SIB Varidrive

Very easy to use - wanted something solid and simple.

Sound quality is excellent - put a good vintage or quality new tube into it and life is good! Very transparent yet rich tube overdrive, no tone suck. No noise, either. Very quiet pedal.
I have three strats; two parts-o-caster players set up vintage for the most part that I love, and a'66 re-fret/refin that sounds like butter.
Also have two '65 non-reverb deluxes; one is stock and the other has the output tube section modded to take two 6L6GC tubes and a higher-watt 12" speaker which makes it louder and gives it more clean overhead. Kind of like a Fender Pro amp or a Vibroverb sound. Was done by Harry Kolbe, I believe. Both amps were bought used. Both sound great.

Yes absolutely.
Did have one mystery problem where signal came out very faint when activated, and footswitch & tube were not suspect - sent back to SIB and came back sounding even better. Really.

Turned it right around when I needed it. Thanks, guys!

Being primarily a strat thru a fender deluxe amp player, playing mainly blues and blues-rock for 15+years this thing is unbelievable. Goes from tube screamer grind to very hard rock-crushing gain. It WONT do the real scooped-mid death metal rasp, so forget it. Besides, it sounds much better than that.
The Varidrive is perfect if you have a clean-sounding amp or play single coils or both and you rely on a pedal like I do for your overdrive. But get one, whatever your setup is.
I even demo'd it on my friend's '89 Soldano SLO 100 thru a 4x12" Marshall cab, cleaned up the gain on the amp and stuck the pedal in front and it had all the gain and roar of the Soldano, which is a very high-gain amp.
But it's also great for getting a nice fat low-gain boost when you back off on the drive. It's like putting a killer pre-amp/gain channel on your fender amp. Perfect for blues and rock. Big, fat, warm, transparent tube overdrive. People at gigs have told me they love they way it sounds. I never had a tube overdrive pedal, but I traded some gear for it and haven't regretted it.
I have and had some good solid state overdrive pedals like Homebrew Electronics Power Screamer and Fulltone's OCD pedal and Analogman's modded Tube Screamers, no slouches either, but they just DONT compare, really. It's the bomb. Stupid good.
Maybe I would like it more if it were a little smaller and lighter, but hey, it's quality and built like a tank.

very easy, all knobs are self explanatory.

Man...this is seriously Great, I have experienced some O/D pedals, fulldrive2, sparkle drive, tonebone hot british & classic, Tubescreamers, RAT Deucetone, Gt 2 sansamp, etc. this thing produces Natural sounding, tubey sound with highest quality possible. I borrowed this from a friend, and I bought one the next day from Ebay, God bless ebay.com. brand New (US201.5)new design with additional gain switch on one side, black color., still havent arrived yet. so I'm reviewing the one I borrowed, blue casing,no gain swith. with 12AX7 TUBE, wow, it sounds warm and full with pure tone.

just borrowed it for 6days... but it's the old model, prety beat up and still run perfectly. I hope it will last for a long time

A killer pedal.... I have been playing for 8 years, own some other nice gears, if stolen, I will buy 2 more the Next day, one for the Gig, one for "sitting quietly in my bedroom" back up. I'll post a review of the newer design once I get in my hand, hopefully it's as good or even better. I'm very happy.

Self explanatory controls. The size, weight, power cable and hi voltage, make it a bit awkward for cramped beer-soaked stages.

The Varidrive is one of the very few tube based pedals that actually uses the tube as the ONLY drive element while putting proper hi voltages across the plates (just like real tube amps). This approach has resulted in the most authentic tube drive, feel and texture of any pedal I have ever tried (and thats alot). This pedal really does sound like a distorting tube amp when plugged into ANY clean amp.

Unfortunately the pedals voicing and tone controls are less than perfect. The low end is big and loose and cannot be tightened up. This sounds fine at lower gain but with higher gains it gets too woofy. The midrange is a bit flat for my tastes I would have liked a little more snarl as it seems to get lost in the mix to my ears.

SIB deserves a 10 for putting REAL tube overdrive at your feet. It really is just head and shoulders above any other Tube or SS pedal I have tried in this respect. However the voicing and tone controls need some work. The price and size of this pedal are also daunting. My overall impression is "really close...but no cigar". I would be VERY interested in a Varidrive 2 with some of the tonal shortcomings addressed.

Really nothing complicated here, like an amp or any simple stompbox.

Now seriously, there's very little reason to trust HC reviews, but I have to really emphasize how good this pedal sounds (actually it's a tube preamp on the floor). I have tried many of the big ones, and the Varidrive is the bomb. I could have saved so much money if I had tried this earlier. Here is a quick list of the OD's (and boosts) I have had expecienece with: Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD Distortin Pro and FatBoost, Tim and Timmy by Paul Cochrane, Clark/Barber Gainster, Menatone Kar Krash and King of the Brits (6 knob), Banzai Cold Fusion, Xotic BB preamp and RC Booster, Tonebone Hot British, Barber DDSS, Tube Works 901 and 903. There are a few others, but there are the more important ones. Don't take thsi with a grain of salt, take this at face value: the Varidrive is way more tubey and natural sounding than ANY of these pedals! Why should be obvious to you, since it's an all-tube class A preamp running at high(er) voltages like any preamp. It sounds fantastic. The switch on the side for 1/2 gain works beautifully. It makes more noise than your average SS pedal, but that's to be expected. The noise is nothing terrible (worse when you run it cranked).

On to the sound, it's "heaven" for blues playing in the low-medium drive settings, and at higher settings, it's pretty heavy Marshally grind, something like a JCM800, but a tad more tame. It doesn't have as much of a heavy sound as the Toenbone Hot Brit or the Menatone KOB6, but it does make up for it in tonefulness. There's more air and tube feel than the Tonebone because the TB is not running at realistic plate voltages and the majority of the sound is made by transistors (or SS technology anyway) then fed through a tube for warmth. The TB is still an excellent pedal, but pales in comparison to the Varidrive if you really want tube feel with the harmonics and response that go with it. Combined with a good boost, the Varidrive offers SO MANY tones! The tone controls work very well, with no bad spots, except the bass can get boomy (like any tube amp). I tried a few different tubes, and you definitely hear the difference in response curve, noise floor and breakup. The guy I bougt it from had a Mullard 12AU7 which was great, and I tried a JJ 12AX7, NOS JAN 5751, NOS Philips 12AU7 and the JJ(?) 12AT7 I have in it now. The 12AX7's offer more gain, but it's harder to obtain the "cleaner" tones and there's a bit more noise. I find it the best balance between gain and ccleanup ability. The 12AU7 was a bit too clean, and the breakup was more gritty, somewhat harsh to my ears.

A little side note, the 1/2 gain switch has a difference in volume when you engage it. You have to tame the volume knob if switching from low gain to high (and vice versa). Not a huge problem, but it's there. I wouldn't dock points for something like that. This thing gets loud by the way!

Mighty solid construction inside, wouldn't worry about it.

I will say this: I can't understand why the 1/2 gain switch is on the side -it should really be a second stomp switch on the top of the pedal!

Never contacted them.

Awesome, awesome pedal. Everyone should have one if they use a single-channel amp. I have only played it through my Allen Tonesavor so I don't know how well it would get along with other amps (Marshalls, Class A, etc). For my needs, it's perfect -blends right in with my amp's tone. Overall, this is a professional piece of gear that is only hindered by the size and the power plug (matbe the price but there's tons of more expensive pedals that don't sound half as good!). Regardless, I put it on my board because it's the most natural 2nd channel for my amp that I could find. Better than Tonebone (in fact the guy ho sold it to me had just been sponsored by Tonebone so he had to start using their stuff, but he prefers the SIB by a mile). Can't recommend this enough!

Simple to use... knobs are self explanatory.

I use it with my Marshall Plexi... through various Marshall cabs. I also put a vintage Ibanez tube screamer in front of the varidrive for som extra punch... I can get the brown sound dead on with this... The tube screamer gives it some more bite and is great to kick in for leads

Never had a problem yet

never called

The thing that really interests me is that there is not a setting that sucks on this pedal... changing the tone knobs the drive etc.. all change the sound but never in a bad way... just different.

I love it

This is my second review of this tube driven overdrive pedal. My gear has changed over the past 5 years (99). It is still as simple to operate as a can opener. 3 tone controls (treble, bass and middle). Mine is an original. If there is an upgrade, I would hope that it would be the led turning on and off with the switch

I am using 2 Les Pauls. A D/C (double cutaway). with Humbuckers 57's and a 98 model standard with 500T and 390s respectivly. I have a 64 model vibroverb and a 65 super reverb reissue. I use the varidrive into an SIB FatDrive and then the amp(s) I am a blues guitarist and I don't have any favorite blues guitarists but I have lways liked Herb Ellis and the guitarist from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Like I said, Great overdrive

After 5 years, I have had a problem with the input jack lock nut stripping out. But it has never failed me

Called Rick one time and he answered my question

I have been playing for 35 years. I have a rack system also with a Mesa Formula preamp > T C Electronics "G Major" efects unit > Peavey Classic 50-50 Power amp > 2 Fane loaded 2X12 Cabinets. A great system that I might sell (I went back to combo amps for simplicity). With the 2 Blackfaced Fender amps the Varidrive is a great addition to my setup. I can play at any volume and still have great overdrive or incredable clean sound with the Fatdrive pushing the Guitar and od pedal. I would replace it if it were lost or stolen with haste. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me.

I tried a new one in the store before purchasing my used one on line and found the store model a bit "spongy" for my taste. I prefer a little "edge" to my attack. However, upon receiving my model and trying it with my own gear, I found this to not be a problem. It could be that the previous owner performed the tube mods suggested elswhere on this page (I didn't open it up to find out) but I was able to get great tone with very little tweeking.

I play a Les Paul Classic, G&L S-500 and Fender Strat Floyd Rose Classic through an Orange AD1510. (Here's my chance to rant.) Before I knew any better, I owned a Marshall "two channel" twin amp. I thought I was getting a 2 channel amp with real tube overdrive. I learned later that it was, for all intents and purposes, actually a one channel amp with a built-in DOD overdrive pedal. If I wanted a one channel amp for my clean tone my first choice would NOT have been a Marshall and my first choice for an overdrive pedal would NOT have been a DOD. I'm very happy with the tone of my Orange and this pedal has given me the best overdrive tone I have ever had. I have a Class A tube signal all the way through my stream and the true-bypass on the Varidrive doesn't wreck my clean tone.

The only issue I had was the on/off switch was a little glitchy at first. I discovered that it was only a loose tube. It's no big deal but I'll knock off one point anyway.

Never dealt with them.

I would recomment this pedal for anyone looking for great rock tone. I personally am working on a one-man band featuring foot and hand activated drum triggers, foot activated bass module, Therimin, loops and pre-programmed material (ie: drum machines, prerecorded bass lines, etc.) In hopes of making my sound less like "space alien music" I have worked on my guitar tone striving for an earthy, organic quality. The SIB gets it done! I've been playing for 23 years and also own Electro-Harmonics Octave Multiplexer (for bass doubling) T-Rex Replica delay and a few other effects I'm selling or upgrading. I'd buy another Varidrive if stolen for sure. I compared it to the Fulltone Full Drive and preferred it. It was also far better than cheaper Tube Works overdrives I had in years past.

Very self explanatory controls.

I've owned 30 or 40 overdrives and distortion pedals over the years. The SIB is up at the top of the list with a few caveats. First, it needs a decent tube. I've found that a lower gain tube (12AU7 or 12AT7) brings out the harmonics and reduces the harshness, as does an NOS tube (I'm using an Amperex 12AT7). It means that it's truly and OD, doesn't really get into distortion territory. Secondly, it doesn't like all of my amps. For instance, with tweed or blackface Fenders, it's gorgeous-ringing harmonics, transparent to the sound of the guitar and the amp, just gives you more of what the amp is. Some of my european style amps seem to like it less (Bruno with EL84s, JCM800 with 6550s, TE Velocette). For them a Klon or a Tonebone Classic seems to work better. I wouldn't be without it, but it wouldn't be the only pedal I owned.

Occaisionally the footswitch has to be stomped a couple of times to get it to work. Otherwise rock solid.

Never tried

This is a great pedal in cases where it works, highly recommended if you can afford to own one expensive pedal...

Very easy to use---I have the newer Black box with the gain switch.
Very obvious how to set-up.

I use this in front of a Fender or Vox tube amp---single coil pick-ups. I changed the tube to a 12At7 to reduce the gain. Now the unit
can almost sound clean at min setting. Very natural sound and the EQ
is a big plus---An essential tool for recording electric guitar.

Unit was shipped with a bogus Chinese 12ax7a tube. Good tubes are
expensive, but for the price point SIB should watch it's tube quality.
The 1/4 jacks don't grab--even in studio the jack is a problem. I already had to tighten one jack---Should use a Nuetrik or Switchcraft
metal jack with grounding washer. Definitly recommend 90 jacks for live.

Seller was very helpful---tried to contact SIB for tube info, but
no response.

An essential tool---would replace. Industry standard. I like the switch for hi and lo gain. Sound quality is definitly enhanced with tube upgrade/mod.

No manual is really needed. Short almost useless notes on how to use it are given on the back of the unit. However no indications are given about the possibility of using different tubes to obtain different sounds. I had to look for them in the SIB home page. Strange, cause this is the best characteristic of this pedal.

Gibson ES-347 > Ernie Ball Volume > Ibanez GE9 Eq > MXR Dyna Comp > Varidrive > EH Electric Mistress > Boss CE2 > Boss DD5 > Aria AD10 (rare old analog delay)> VOX AC30. I also use a BOSS LS2 to switch between different pedal combinations and a Boss NS2 noise suppressor. The sound of the Varidrive is really impressive, but the best thing is that you can obtain very different sounds using different tubes. Other people have already said that the 12AX7 are pumped to high gain too quickly. The sound you obtain is full and fat but it is impossible to get a good crunchy sound at low gain. I found the best is to use a 12AU7. The gain control gets much more dynamic and the unit becomes more versatile with a wider range of sounds.
I agree with other people that the mid pot is too subtle.
Absolutely not noisy for an overdrive.
Blends well with the flanger and very well the analog delay. Not so much with the chorus, but i haven't really tried this combination seriously.

I have played for one year with no problem.

Extremely friendly. I asked Rick if he could make a 220-V version and he did it with no problems at no extra charge. He needed some time to find the right transformer and test it but now i have the very first 220-V varidrive in my rig!

I currently play in a contemporary gospel band, backing a 25-people choir. Our music is very varied, with a mix of rnb, funky, soul, and whatever you want to put in, so I need to use a very versatile rig, and the ES-347 (allows you to switch from HB to single-coils) does the job nicely. The varidrive helps me to obtain great crunch rythm and tube-driven lead without having to crank up my AC30, which the choir would not appreciate too much... The price is moderately high, but it's like having a new second channel in my amp. I decided to get this pedal after reading some reviews here saying that classical overdrives like the TS9 did not work well with the AC30 while the Varidrive could do a great job. Now I don't regret at all ! Take some time to swap tubes and eventually you'll much probably get the sound you want.