It sounds like a tube screamer pushing the first overdrive (Awaken) circuit rather than an aggressive solid state distortion. Given the shared EQ and only slight boostage of the slayer mode it'd only be good for solo boosts, etc, rather than acting like an additional channel with kick ass gain. The intensity control for the Slayer mode is NOT a gain control for this stage as others have incorrectly noted here, also. Check the manual. Anyway, this pedal will not do modern high gain sounds without outboard gear. It really sounded like it would based on some of the glowing reviews here and the manual but that was nothing like my experience. It is basically muddy, ball-less, and gain starved as a metal pedal.

The upside is that it is NOT a harsh sounding pedal and it IS articulate. Some shredders might really like it for those two reasons.

In fact the ONLY scenario where I can imagine this pedal sounding "awesome" or "amazing" as dual channel medium to high gain preamp type effect is with a Solid State Practice amp's clean channel, since they tend to be so flat sounding and this pedal has so much high roll-off/filtering happening. It's almost like a built-in cab emulator, in fact I was pretty shocked when I listened to it straight to the board. This'd sound pretty kick ass at low volumes and with Solid State amps.

Here's my suspicion about the way this pedal was designed: The tube ckt is a simple voltage starved buffer (i.e. no real tube distortion, but that's okay, not a fatal flaw) being used to warm up a tubescreamer style overdrive circuit (this is almost certainly the case given the low light and heat output of the tube during operation and low voltage of the input transformer). The "slayer" mode is a second mild boost/gain stage with the symmetry control, etc, that chains into the other one.

Really, I'm not a tube snob... it'd be okay if the tube was being used as a buffer if the rest of the pedal sounded good. But it only has one decent sound that can be dialed in one way and the high gain mode is nowhere near distinct enough... and it is gain and tone starved for metal.

And, finally, as some have noted, it is somewhat noisy considering it's not outputting crushing gain. I'm not going to deduct points for this since I have noise supressors and many otherwise great pedals are noisy.

I did not come to these conclusions quickly. I really tried. I tried this with three different guitars, two different amps, and two different modellers (using 3 or 4 amp models a piece and numerous cabs) and this thing just disappointed on all of them. No balls, "blah" response, A tube change did show a minor improvement but could not over come what is clearly a weak design.

Looks absolutely solid externally... internally somewhat cheap (plastic PCB mounted jacks, for example), but that's understandable at this price point. I'd gig with it (if I liked the tone ;) ). I'd have a DS-1 or something on hand for backup though.

I don't ever expect to need it since I'm returning it. :)

First let me say, I tried soooo hard to like this pedal. I wanted to like it so much. I tried it with every other piece of gear I own to try to get it to sound good when used as anything but a nice crunchy overdrive. I like the way it looks. I like the construction. I liked the Price. I liked the name even. It just does not sound good enough to keep based on what I already have. If it were the only thing I could afford, I could make do with it. It does not outright suck and like I said, the Awaken mode has a 'sweet spot' that does sound very good.

But, overall, Rocktron really blew it with this product, IMHO. It's pretty obvious from the low gain overdrive/crunch tone this could have been a GREAT pedal but it's sort of 'blah' in implementation. The concept is GREAT and is only something that has been successfully implemented in REALLY expensive high end pedals to date. In the end it's just a really uninspiring piece of gear and I feel that all the time I spent trying to get it to sound good is just wasted.

In the end, I guess I just could not get excited about a one-sound-only $100 overdrive pedal that duplicates several pedals I already own with less range and requires its own 13V adaptor. So, I ended up taking advantage of Musician's Friend's return policy.

I have never returned a piece of gear in my life, but I ended up returning this.

Combination of a 12AX7 tube-distortion (stage 1) with transistor distortion (stage 2) - two pedals in one!

Easy to use after a quick look at the manual - the knobs are named "fire", "shriek" and "roar" on stage 1 for level, treble and bass, and "intensity" and "breath" on stage 2. As soon as you relate the names to the functions, it's a doddle. The funky, fantasy names are part of the reason I bought the pedal anyway; good marketing, innit?

Manual is a lot more in-depth compared to other Rocktron manuals.

Using Les Paul or Cort Viva (ibanez S-series copy) through Silver Dragon then modulation - Digitech X-series phaser or Boss OC-2 octave pedal, into Behringer analogue modeling amp.

Pedal is dead quiet when off.

This is NOT an overdrive pedal - when on, it distorts. The levels are very flexible, however. Mild distortion with tubey warmth on stage 1, which can be thickened up to a lovely, bluesy growl. Kick in stage 2 for some serious screaming. The only sound I cannot get out of this pedal is over-the-top metal.

The "breath" function creates an asymmetrical sine-wave, which allows for some incredible pinched-harmonics, Billy Gibbons style, even at low volume.

The distortion effects are great, and can be shaped to almost any style.

ULtra-reliable so far - had it about a year. Seems very solidly built in an extruded aluminium casing, with a good, thick finish. Good footswitches and high quality pots. I would certainly gig this pedal - saves having to cart extra pedals, anyway.

Battery life N/A - power supply only! Adapter is supplied, though.

Never dealt with them, but they have a good website, with on-line manuals, in case one may buy second-hand.

I play everything from acoustic folk/pop and classical to rock, blues and funk; some metal.

I love this pedal. Great sounds, great value with all the extra features, 2-in-1, very flexible, with that all-important tube ;) and would definitely buy one again.

Gets a 9, in spite of the lack of battery power option, as I expect batteries would drain quite quickly. This may put some people off, though.

I also groove on the "package" - the dragon motif - very cool! Also, not something that many other players have.

The unit is easy to tweak and responsive. I like the flexibility of the two channel design.

This is one of the best buy you could make if you are after authentic, warm tube tones and violin-like sustain. It?s a great match with my American hardtail strat and Dimarzio pickups. I absolutely love the sound of this thing!

The Rocktron Silver Dragon is an excellent combination with the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Solo DP404 bridge pickup for that distorted bridge pickup sound we all love.
I only used a small amount of tube distortion (Awaken) and solid state distortion (Slayer) to get a thick rock or metal sound. No other effects were used to thicken the sound of the single coil pickup. Unbelievable!

Check out the mp3 sound clips I recorded.

Just go to this link:

http://audiogig.com/stratdude.agg

Sound clip info is on the ?view song info? link.

Jacks and switches feel firm and solid. No complaints here.

No problems encountered with the unit. Never needed customer support so far.

The useful design and tonal value of the Rocktron Silver Dragon is really a steal for its cheap price. This is one of the best buy you could make if you are after authentic, warm tube tones and violin-like sustain.

Just be careful with the controls of this thing. Too much overdrive will create unwanted noise. A little amount of distortion on both the tube and solid state section goes a long way.

I?m into alternative, hard rock and metal stuff. This thing works great for me.

Effect tones are subjective so check out my Silver Dragon mp3 sound clips at:

http://audiogig.com/stratdude.agg

It helps to hear one before you buy one.

Very easy to use and decently tweakable. I like the 2 channel switches.

I think this thing sounds great. Effects are always going to be highly subjective, so I can't tell anybody else that they will love this. But for me, I think it has a great warm tube drive. And when you kick in the Slayer mode, it has a ripping distortion that is great for aggressive stuff. I like it because it still maintains note clarity and balance.

I'm very happy with the sound this thing puts out.

Feels solid, no complaints in this area

I play Melodic/Hardcore/Jazz/Metal. I love the sound for the style of music. I might not be the best if you want a cheesy and sterile nu-metal tone, but this thing rips if you're looking for a nice quality overdrive/distortion.

The Rocktron Silver Dragon is easy to use basically; however the response of the knobs are finiky. The manuel is almost unneccesary.
I will try a 12au7 in it soon, just to experiment.

The Silver Dragon is noisy in the second stage if the intensity is past 10 or 11 o'clock;the manuel warns of this.Otherwise it is quiet.
The quality of sound is satisfying, however the first stage is not above average in my opinion; but the second stage is impressive. I haven't tried it yet with a single coil. It will likely be the last distortion unit I ever purchase. I've been tempted with the digitech with the 7 different sounds.

So far so good as holding up; although I do take a back-up when I go out just in case.

I wish the first stage would clean up a little more with the fire to a minimum. The shriek (treble) weakens the sound and thins it out when past 9 o'clock yet is cutting. The breath is virtually non-responsive so I max it out. I've played 30+ years and I've used many stomp boxs; this is a worthy piece of equipment.Good sounds in stage 1 and 2 for sure.

Easy to use.It takes a bit to get used to the silly names of the knobs.

Killer sound.Charvel and Flying V through various SS and tube amps.Like any hi gain pedal, it does make a bit of a hissing noise.I thought it would sound better with a new tube, but it didn't make any difference.Good metal sounds.

Made of metal.I take care of my effects,so I'm not worried about reliability.

Rocktron has good customer service.

I love it.The distortions are comparable to my Voodu Valve.It's not easily available,but well worth the effort to find one. I got mine at Tunnel Music.They also have a lot of other stompboxes.If you're a stompbox junkie like me,you HAVE TO go there!Always looking for new equipment, and I'm glad I found this. Also, I bought this at Tunnel Vision Music - Great Company!

Before I start, I'd like to clear up some stuff from previous reviews by others. It DOES have a tube! and that tube does function! I changed to a sovtek and in improved! The tube IS an integral part of the circuitry and it gets HOT. Unit will NOT function without the tube. I checked. Why in the hell would Rocktron take the time, effort, and money to put in the tube, socket, and solder if if was fake? They wouldn't! O.K. there is a litlle led under the tube to add to the look of a real tube overdrive, and yes, it is kinda cheesy, but I assure you, this IS a real tube overdrive! Once you understand what the knobs do, it's pretty easy. Awaken mode is the tube overdrive and operates on it's own. Slayer mode is the analog distortion and adds to the overdrive. However, Slayer will not operate on it's own. Level and EQ settings are global and control the overall sound. Small increments are recommended on all pots. Easy to use! Very!

To previous reviewers. If you have a 100 dollar guitar, take it out of the box and then plug it into a 10 or 15 watt SS amp(any brand) don't expect this thing to make you sound like George Lynch at monsters of rock! I bougt this because I have an older Peavey Classic with a tube power section but no tube preamp, and if you hate Peaveys Saturation overdrive as much as I do you'll look for a good tube overdrive. I'm not the main guitar player in my band. Really just a hack, but I've been in bands long enough to understand and join in the search for the elusive perfect tone. I just can't justify a high dollar amp setup if I'm the frontman/keyboard player. My primary setup is an Ibanez s470 into the Dragon, then into the LOW gain input, and a DigiTech Rp200 (effects only, no modeling) in the effects loop. I also play a custom built Series 10 with a Duncan Invader at the bridge. This thing sounds GREAT!!! I play all rock. I love the old hair metal stuff, but I like all hard rock. Love Maiden and Dio too even some nu metal. Guitar players I love are the basic rock gods. Vai, Van Halen, Satriani, Blah, blah! You get the story. This box will do anything from a nice low overdriven crunch to full blown in your face distorted fury. Sustain is cool in both sections. Does not suck tone and really drives the amp. Spend some time with it!!!!! Nothing does what you want out of the box. If it does, your tone probably sucks! The silver Dragon Rocks!!

Had it for a week. This thing is solid! I would use it without a back up, but any performing musician better always be ready for equipment failure.

Haven't needed it. But i hear great things. The Rocktron guys at the NAMM show were awesome and knowledgeable.

Primarily, I'm not a guitar player so I don't shred, but I have been playing in rock bands for 20 years and I know a good product when I hear it. I've tried em all. This thing blows away IMO all of them. Yes even the highly touted Ibanez TS series. Take your Ds-1 and sell it. The new DigiTech series? Gone! Marshall pedals? Nope! If you've got a good SS amp (GOOD!) this will improve your tone and hold you over til you get that big dollar rig you dream of. ROCK ON!!

This pedal is ver easy to use

I used this pedal with a fender Deville then on my Sovtek Mig50 through a closed back cabinet with Vintage 30's.This pedal is not a tube pedal.I don't if every one is blind when they say they have changed the tube and made it sound better because it isn't even wired to the circuit board.There is a little led light behind the tube that makes it appear as if it is glowing.I was going to change the tube with an Electro Harmonix and was pissed when I noticed the false advertisment of Rocktron.The 12ax7 cover is to small fit the tube throgh that should have been my first sign and the manual says nothing about changing the tube.I also have the Zombie and it sounds more natural on my lead work.The Silver Dragon sounds good on heavy metal rythyms but when you play leads it has a bad hollow midrange sound.

I have not used this live and I am not goin to.

I have not contacted customer support

I have been playing for 26 years.I play everything from Megadeth to George Straight.I am a gear head and I own way much to list I have 10 guitars,Godin,Carvin,Fender's,Hamer,Esp,Takamine,ovation etc... I just bought a carvin MTS 100 watt head that is on the way.My effects are the new x-series digital delay,boss ge-7,boss noise gate,boss compressor,boss bd-2,and the rocktron Zombie wich leads me back to the point.Get the zombie if you have to have a rocktron distortion believe me I have both.I also have a line 6 pod but I don;t care for the clean sounds.

As everyone else mentioned, names are unusual. Not big deal, just read the manual and you'll be alright. Don't be afraid to read the manual, it's your friend.(-1)

Well, names aren't the problem. Reason why I gave it 7 is because it was not easy to make a sound I wanted. It took me a while to adjust it to my favorite sound.(-2)

Setup is simple, Guitar(B.C. Rich Platinum Mockingbird) > Silver Dragon > Amp(Marshall MG15). This is my setup for bedroom practice. I know my guitar and amp sucks.

With this setup, Awaken mode is useless. I replaced the stock tube to JJ Electronic 12AX7. Did it make difference? Yes it did. It made the sound better than the stock Made in China 12AX7. But, not good enough to make me want to play with it. I hope the problem is my guitar with its stock cheap pickups. It's a stock pickup from cheap series of BC Rich. It sound crap. Muddy and not clear at all. That doesn't change the fact that Awaken mode is useless with my low-end setup. I hope Awaken mode will work well with better rig. Anyways, Awaken mode sucks in my setup.(-3)

Althoug the Awaken mode is useless in my setup, Slayer mode really does enhance my rig. Slayer mode gives life to my sound. Sounds natural, and very versatile for metal heads. I play old school metal(Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, etc...), old hard rock(Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc...), and thrash metal(Metallica, Slyaer, etc...). I can pretty much have all the sound I want by adjusting EQ on my amp and settings on Silver Dragon.(+2)

Awaken mode sucks, Slayer mode rocks. There's one more thing I don't like about this, when I play the highest note(24th fret of high E), it doesn't really do a nice scream. It sounds pretty annoying. I guess it's because of my guitar.(-1)

This thing is made strong. Really. I opened it up when I replaced the tube. It was very well constructed, it looked strong to shocks, I believe it won't do anything to the inside even if you drop this thing. It won't break, even if you hit it with a hammer. Believe me, this thing is made strong.
Most important part, the Input/Output jack, and the switches are made strong too. Very nice.(+1)

As many have mentioned, AC adapter isn't so good. But it doesn't effect my cause I only use this thing for bedroom practice.(-1)

Ok, finally last flaw of this effect. At bottom of this thing, there're 4 rectangle rubber stoppers so this thing won't slip on the ground. They are taped. They aren't nailed just taped. But the tape on this is pretty strong. You can rely on it for more than an year if I'm using this in bedroom.(-1)

I send them an e-mail asking what tube they use on this amp. I got a reply next day. Not bad.

I was looking for a distotion/overdrive pedal. I tried many major ones, like Metal Zone, DS-1, OD-3, etc... But I didn't like any of them. So I decided why not try something that not many people have tried before. I payed total 102 bucks at guitar center. It was special order so I had to pay for shipping and handling which cost 5 bucks. I payed 12 bucks to replace the tube so the total $ I spent on this thing is like $115.

To be honest, I really wanted to love this thing and give it a 10. $100 was little expansive. If Awaken mode was useful, even with my low-end rig, I would've given it a solid 10. Since Awaken mode didn't work out with my rig, I can't give it a 10 for this price.(-2)

Overall good distortion pedal. If you play this thing with descent rig, I bet you won't regret.

Well, for a stompbox pretty difficult. Think about this: If u borrow this unit a friend you have to explain him the knobs. Its probably the first stompbox where you should have a look into the manual.
But no Problem at all. Sound is what matters. I just cant give it a 10.

My settup is:
Jackson soloist professional (H-H), Boss GT-6, in the effect loop Silver Dragon, Engl 50x50 Tube poweramp, stereo into Marshall 1960 and 2x12" cab.
I bought this unit because of the positive reviews here, and I wanted to have a tube sound on my GT-6.
First of all, it works fine with the setup. I also placed it before the GT-6 and direct into the Poweramp, which worked all good. In the effect loop of the GT-6 I couldn't hear any sound coloration (If you are interessted to use it with the GT-6).
Soundwise I was a little disappointed with the tube channel (Awaken). It has tubesound, but I dont like the character (Mids are strange and a bit of hissle and fizzle). Maybe changing the tube would help.
Well, that's a question of taste, but what really sucks is, that u cannot change the sound at all! The bass and treble controls (Roar & shriek!) have to be set more or less to 12 o'clock. If you change this extremely it will sound worse. You cannot call this an eq. Same with the Fire-knob: it should stay at 9 o'clock to produce best distortions (Rockron also recomments this in their manual!). There is no mid/voicing-control!
The Slayer mode is much better (IMO) - its a 10. It has tons of gain. It gives you the best highgain distortion you can expect from a stompbox - especially for the money! Much better than all the pure SS-boxes (Metal zone etc.). Put this unit in front of your crappy head, maybe add a separate EQ and you transform your JCM 900 into a gainmonster.
The Intensity knob is actually the only control to change your sound. It increases the gain and the highs in an acceptable way. Past 1 o'clock it will produce a lot of noise and a bit of mud. Yeah, the unit can be noisy! But thats ok, for the gain you get.
Turning at the breath control I could not hear any differences to be honest.

Fazit:
The unit gives you a great distortion for the money, especially the slayer mode! But you have to like the base sound. Dont think you can shape your sound because you have so many knobs to tweak. Dont believe in people that say, they can get any sound out of this unit (from amadeus to Hetfield)! This is for sure not possible.
I also tried to shape the sound I want with the GT-6 and this has a lot possibilities. Difficult duty!

The aluminium housing is quite good. Most important: the jacks, switches and knobs look solid.
One complain is the AC adapter with a joke of a power cable. It is 2 meters to short and very thin! Is this where you saved money??
If you want to gig seriously you have to replace the AC adapter.
Thats why I gave it a 7.

Dont know.
The homepage is ok, the manual very helpful.

I search for dist. sounds like three doors down, incubus, nickelback but also pantera. I ve been playing guitar for 12 years and owned a lot of expensive tube preamps.
I gave it back, because the basic sound is not exactly what I wanted and I cannot shape the sound. I just rate it overall so high because of the sound you get for the money and in comparison to pure SS- boxes it is a pure 10.
I compared it also against the Hughes&Kettner's Tube factor. I liked much more the sound of this one. You have just one voicing knob and can shape the sound a lot with it. All settings sound good. The only thing is that the tube factor has not so much gain!
Recommendation for Rocktron:
- Replace the roar and shriek controls by a useable mid/voicing control.
- Deliver it with a better AC adapter (long solid cable) and run the tube with 300V like Hughes&Kettner does.
- Maybe replace the tube into a better one.
And then you can sell it for sure for 200$.

Well, has two channels, one for the tube and the other for solid state. Not really easy at first considering the names of the controls are things that have to do with a dragon instead of just reading what the controls actually do. The Manual doesn't really tell you much but its a distortion pedal so how much help to you really need.

I am using this thing into a Peavey Transtube 212 combo with an Ibanez pretige RG. I have to say the minute I plugged it in and started playing on it I knew it just wasn't going to work out. It sounded terrible and muddy. But since I don't judge things right away I decided to give it a couple of days and play with it and tweek the settings to improve the sound. I got it too sound a little better but not much. Then I tried changing the tube to an Electro-Harmonix 12AX7. Another very slight improvement. But the problem really isn't the tube side it's the solid state side. It just sounds horrible. The controls are very sensitive and not subtle at all the way I like them. The treble control just sounds rediculous, kind of reminiscent of the ever crappy DOD Death Metal shreiker. The bass control just dials in way too much bass and the sound ends up a muffled mess. Not happy at all.

Probably can depend on it I mean its made of metal.

No Comment

I have been playing for about 10 years and my musical tastes go from classical to metal. This pedal is meant for metal and really has potential to be great but I'm afraid Rocktron fell quite short of a quality sounding distortion pedal. If this thing was lost I wouldn't care and if it was stolen I would so graciously thank the theif but would be rather pissed that I wasted 100 bucks on this peice of shit. Definitely did not live up to the hype, and when I had it in my rig it made me not want to play. I returning it as soon as I can.

Pretty cool unit, easy to use. Has two drives. The tube section and the transistor section that pushes the tube even harder. The tube section has drive, trebble and bass. The transistor side has gain, mix and symentry which makes one side of the wave get larger giving a grittier sound. Two foot switches, ac adaptor in and out.

This baby kicks it up LOUD. Left the settings nearly at zero and my marshall cranks. My son concert lead and 66 fender bassman sound great too. I put a 9k ohm resistor in the circuit like another guy suggested so I can run the pots a littel higher than 1. I need to be able to switch from clean {off} to a nice crunchy rythum to sustaining lead. Hope this will do the trick. Havent tried it in my chain yet, It was sounding so good by itself. No doubt someones gonna know whos playing when you kick this baby on. The unit has heavey duty bass and trebel gain so like I said I run them near to one or two so there isnt too drastic a change when I go from Clean to Drive. Was able to get my guitar to whistle like an Ebow with no problem at all. This baby might be a littel too hot for what Im playing in the band right now which is mostly 60s but for metal forget about it. Your there man.

Super solid aluminum construction And the PC board is wedged in there like a drawer. Nothings going anyplace if you kick it around. The only possible weakness I can fortell if your ins and outs get loose or kicked they could break the plugs which are plastic. They probibly had to make it that way for a floating ground maybe but I dont kick my stuff around anyway and my guitar wont plug into it directly. Overall great design

NA

Im gonna give this a 9 because the range on the gain goes from Zero to 90 with an 8th of a turn of the knob. I like to be able to get a low growel for rythums and such and still kick it up there when the band is cranking. Like I said Metal players will be going to town on this puppy. I have about 10 or 15 other drive units and have owned just about all the comon ones at one time or another. Even my marshall has 2 extra chanels for overdrive but I was looking for a real tube drive sound and found it, Gotta get my other guitar player to get one of these. When you play alot of dual leads the sound has to match pretty close to be effective.

fairly easy after having read the manual. im a man...men dont read manuals!! but its ok...its cool.

at first i noticed that the sound was unresponsive and lacking a lot of feeling. after changing the tube to an EH 12ax7, tweeking with the knobs (the highs sound stupid past 2 oclock. and the lows are LOW past 8 oclock.)the sound is awesome. i run it through the effects loop of my noise supressor as well as a few other pedals into a few heads (my randall RG80ES the most). the sound now is very heavy. loads of gain and i usually use the "solid state" side of the spectrum more than the tube side. i love the tube sounds, but not for my metal. i only use the tube sound when im doing more "yngwie" type stuff. i use an mxr distortion + (level maxed and distortion at 9 oclock) as a "booster" that way the sound is a bit more "loose" and so theres more harmonics. its very loud too, unlike a metal zone or anything of the sort. get a seperate eq for this monster, for more versatile sounds. i can go from satch to mustaine with the flip of a switch. its truely an amazing pedal. but im sure there is something else out there. its noisey as all hell! a noise supressor is wise, but RUN IT THROUGH THE EFFECTS LOOP! YOULL NOT BE DISAPOINTED!

totally!

amazing!

its a truely awesome pedal. loud, but still powerful enough to destroy a small village. its amazing indeed. check it out fore you buy it if youre not buying it on ebay. maybe it might not be for you. built for a metal player anyways.

Quite easy. Still - I don't like treble named shriek and bass named roar. Manual is OK. My version is 3.01. You can't mess up your sound with that easily. And I don't like eq on it. I have my guitar tone knob and 3-band eq on my amp - why do i need another eq in my path? Unnecessary.

With default tube inside it (chinese one) it sucks. Very noisy and whistling.

But after replacing it with Mesa/Boogie 12ax7 it sounded WAY better. I modified my Silver dragon also, replaced one resistor (just under gain pot, from 670R to 10K) to make it softer and less distorted. It is quite simple overdrive, and it works very well. I would give it a 9. It all depends on the tube you use.

I don't like transistor overdrive. I had prefferred just a tube overdrive. It just takes space and makes pedal bigger and heavier.

Overall I have to give 7, cause I don't like this Slayer mode.

Dependable hard metal case. It has dropped once. Buttons are not so good, some kind of cheap plastic. But the inside construction ise very smart and keeps the electronics together. Just have a look!

Never spoken to

I mostly play from jazz to hard rock (no metal) and its suits me if I want some heavier overdrive. I have played guitar for 4 years. I own semi-acoustic Ibanez Artcore AS83 guitar and Behringer 2x12 combo amp (transistor). Since I cannot get tube sound with my amp, silver dragon helps me out.

I love the real tube sound what I can get from this pedal. But I hate that the glow you see from the ventilation holes is actually generated by additional light-bulb. It is silly and misleading. But anyway, I left it in, maybe it is easier to sell it when I need to. But I certainly don't plan to do it unless I get real tube amplifier. Maybe I keep it afterwards also. I don't know.

I hate the Slayer mode. It is really unnecessary. I don't use it.

Compared to H&K tube factor and others it is CHEAPER, but circuitry must be (i think) quite the same. So - it doesn't matter. Just the tube matters.

In conclusion I must say: Don't let the bad sound of it mislead you in the shop when you try it. Just buy a good tube (I used Mesa Boogie) and try it then. It's way different and much better.

I easily dialed a good tone with this pedal and I HATE tweaking knobs. I was very happy to see how easy it was to get a good sound out of this pedal. The names of the knobs are a little confusing at first (which is why I'm giving at a 9) but once you look it up in the manual it's no problem.

I'm using this with a Jackson Dinky and a Peavey trantube. The first mode with just the tube is ok. You get a nice crunch sound with it and I use it to warm up. This pedal really comes alive when you add the solid state distortion in with the tube. It is so HEAVY. You get a great metal sound and harmonics are produced with ease. This pedal sounds so good I'm putting my Boss Metal Zone up for sale on ebay next time I want a new guitar and I swore I would NEVER get rid of that pedal. The Silver Dragon sounds THAT good. I also spent about $400 on a Mesa Boogie V-Twin pedal and this pedal is a hundred times better and it was only $99. This pedal sounds like I wanted the V-Twin to sound. I highly recomend this pedal to any metal guitarist.

No problems so far but I've only had it 3 weeks. I must say, this thing looks like it's built tough.

Never had to deal with them.

Overall, this a great buy, especially for the money. A pedal of this quality could easily go for twice the amount of what they are charging. Metal players who cannot afford an all tube amp will especially benefit from this pedal.

The Silver Dragon is relatively EZ to use, the manual is clear enough, just analog tweaking of the chicken knobs will git you your sound, no user unfriendliness at all! But, with any add-on EFX, expect to spend some burn-in time to git familiar with all the functions.

I am using a Fernandez Strat knockoff with a Yamaha G100 head over a custom built[my specs.]2x12 Eminence Delta 12 cabinet, also, I play a Cort Yorktown and an Ibanez SZ520QM thru this rig, I am a working,solo act[been doin' this a while]! I avoid digital EFX as much as possible and believe that most digital distortions and amp modeling should be consigned to studio only applications! The sounds that the Dragon produces are BIG & full spectrum, from classic, tube-crunch overdrive[think SRV] to heavy sustain metal[think EVH]The bottom end in this pedal is massive! This pedal will go where most other pedals have never gone before! After years of disappointment with the so called "classic" pedals that dominate the marketplace, the Dragon finally brought me home! It just does most things right time after time, I won't even consider trying another pedal, I am having too much fun playing this one! When any instrument or EFX inspires you to play on and stretch yourself, don't put it down! The Silver Dragon should meet the distortion needs of most any player out there, I know that is a big statement, BUT, you gotta hear and "feel" this thing for yourself!

So far, not a glitch of any kind, rehearse with it every day for a couple hours, been about 2 months now! I believe the ALL metal construction and the switches[true by-pass] are of the highest grade, road players have no fear! I would never recommend any player to gig without backups, but you probably would never need one for the Dragon. But having another Dragon for a backup makes good sense,and why not? They are soooo reasonably priced! I am givin' a 9 cause my time with it has been limited.

Rocktron is a service oriented company, you git to talk to real and friendly people who are willing to help, never needed help for the Dragon, but I have made many other inquiries and beeen satisfied with their professionalism! No company is perfect, so I give 'em a 9.

My musical styles range from old-time rock, to new country, also, blues and reggae[island]make it into my act. The Dragon does the variety of sounds that I need from one pedal, it is actually 2 pedals in one and the tones are so fully EQable that there is never a problem with my mix! Been playing since 65, wow, that is gittin' olde, owned a bunch of classic gear way back then, wisht I'da known it was gonna go vintage! The rest of my gear ain't nothin' too special septin' for a Tokai HD28 acoustic dreadnaught that makes Martin players listen up with interest! Have a Crate GX-30M for general purposes, really a handy little amp, play a Fender acoustic/ electric every week, put a Fishman soundhole pickup in it, it has a full and natural tone that piezo pickups just can't equal, that is about it, other goofy gear hangin' around, watch Ebay! I am impressed with the Dragon and would replace it in an instant, as I said, compared it with Many other distortion pedals,the IBZ TS-9, the Marshall Gov'nr, the Route 66, the Zoom Powerdrive to name a few, and it was the pick of the litter. The real "tube tone" is what makes the Dragon the Best Buy winner in my opinion, solid state buzz has its place I guess, but not in my rig, you are gonna spend a lotta loot for a boutique amp or pedal, but before you do, spend a little for a Dragon and save a lot! You won't be disappointed.

Pretty easy to use, once you figure out what the knobs do. The manual (yeah...i said it...)is a big help.

RE-DIC-U-LOUS This thing sounds amazing. I play an American strat with a Blues Jr and I cant believe it. The first channel (awaken) is almost like a great overdrive, while the second channel(slayer) is the best harmonic distortion I've ever heard from a pedal.

Dont really know, only had it a couple of days...looks pretty tough though

Never dealt with them

If distortion is what you want, look no further. This pedal actually replaced my Ibanez Tube screamer!!! Need I say more. I can save the board space because channel one is an awesome overdrive. Definately worth every penny. I play Zeppelin type stuff as well as hair rock from the 80's, and the distortion side of this box can nail every sound I need!!!!

I give it a 10 for for perhaps a little backwards reasoning. Yes, you could make the thing easier to use, just get rid of the second channel, and the solid state controls -- but that isn't the reason I bought the pedal. I wanted a flexible pedal, with a lot of control over my tone, and that is exactly what I got. Any pedal worth it's salt will take some fidgeting to get the sound you want. I am an experienced player, and like to experiment with my sound, and this offered the most control, with the least fuss. My last, (I said last, not LEAST,) favorite distortion effect was the Digitech Twin Tube, and I swear that had wonderful control and possibilities, I hated having to interface with the thing via programs and scrolling and what not. The Silver Dragon allows for all that expression but with a very organic interface. Six knobs and two buttons -- elegant and effective.

I play two guitars, and Alvarez 3-pickup Tele' and a ES-335 copy, my amp is a Fender Princeton Reverb, a Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive and a VOX wah complete my setup. I have no problem with the above setup to get a good clean, warm sound for Jazz and Country. In fact, I thought that was all I would ever need. But, The Silver Dragon allows me all the flexibility I could ever use for Rock and Metal. My taste in Rock spans from Zappa and Neil Young for noise and experimental, to Bowie -- all eras -- and 70's glam and Metal -- T.Rex, Uriah Heep, Yes -- and some modern Rock/Metal. I agree that the pedal might be a little noisy for single coils, but that is only an issue for sounds requiring a lot of dynamics and breath. Which, admittedly, is a rarity in most genres. If I wanted something quiet and tasteful, I'd turn my equipment down and only use the Tube Driver, but for real hot, powerful overdrive, that is where the Silver Dragon shines. I am a 'Tube Snob' admittedly, but the solid state boost on the other channel (Slayer) opens up new worlds. Feedback and pick harmonics are so much easier to achieve and have a much better quality than the tube channel alone can deliver.

Good compact design, rugged metal case. Seems tough. I just don't like the AC adapter. I would much prefer a hard-wired plug. I am hesitant and worry a bit that the plug will fall out on stage sometime.

For a hundred bucks it can't be beat. Only one wish for the pedal, I think it would benefit from a more gradual onset of overdrive. Even the lowest setting seems a little too distorted. If it warmed up to that level in about a third twist of the knob, (and then went the rest of the way it goes) it would totally replace my Tube Driver. But then again, that may take too much away from the pedal as it is. For Rock/Metal, wow, incredible value, flexibility and tonal possibilities.

Getting a good sound was relatively easy but putting up with feedback posed somewhat of a irritating problem at first. A good noise gate should be within tweeking distance.
The manual was fairly helpfull for getting a good launching point for sound. As with anything though it really doesn't mean a damn thing until you fire it up and start twirling knobs. The effects of all the knobs except intensity and breath were obvious and easily observed. The intensity and breathe are subtle tweeking knobs that you can turn back and forth to get that perfect distortion.

The almighty setup includes a Randall RG75 amp, a esp viper 301 with EMG 81 and 85 pickups, and a mexican strat with a dimarzio fast track 2 in the bridge. Probably the first and only turn off was the amount of feedback the pedal generated when I used it with my strat. Of course it's probably not the most sane thing to do, using a guitar that likes to feedback with a high gain anything but none the less it made me reach for my noise suppressor. Even with the noise suppressor cranked to high heaven, I still heard a slight metallic moan whenever I tried any fast stopping while playing. None of these problems were observed while playing with the viper as the pedal along with a guitar that was made for harder stuff truly kicked ass. The perfect sound to conjure up the devil with. Easily matched my desire to copy lamb of god guitar parts with the slayer made activated. With just awaken playing I was able to do a good impersonation of Tom Morello (minus all the whammy pedal acrobatics of course) and Adam Jones.

Well, I've only depended on it for about a month now so only time will tell. Everything is a gamble but I'd say the Dragon is a worthy one. I do not gig so I would definitely say that I would play it in my jam room while leaving my back up pedal in the closet:)

Rocktron has fast and prompt customer service. Not the most wordy bunch of gear dorks but efficient none the less. I e-mailed them curious to know what to do if the tube ever blew out. Could I start opening up stuff and tinkering with complex electrical components that I knew nothing about without voiding my warranty? Within in a day I was e-mailed and told not to touch anything. Just leave it to the professionals and those with a extra $100 to afford a new one. (Should anything go terribly wrong.)

With the harder stuff I like to play, this pedal is it. I traded in my digitech metal master in order to afford it. I wanted something with more of a quality sound. I don't know, the metal master sounded just too processed and digital for my taste. And it was noisy as all hell with my EMGs. I wanted something that had a little bit more oomph to it and more of a focused mutilating sound. I only wish that it had a built in noise gate so that I could maybe put in another pedal in the place of my NS-2. I've been playing now for about four years and so far this is the best sounding set up I've ever had. My other gear includes a digitech digidelay, a digitech turbo flange, a danelectro cool cat chorus,a dunlop dime bag custom wah and a boss NS-2 noise suppressor. The Silver dragon works well with these pedals and even manages to give my a amp a welcome volume boost. If this pedal was stolen, I'd round up my posse find out where the thief lived and set fire to his or her residence. I would then take up tap dancing lessons and panhandle until I had enough money to afford a new one.

I give it an 8 because the knobs aren't standardly named so I had to do the unmanly thing and read the manual, and fiddle a little to get my sound, but don't let that scare you because you can get almost any marshall tone from jtm 45 to plexi to jcm 800 to mode 4 out of this thing!

A definite 10 although a bit noisy at high gain, but no worse than most high gain setups. Definite real tube tone. I bought this to try out through my practice amp (fender blues jr.) and was so blown away by the tone I might sell my halfstack. With just the tube distortion on I get a hot rodded plexi tone. step on the "slayer" mode and you can sound just like the band slayer! I tweaked it to sound like Megadeth's countdown sound and I also run a wylde overdrive in front of it (with the gain at 0) to sound just like Zakk Wylde! I also run a Kerry King eq at the end for a little extra chunk. I love my metal but listen to alot of genres and also play the blues once in a while so I know tone. Bye Bye line 6 amp modeler

It seems tough with quality switches and a metal case, but time will tell. Never gig without plan b! it will bite you someday!

Are you kidding? a little over a hundred bucks for tone this good? My line 6 sounded pretty good, as close as digital or solid state ever will but it still aint in the ballpark to real glowing tubes! If it were ever stolen I'd rip the guys arms off and beat him to death with them and then go after his family!

Pretty simple to use, after you get to know what all the knobs do. Basically, distrortion level, bass, treble, and on channel 2 a knob for mixing tube/solid state distortion levels, and a knob that changes the feel.

This is where I'm blown away- I found this pedal just browsing online, I'd never heard of it before, but I saw it had a tube so I thought I'd try it. Well, I've been messing with it some different ways. First, I recorded with it using a behringer GI100 direct box, and let me tell you it sounded nice. How nice? I play a mesa single rect in my band, and this thing sounds just as good. I don't know why, the tone is similar, but sweeter than the mesa.
So I hooked it up to a 60 watt pignose tube amp on clean setting, and used the pedal for distortion, hooked it through my 2x12 vin30 cab and it sounded incredibly warm and tubey.
My goal was to find a tube pedal to use with my pignise clean amp to try and match the mesa- I think I came close with this one-still not perfect but very sweet sounding.
I've tried mesa vtwin, tubeking, all of them almost- this thing rocks hard. And I couldn't believe the price was only 109, I got it on ebay, but I think that's what they sell for in stores. Of course, I've never even seen one of these in a store before. Anyway, this is some good shit if you like warm tube sounding hardcore sounds.
It came with a chinese 12ax7 which suprisingly sounded fine, as good as a mesa 12ax7- pretty much the same- it was a bitch trying to open the thing to change the tube.

Yeah, I would gig with it. It's heavy metal casing can take a beating, just dont smash it and you should be fine

Don't know-never called those guys

Overall, this pedal is great for any rock style, mostly harder though, think mesa, hard marshall type sounds. Use it with a clean tube power section and it will sound great. I'm not sure how it sounds through a solid state amp-haven't tried it.
Recording was awesome, everyone thought I used some expensive amp, my single rect was sitting at home- lol.
Anyway, not many people know about this pedal- I didn't even know it existed until I saw it on ebay- but it is a great pedal to have fun with. I will definitely keep this one.
If you record, get a behringer GI100 direct box and you will shit your pants when the sound comes through the monitor. They could easily charge $199 for this pedal.

Straight forward. Fun to tinker with. Very responsive eq.

As far as the tube channel. It depends on the tube. I didn't like the Chineese tube that came with the unit so out it came. I have the same problem with the 'real tube' pedal years ago..sorry stock tube makes for sorry tone. Anyway the 'access panel' gives you no chance of clearance so I had the tear the whole damn pedal apart to swap tubes only to find out that it is there isn't clearance for for example a fat (large diameter) tube like Sovtek 12AX7LPS. Luckily I had a skinny American Sylvania 12AX7 laying around. This hit the spot. The tube channel is wonderful, very natural tube overdrive, especially with that Sylvania tube. The solid state 'slayer mode' is very nice indeed...peel your face of metal type thing. The breath control is just awesome. Too damn much fun for just $79 on ebay!

It's a great pedal, and I'm a jazzer myself, but I'll be slaying some dragons for sure with this