Siegmund Guitars Micro Tube Double Drive

Easy to use, however you need to spend some time with this unit to get the best tones out of it. The EQ is beautifully designed, and not at all disappointing like alot of EQ's on other units.

This is the where its hard to explain how great this unit sounds. Here goes, I use the Double drive for mostly acoustic guitar my rig is Fishman Para DI, Barber Tone Press, Fishman Chorus AFX, EH Small Stone, Digitech Hardwire Stereo Reverb, Siegmund Double Drive, to Bose L1. The DD with it 2 micro tubes gives the fattest fullest round sound I've ever heard. This rig works equally well with my electric guitar, I get big tube sound just as if I was playing though a boutique or vintage tube amp. My friends are blown away with the great tube tone this thing produces. I don't use alot of overdrive sounds but if you want them this DD produces a vast variety of overdriven sounds. I sold all my overdrive pedals and my Bad Cat amp (no need for these things anymore because of the DD) I could not be happier with the tone.

I've owned this for a few months and it seems very strong. The build quality is superb. I wouldn't want to throw it around (because of the tubes) but it seems very sturdy. No problems to date and I don't expect any.

I called Chris Siegmund when I was considering purchasing the DD I had alot of questions and he was very helpful and explained things very well. Chris is an old school builder (genius I think) and he seems to be very passionate about the things he builds and I feel he would stand by his products no matter what. He really believes in building high end super quality gear. He also calls you back when you leave a message.

I have been playing guitar for 30 years and been a songwriter for 20 years, I play Baden, Larrivee, Tom Anderson and Taylor acoustics, PRS and Fender Strat for electrics. I am mostly a solo performer so my guitar tone could make or break how I sound. The DD helps me achieve the great guitar tone I need. The DD is expensive and this is a hard decision to buy when you can't try it before you buy. I took a chance and it paid off because I get great tone and I was able to sell uneeded gear that more than paid for the DD.

The previous reviews have described in detail and so I will pragmatic with this review and sum it up by saying it is as easy as any tube amp where each control has somewhat varying degree of influence over other controls, as a great tube amp should be.

For many years I have sought out great tube tone and have always come closer with tube amps than any solid state amp but with something always missing, things like the need to be way too loud to achieve the right tone which is one of the reasons to get a lower wattage amp but more than that you must properly match the output transformer to the normal playing situation. This is why I love my Siegmund Midnight Blues 25W amp. When I read about the MTDD pre-amp I decided to try it and I completely agree with the previous review comment about how it makes everything it touches sound great. I will not go without for the classic rock and everything up to that amount of distortion/overdriven tone that I have ever heard. I do think that this unit doesa work well upstream of delay but I am using the RV3 for the perfect slapback with reverb.

I have put this through its paces and it has given me no problems.

I found that what is true in life in general is true with Chris and in general you catch more with honey than vinager and Chris has always made time for me and I completely disagree with anyone that says any thing negative in this category.

The Siegmund MTDD is the best true tube driven pre-amp that I have ever owned. I have been playing over 25 years, everything from bluegrass and country to the best of all of the classic rock and blues, stuff like Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, ZZ top the list is long. I challenge you to find a better sounding pre-amp for whatever you are trying to play period!!!

This is an add on to the last review... After reading the whole thing together, I decided my review was a bit too negative sounding overall for this pedal. So, I'll say a few more things here.

Quite simply put, this is the best sounding pedal i have ever heard for guitar in any effect category. I love the way it accentuates harmonics, defines the natural tone of your instrument, and basically makes love with your amp. I have found that it works best with amps that have 12 inch speakers, but really it sounds amazing no matter what.

It is also an amazing recording tool that will breath life into the most dead, digital, crappy setup you could possibly match it with. It always shines when I use it for any instrument or microphone i use it with.

I wish i could get 10 more of these pedals and run almost everything through them. A stereo version for mastering could be usefull too. The EQ is so sweet it could easily help most tracks out there.

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask. I have used this pedal a TON in a lot of different situations.

amazing

this is rediculously easy to use although, it can be quite complicated in chain with other pedals. Also, when i run it in the effects loop it does some very odd phasing stuff which is generally negative to the sound... so you have to use it in front of your amp. I know it sends out a low impedance signal, but i dont necessarily know what that means in terms of electrical relationships between pedals. I do know that it can cause some serious problems with the tone of my univibe pedal if you put the univibe after it. It also does some wierd stuff to delays that you put after it. Things that you put before it sound great though, especially if you use some kind of solid state tube screamer leed pedal.

This pedal is one of the craziest i have ever had the pleasure of playing with though. With a small amount of signal routing knowledge it can be placed in line as a top quality preamp for my digital keyboard, any guitar, any vocal, or anything else for that matter... but it is possible to overdoo things with the double drive. when you engage this pedal it definatly imposes its sound on what you have. At the same time though, it can be a beautiful transparent distortion or boost with all the insane goodness of some of the best sounding tubes in the world. I cant believe how good this pedal sounds on acoustic guitars. it is completely amazing. (continued in sound section)

ok heres where i should go nuts. This pedal does everything you could imagine for your tone and more. its pretty odd though. i think the midrange eq position is about as sweet as they come for guitars. The high end is beautiful, and the bass is smooth and yummy. I wouldnt necessarily reccomend this as the best bass pedal though, but using this on bass would sound far better than not using it. I try to use this pedal on at least one microphone for every instrument i track in the studios. of course i only have one of them so i can only do so much with it. Everything it touches sounds amazing though.

This pedal absolutly shines on acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and vocals. It will work for about everything as a preamp, better than probably most everything anyone has. That is not to say that it is simple to do this with it though. It takes creativity to use this pedal to its potential.

I have noticed that a few issues with it, but mainly I have always thought of these issues as something youd have to deal with in any situation where you achieve a tone this amazing. First, for some reason, when you go out of a consoles direct outs after hitting the pres with a microphone, you usually have to hit the double drive fairly soft to achieve a clean tone. Then i usually turn the volume almost all the way up using the poweramp out. As it gets to its maximum volume level, there is a substantial increase in the noise floor at a clear point along the volume pot. This can be avoided by lowering the volume and using the EQ and the drive/gain levels to increase the volume. Then i send its output to another preamp. Usually i notice that you have to jack up that preamp a ton. Basically... I dont know why, but it doesnt spit out a lot of output in that situation.

another negative was what i said about it in the first part. It definatly has some unique intereactions with other pedals. But as someone mentioned below, it works well as a set it and forget it type pedal. Also, if you use it alone before your amp, it is the best distortion pedal i have ever heard. A real tone machine.

so far, i have dropped this pedal from a height of about 4 feet at least 3 times. If its got something wrong with it becaused of this, i wouldnt know. It still sounds amazing.

i have noticed the power supply chord rubber hose has come out of the power supply box a bit exposing the wires. They have not broken though and seem to be very solidly in place. I would depend on this unit without a backup. Its amazingly solidly constructed.

If there ever was an 11 in this category, Chris Siegmund would get it. Never before have i dealt with anyone in the audio industry that puts as much passion into his products as him. He is truely a individual that should be a model for more peoples business and customer service approaches. He goes out of his way to show his enthusiasm about this too.

this is one of the most signifigant purchases i have ever made in my entire life. Im so happy i have it because it allows my creativity to explode every time i use it. Im thinking about getting more of these just so i can have them lying around... that and they have the potential to make about anything they touch sound amazing.

lots of options with this pedal. you can use the preamp output with your existing amp setup, or use the poweramp output for going directly into a poweramp or recording console. the implementation of the tone controls is well thought out; the treble/mid/bass slightly slightly overlap, shifting the overal sound one way or another as you play with them.

this unit has one master volume control, and two gain controls for adjusting the two channels. you can adjust the gain control on the clean channel to go from sparkling and warm to moderately overdriven. the second channel lets you use the gain control from the first channel, as well as a drive knob which lets you really start to crank the overdrive.

this unit has true bypass, which i never use since it is always on.

the pedal requires a/c at all times, via an interesting adapter which connects to the pedal via a connector similar to a computer mouse. there is a transformer type thing in the middle of the cord, which has a knob on it to change the amount of power going directly to the tubes. this is adjustable via screwdriver. the cord then plugs into the wall (so it is not your typical wall wart and only takes up one plug space when you plug it in). the ac adapter is supposed to be connected to the unit before plugging into the wall, but chris says it is not the end of the world if you forget once in a while. just good practice.

there are two tubes in this pedal - apparently they are a military grade tube with a 100k+ hour lifetime on them. so you can't really swap them with different tubes like people do with 12ax7's, but you won't want to anyway.

my setup is somewhat modest compared to most people who will buy this pedal would probably use. i have an epiphone les paul with duncan pickups, and a crate gx1200h head and matched 4x12 cab. this solid state head leaves a lot to be desired in the clean channel. the siegmund brings an incredible warmth to its sound. i generally use the pedal's clean channel with the gain up enough so that it just breaks up a little bit. as other reviewers note, it kind of adds to what your amp already has.

the drive channel will crunch up nicely, but will not quite do it for punk rock. this unit will not do the tubescreamer thing, but it is not intended for that. with the gain and drive cranked, you get a weird kind of fuzz, which might be the only way you could get a less than superior sound out of this pedal. with the gain and drive up most of the way, you get great heavily overdriven sounds.

i've used this through a 1975 peavey deuce (tube power amp, ss preamp) and i find it works better at higher gains with this setup.

i leave this pedal on at all times, and i use the crate's distortion over it and it sounds great.

i am confident that whatever future gear i own, this pedal will compliment it nicely.

this pedal is handcrafted and solidly constructed. the knobs are nice and solid, and the spec on the tube lifetime is incredible. chris is confident enough in these tubes that he said he would replace them free of charge if they went. the switches are nice and stiff and don't look like they'd crap out. the a/c adapter does not look particularly industrial, but i don't see any reason why it would fail.

i've emailed chris siegmund on several occasions and he has always responded promptly to my questions before and after the sale. i can't see myself running into any problems with this pedal, but i have no doubt chris would address them if i did, or if i had additional questions about the unit.

i've been playing guitar for 12 years in various punk bands in my small canadian town. this pedal defines my clean sound, and adds something special to my distortion. if it were lost or broken, it would be on my wish list of things to buy. if chris designed a pedal that did full on distortion similar to this i would find the money and buy it instantly.

this is the only review that i've given all 10's to on harmony central. it really is an amazing piece of gear.

All you need is a desire for a more beautiful, fat or searing (or all three) tone. Plug in one side and out the other. Don't let the pre-amp and power amp jacks full you use them both and play with the rest of the knobs. Welcome to king tone!!!!

I run this thing through my Twins and through a variety of guitars and set-ups. Works nicely with all Fenders and Gibson's solid bodies and semi-hollow.I think my rig will get more refined now since I purchased the Double Drive. I don't see any use in holding on to overdrives and effects that I won't ever use. The trouble now is deciding which one's to let go since everything sounds awsome through this pedal. I bought this on a whim and I sure am glad I did.There are no words to describe this except simply Awsome!!!

This is better built than a Klon. This is incredible.I've only had it two weeks but I know this is built to last.

I e-mailed Chris with some questions and he answered right away. My question addressed ballsy tone at lower volumes. He gave me some great suggestions and then told me to send it in for a free upgrade!!!
Now how can you beat that?

I play all styles of music. Been at it for 25 years professionally.I am constantly looking to better my tone. I own several Twin's modified and stock. My effects pedals are numerous: Klon, FD2,Everman Deluxe, Menatone KOB, Banzai Fireball, Banzai Cold Fusion, Fulltone 69,70 Fat Boost, Choralflange, Distortion Pro, Supa-Trem, Deja-Vibe 2, Tubescreamers (3), Teese RD/RMC3, Clyde, Vox847, Roland Space Echo RE-201, Ultimate Ovtave, Diaz Pedals(Texas Ranger and Square Face Fuzz. Others: to many to keep listing. The Siegmund Double Drive makes all these sound better and possibly (depending on your style) eliminates the need for any other type of OD as well, so the $349.00 is really not that pricey if you look at it like I do. I'm selling all my other OD's maybe I'll keep the Cold Fusion and the KOB. This pedal is KILLER!!! Do yourself a huge favor and get one. This is destined to be one of the greatest of all time!!!

Overall, very easy-just use your fingers, your ears and your soul. Apparently, the power supply need to be connected to the unit, before you plug it in. I don't know if doing otherwise could damage anything. If so, I would suggest a sticker or label stating so on the face of the unit itself; too many people might miss the line to that effect printed near the end of the manual. The location of the volume knob seems a bit counter-intuitive. Since it "adjusts the overall volume of the output", I think I'd prefer to see it placed last in order, on the far right of the display, rather than first. No biggie. I'm also still a little confused about the implementation of the bypass on the two different output. Admittedly, I confuse rather easily, though.

Name your superlative: Amazing, awesome, heavenly, sweet-dripping-honeytone-heart-breakingly beautiful. Calling it an effect is inaccurate and insulting...this unit is a Tone Enabler. Incredible for clean and overdriven blues tones. I've only had it for two days, so I haven't explored all its possibilites, but I'll tell you what I've found so far. Keep in mind I'm not a tech kind of guy, so I'll talk about vibe and mood and sound. So far I've played a Fender Classic Player Strat with Lindy Fralins through the Siegmund and into a '68 Fender Deluxe Reverb. There is some hiss, especially if you crank up the drive and gain, but I think the Double Drive is simply boosting the hiss already present in this guitar/amp combo. Anyway, it's not too bad, and I've never known any pedal not to add some noise when cranked.
I think this is an excellent guitar and amp to use with this box, because of their inherent brightness. The Double Drive nicely tames the Fender treble, and thickens and boosts the tone from the amp anywhere from a little to a lot; but it's VERY musical at all settings. Cool. Somehow it adds color while remaining transparent, if that makes any sense. It's not a tubescreamer, per se, but you can certainly dial that in if you want. Here's the kicker: After I had been playing through the Siegmund for a while, I unplugged and got out my Maxon OD808, a pretty good box, by all accounts (including mine). I was STUNNED. It sounded so flat and two dimensional in comparison...it sounded like a cheap effect imposed on top of the original sound of the guitar and amp. I mean, I can't even imagine using it any more now. The Siegmund has so much depth and 3-dimensionality, and it just drips with natural harmonics...natural, that's an appropriate word. A vintage Fender Deluxe Reverb is a beautiful amp, and the Siegmund makes it sound better, and does it so naturally. I would tend to use a unit like this as a set-it-and-forget-it / leave-it-on-all-the-time one. I'm not sure what it would do for a lesser amp, but what it does for this Fender is really, really...wonderful.
Special mention should go to the tone controls. They reminds me more of a good analog 3-band EQ than just an afterthought stuck on to enhance the case. They have a smooth sweep and frequency overlap, and, like everything else on this unit, are just so sweet sounding and musical.

Yeah, you can definitely tell when you play through this that it was designed by a techie with a player's heart.

The enclosure seems to be as rugged as it is attractive. I had a little problem with the drive switch-see below-but expect no problems with its replacement. If the lifespan of those tubes is anywhere near what is claimed, I'd say this should be as reliable as you could hope for.

Right out of the box I had a little problem with the drive button not engaging occasionally (it would work if I stepped on it several times). I called and talked to Chris Siegmund, who told me to send it to him so he could install a new switch. He offered to refund me the shipping. He also told me about an intriguing mod he would perform on the power supply, a control to vary the voltage in order to shape further new tones, especially cleaner, less brown tones. This is one area that would offer even greater versatility to what this box can do. I'll be very interested to see how this sounds, and I'll post a follow-up review on this new feature after it comes back. I enjoyed talking to him. He played me some guitar, and I could sense the genuine enthusiasm he has for his creations. He seems to possess the unique traits of both musician and technically talented tinkerer, and the proof is in the sound.

Not sure what else I can add right now. I'll post a further review when I've played it more, with different guitar and amp combos, including some heavy distortion. I'm also going to try a microphone through it for both guitar and vocals...wouldn't it be just absurd if it turned out to be good and useful in that capacity as well? I mean, really, it's just a stomp box, right? Well, anyway, I can tell you that as far as I'm concerned, it's a stomp-box that's worth every penny-and that's quite a few pennies.

Super easy to use and to dial in some great sounds.. NOT a fuzz, but a real overdrive of te tube variety. I can'r add much to what the other two reviewers have already said..

See above

Chris told me it will run 100,000+ hrs. on the mil-spec tube..
It's built better than a Sherman tank and is easier to drive ;)

Chris is indeed one of the nicest guys out there.. I hope to see a LOT more of his products out there as I will be buying them!! :)

I sold ALL my other pedals (Klon, FDII, Blues Devils, FatBoost, etc, etc) and have this and a Teese Picture wah as my effects setup.. And a MicroTube Overdrive as a "backup/secondary" witha different EQ setting.. I'm a happy camper.

I say "BUY"

Six continuously varible knobs-Vol,Treb,Mid,Bass,Drive,Gain and two solid feeling foot switches (One for By-Pass, one to kick in an additional gain stage)Backside has instrument in and 2 outs one to a preamp and one to a power amp. If you were toilet-trained too early, you might find yourself diddling with the knobs alot because they interact quite nicely giving you a lot of control over the tonal output. I haven't found the need to futz with the knobs very much once I got the tone I wanted. Requires A/C through its hefty wall wart. Don't think about trying to substitute one of those woosey BOSS transformers. This one is a different animal with a different plug on the end. It comes with the unit so there's no need to find a substitute.

My goals for sound quality are not gonna be very common. I'm using the unit with a pedal steel guitar and a super clean Evans solid state amp. PSG begs for a clean sound and shys away from distortion (in most cases).And like most PSG amps, the Evans is difficult, if not impossible, to drive to distortion. The Double Drive doesn't really add any tone of its own. It makes the tone warmer (the tube hounds nod knowingly) but not different. Keeps the ability to hear each note of a chord and just sort of sweetens it up a notch. At full overdrive and gain you can get some thicker tones but this is not intended to compete with tubescreamers and such.
Running into a Fender Champ 12 gives a better blues type tone with the PSG. Running a strat with Van Zendt Blues PU's through the double drive and into the Champ makes for a major funky blues tone-gutsy but not fuzzy.
Don't know why there's a by-pass switch.It makes NO noise whatsoever and there's no reason to ever turn it off.
It gets along with other pedals, (Vintage RAT, BluesDriver,DD-3) but to tell ya the truth, I prefer the sound of just the Double Drive.

Please, its like a solid block of polished steel (ok, aluminum). Its twice the weight and size of a BOSS pedal. If it didn't have tubes in it you could use it chisle concrete. Extremely well built and designed. Wish my damn house and relationships were as solid.

Chris is one very bright, very kind man. He's European (Austrian, I think) and hand makes guitars as well electronics. This is real old world craftsmanship come to the US of A. Never too busy to talk-even when he's footing the bill-he'll actually call you! (anyone at Torres Engineering reading this?? take a lesson).

This could have been a great rack tube pre-amp.The fact that its in a floor pedal is icing on the cake for us non-rack users. This isn't for everyone. If you're playing jazz,country or electro-acoustic, this is your baby. If hearing every note clearly but warmer is important, this is your baby. If you want to play blues without sounding like your guitar strings are made out of barbed wire, this is your baby. It won't get lost or stolen cause I'm gonna lock this puppy up in a secret hiding place every night.

Very easy to use. Plug and play. The controls are just pots, very analog, but they all interact and produce many useful tones. It has two outputs and a true bypass.

This pedal can be used for many things, overdrive, pre-amp, boost ect.
It's very, very quiet. No hiss, none. I use mine with a Tippin OMT with an LR Baggs i-beam to a Fender Acoustisonic SFX. I don't know if Chris ever thought someone would use the pedal like this, but you can. I get a beautiful, thick tone that really exploits the amp's sound effect spread. My guitar sounds very rich and not at all brittle. I really like it and the novelty has not worn off, I tend to have a lot of gear lust. Anyway, you can use this device with almost any instrument, even mics, it's that clean. You can also use it to get true tube distortion, if thats your thing, It really runs the gammut as far as applications go.

Iv'e had mine for about 2 months. It's built very solid, in a brushed steel case. I gig with mine and I'm not afraid. The power transformer (wall wart) uses some type of multi pin plug and the manual says not to plug it in without it being connected to the unit. No problem unless your roadie dosen't know (if you have a roadie).

Well, this is where I really have to say something nice. Chris Siegmund is one of the nicest people I've delt with. He is informative and very willing to talk with you at length about his products, which you should know are amazing. He builds guitars and amps and custom electronics to a ridiculously high level. A week after I received my pedal, he called me and had me ship it back to him (he paid the shipping) to improve the pedal because he had been tinkering and found some settings he liked better. He also built for me a passive mixer box so that I can run two guitars into the pedal with minimal signal loss. The guy provides true customer service and a superior product.

I've played for twenty years. I play fingerstyle guitar (dosen't everybody) I needed a preamp to give my amp enough signal for the sfx to kick in. I've had others, one of which worked very well but did not have this tone (solid state?) I've wasted a lot of money on things I thought I needed or wanted. This pedal really is something special. It does many things well, other reviewers have said that it lets the instrument sound like itself while providing tone and color and a boost. This is also my impression. I wish it had a tip ring sleave input so I could run a stereo guitar into it with a mono out (blender?) Chris explained about this and the passive mixer I described came into being, so far so good. Like I said, I really like this pedal and I recomend it highly. I would, based upon this pedal and my experience with Chris, recommend anything he builds or has yet to build , he is a true renaissance man.