Tonebone Hot-British Distortion

This one took me awhile to get the sound I wanted. The manual is very good, and it was easy to get a good sound, but considerable tweaking was needed to get what I was looking for. I ended up switching the 12ax7 for a 5751. You're not supposed to do that, but I doubt if I would have kept the pedal. I've got other distortions that come very close to the stock Hot British. That said, I wish it had a real Mid control to it, not just switches.

Stock, this pedal sounds very Marshally, just like they say. It's not a polite pedal. It doesn't clean up when you back off on the guitar volume pot. An overdrive pedal will do that, this is a distortion pedal. A good sound, but a bit too buzzy with the stock 12ax7. So rather than return it, I put a 5751 in the socket, and Presto! It took just enough edge off the hot-rodded Marshall type of sound, but still had plenty of gain. Yea, the manual and circuit board both say "don't do it!", but it now has THE lead-sound-in-a-pedal that I was looking for. Very nice. It rated an 8 stock, a 10 with the new tube, so it gets a 9 here.

The case and knobs are solid. Steel case with rubbery knobs to withstand a fair amount of abuse. The pots are mounted right to case, which is good. Internally however, Radial cut some serious corners. Very thin ciruit boards with PCB mounted plastic jacks. Ack Ack Ack. There are two circuit boards - one for the main guts, and one with the control pots and switches soldered to it. And the 2 circuit boards are connected by a few metal tines. YIKES! Extemely flimsy. If something goes wrong inside, not much chance of repairing it. And changing the tube is ridiculous. Terrible internal layout. So, the case and knobs will survive some serious trauma, but the innards will most likely turn to jelly should someone happen to give it too much verbal abuse. Not sure at all of the design logic here, so handle this thing gently. I'm taking a backup for this pedal.

No idea, they are in Canada, I'm in Southern Califoria, and I switched out the 12ax7 for a 5751. They'll probably tell me to take a long walk off a short pier if anything went wrong with the pedal.

I play a pretty wide variety of styles usually, and I bought this pedal for the high gain stuff. It fits the bill nicely with the mod. Stock, I probably would have returned it or ended up selling it. I actually do like the pedal, but the quality of construction really worries me. Swapping out tubes in Radial pedals is about the most absurd nightmare I've ever seen. It's tube driven. We're guitar players. A lot of us like to swap-out tubes. Hmmm...

In this price range, it's a boutique pedal. Radial needs to take some constuction tips from other pedal makers like Barber, Homebrew, and Keeley. With the mod, I really like the sound of this pedal. Great high-gain Marshall-type tone without the brain damage.

However, here's what it still needs: Give it a mid-range control pot, mount all the jacks (they should be metal) and pots/switches to the case and wire those to the circuit board. Mount the PC board to the case as well. And make it easier to swap tubes. Sheesh. A retail price of a few bucks more won't keep anyone from buying this pedal, and it would be the best tube driven distortion out there.

Whenever I get a new product I just plug it in and go which I did. I knew right off the bat this was going to be a good one. The knobs were all set at 12:00 and it sounded very musical drippind with lush tone.

When I got the pedal I quickly wanted to compare it to the distotion that I have already available in my amp. I run a Orange rockerverb 50 with a 4x12 cab. My typical effcts run is a fulltone fulldrive into the tonebone then into a line 6 delay( big green one )into a boss tremelo pedal then a tuner.When comparing the two The orange distortion was more mid-rangy but very focused and musical. When turning the orange to the clean channel ( very vox ac30 )and hitting the tonebone it was instant bliss. The notes had alot more sizzle and a bit more focus. I was able to use a lighter picking technique which I am always looking for to do the Vai thing. And the noise was lower than the amp by itself in the dirty channel. I kicked the fulltone in expecting to hear a ton of hiss ( running two distortion pedals in a row will do that )and it was still less than the amp by itself and the amp is actually quiet. I have just tried a ton of pedals and for high gain this one is head and shoulders above the rest. Hear is a list of pedals I tried : Carl Martin plexitone, Mesa boogie rocket and the V-twin, Sansamp GT2, MXR doulble shot. TS9 with 808 mod, line 6 distortion and amp modeler. Dont get me wrong I not selling the orange cuz now I have just about any sound I could ever want ( or at least till my next purchase ). I have been playing 30 years and will buy/try any and everything possible for the perfect tone that is always just beyond the horizon ( you gear nuts no what I am taking about). Hope this helps

I have to give it a 10 !!

forgot to mention below that valve changes cannot be done easily or quickly!...in order to change the valve you have to literally take it all apart - pull the knobs off and unscrew the pot shafts, unscrew the footswitch nut, unscrew the jackplug nuts (manual explains exactly how to take it apart - excellent manual btw).

if it wasn't such a rigmarole i'd be experimenting with different valves. as it is i wont bother until the stock tube wears out.
it's a shame that there isn't a screw-on plate or hatch on the bottom that you could just undo and reach in to change the valve - a hole the size of an E.H. small clone battery compartment would probably be big enough. ah well, nothings perfect.

straight out the box i set everything halfway and went from there easily. what sets it apart are the 3-way mini switches that tweak the highs, 'lo' mids, and 'hi' mids to preset eq curves - a very good feature.

this is the best distortion pedal i've ever owned/tried. however, compared to most players i haven't bought that many pedals in the last 15 years of playing, and here in Britain there just isn't the choice that American players have (the average music shop here will generally only stock the mainstream: boss, zoom, digitech, dod, and E.H. if you're lucky).
this is much better than my former boss od-2 and gt-3, and has now surpassed my visual sound route 66 (formerly my best ovedrive pedal). i'm using it with a 1995 reissue '63 fender vibroverb. it's great to be able to go from fender clean and mild dirt to marshall grind without having to a/b between 2 amps. good sustain, harmonics and controlled feedback with single notes. classic rock to chunky old school hard rock and metal rhythm sounds. doesn't have the modern nu-metal tones however (hurray!)
i wish i still had the '72 marshall 100w superlead head and cab that i sold in 1994 just so i could hear what it would sound like with this pedal! damn regets!
also, the tone controls are active so if you crank the bass and treble it will be louder (but also noisier).

seems solidly built. the knobs and switches are a little bit exposed to being kicked off, and the dc input is close to the output jack (potential problem if using angled jacks like i do on my pedal board). i've only gigged it once so far but have done many rehearsals with it aswell as much home use. the edge of one of the switches has a sliver of plastic shaved off - could've been caused by my shoe accidently kicking it, so the mini switches and knobs are a bit close to the on/off footswitch for my liking. i've only had it a few months so it's too soon to give a proper rating yet.

never had the experience. they're built in canada and i wouldn't bother shipping it unless it was free to do so under warranty.

great. the best one so far. i'm not a pedal junkie so i haven't had that much to compare it to, but i think i can tell when something sounds good, and i had a big smile on my face when i first plugged into this pedal. it's expensive for what it is, but much cheaper than buying a second amp. it makes playing more fun for me.

sound in itself is very subjective , we all know that. this unit has a lot of variances available for you to tweek. manual is very helpful. but if you've spent 2-300 $ on a pedal, it's a given you should know how to tweek.

traynor 40 watt combo, marshal ext cab, strat, jem. there's a little noise when every things at 11, hint: if you must go to 11, go buy your self a tsl 100 watt head. the overall quality of this pedal is impeccable. solid , quality fittings and junctions. the distortion is very, very, convincing. for a pedal that emulates a marshall. the key is to use it in conjunction with a warm tube amp rated at 40 watts or more , on the clean channel. then it'll shine. this is no mesa, or randall, it's marshall all the way.

absolutely no problems. but it's a machine , so you never know. would you cross the sahara in a landcruiser? you'll most likely make it , but then again....

never had to deal with support.

i play legato , melodic rock. i get a nice creamy tone out of it for lead playing. I use it in conjunction with a maxon 808 re issue that i sometimes use to boost this pedal to bring it over the top. both are very expensive pedals but both are worth it. if it were lost or stolen, i'd definetely look into buying it again with the insurance money. it sure beats toting around a tsl 100. as stated above, the options on this particular pedal are enormous. there are definetely a few sweet spots in it and a few lemon areas. the key is to let your ears and your fingers pull the tone out of the pedal for you. a definete god send, as far as i'm concerned, without having to shell out 2500 for a tsl.

This is a review of the Radial Tone Bone Hot British distortion pedal. The pedal, which features one 12AX7 preamp tube, is housed in a rugged sheet metal case and features controls (pots) for LEVEL, HIGH, LOW, CONTOUR, DRIVE, and also has three slide switches for TOP END, VOICING, and MID BOOST, and a footswitch for switching the unit off. Dialing in your desired tone isn't too difficult if you keep it simple (contols at 12 O'Clock). However, it is possible to get carried away with the assortment of tone controls available to the user. This can result in some rather unpleasant tones if you are not careful. The user manual does an adequate job of explaining the features and dialing in various settings.

I play the Tone Bone with a stock 2004 Gibson Gary Rossington Les Paul and Marshall 50 watt 1987X half-stack w/ 4 X 12" Greenbacks. I can get tones remeniscent of Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Slash, Billy Gibbons, etc (when the unit is working!) See below. Right now, I use a THD Hot Plate and Ibanez TS-808 to overdrive my Marshall. This gets me the tone I really like.

Unfortunately my Tone Bone cuts out after about 15-20 minutes of use. It causes my rig to basically go dead until I toggle the footswicth once or twice to get it back up. I tried relacing the 12AX7 with a new tube but it still cuts out. I'm going to send back to the factory (in Canada) when I get around to it. In the meantime it makes a great paper weight or door stop. Obviously I can't rely on it or use it on a gig without a backup. I'm very dissapointed considering it cost me $229.00.

I contacted Radial Engineering a got a "RA #" so I plan to send it back to the factory for repairs. The jury is still out on the quality of customer support until I receive my unit back from repairs. Hopefully it will work properly and I can revise the reliabilityu and customer support scores.

I play classic rock from the 60's and 70's. I have been playing guitar off and on for 30 years.I would NOT buy another Radial Tone Bone based on my experience with this one. Right out of the box it failed. It's junk. There are much better distortion pedals out there that are more reliable. I prefer my Ibanez TS-808. It is simpler, more reliable, and sounds great.

This is a pretty easy pedal to get a good sound out of. Manual is very simple and to the point, and offers more than a few sample settings to get you started. The Eric Johnson setting is a good one for my basic sound, with a few tweaks. But pretty simple, and very sensative to tweakers...

I use this with a Rivera R-55 and either Fender or PRS guitars. Pretty quiet, even after an Analog Man Mini BiComp. Depending on your settings and how you approach it it can cut through wonderfully or turn to mud. Be careful using it to add oomph to an already distorted amp channel. Easy to miscalculate and have thick goo to wade through. Powering up the Rivera's clean channel, though, this sounds TERRIFIC anywhere I set it.

I've only used it for two gigs so far, but the build quality is very good. Anticipate no problems.

Good little distortion box for single channel amps. Wish I still had my old Top Hat to try this on...

I am updating my last post, why? Because I have gotten to know this pedal better. First of all, as far as changing the tube, no I haven't tried to yet, Second, Radial only suggests you do it every 2 to 3 years. The manual clearly states how to change the tube. Yes you have to take the whole unit apart, but any person with any mechanical/eletrical knowledge should have no problem. I am not worried about it, and the pure fact that this pedal sounds so awesome far outweighs any technical considerations.

I am using it in front of my THD Univalve. I wasn't able to get the singing/searing lead tones out of the Univalve on its own. The Univalve is a GREAT amp, but it needed some help for solo's. Like I said before there is a noise consideration, but any tube amp pushed to the limit will make noise. I have chosen the "Early Led Zeppelin" patch from Radial's manual. I run this into the clean channel of the THD and my solos soar. I use a Behringer SNR-1000 noise reduction post Tonebone to cut out any in-between noise. I then edit my wavefiles intro and outro to get rid of any "play-volume" noise. I bought a Ibanez Tube Screamer reissue TS-808, and that unit sucks compared to this.

Yes, built like a tank.

This is the best distortion pedal I have ever heard. In 1978 I had a MXR Disotrion+, "The Tonebone is better". In 1980 I had a original version RAT, "The Tonebone is better". In 1997 I had a reissue RAT, "The Tonebone is better". In 1999 I had a original 2.0 Line 6 POD, "The Tonebone is better". In 2004 I had a reissue Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer, "The Tonebone is 10 times better".

I was able to get a good sound out of it right away, "It is noisy though", I compare it to any tube effect, "CRANKED = NOISE", it is just the nature of the beast. If you expect to sound like your favorite artist, then get out your wallet. This is a very simple "MOD" pedal, ie:"no patches here" except if you manually change sounds. The manual is short and comprehensive.

I am spoiled and can afford to get the stuff this pedal needs, to make it sound great. So here goes my diatribe on my gear. A noise reduction unit is a must, "especially for recording". I am only recording with the RADIAL at this time, haven't tried it live yet. Here is my set-up. GUITARS= Brian Moore i1.13 and i2.13 with Seymour Duncan Pickups, Ibanez 540 PII with Gibson Tony Iommi Pickups, 1985 Gibson Les Paul classic with the 496R and 500T Gibson Pickups. PEDALS "In Order", Morley A/B box, B side into Roland TU-2 tuner, then into RADIAL Hot British, then to BEHRINGER SNR-1000 noise reduction, then to THD UniValve "Roll Channel" line out to "Hughes & Kettner" MKII Red Box cabinet simulator, then to Yamaha MG16/6FX mixing board with Focusrite Platinum Trackmaster as a insert. Effects include, Lexicon MPX-200 and Yamaha on Board effects through the loop. Stereo outs from Yamaha mixer into M-Audio Omni Delta-66 breakout box into computer using Cubase VST 5.1 recording software.

No Opinion, haven't had it long enough.

No Opinion, haven't had to contact them.

I play Rock/Fusion, been playing for 30 years. I have owned alot of gear over the years, Marshalls galore, Boogies, Laneys, Fenders, Rolands, Peaveys, Rats, Tube Screamers, POD'S, MXR'S etc. etc. etc.
This pedal meets or exceeds the sounds I was able to achieve through all of my previous units, "You just have to be reasonable and realize what you need to make it excell". I do wish it had patch storage though, sorry my POD spoiled me on that. The TONEBONE definetely gets me excited about playing music. The sustain and singing quality are awesome.

Getting out a good sound of it depends on your skills, and your trained or untrained ear, but basically it's hard to get a bad tone out of it.

Editing is straight forward with it's different switches, and the Knobs are very sensitive and responsive, and it's simply fantastic.

The Manual is pretty short of good like all manuals, it tells you what you need to know basis.

I used this with my Framus Renegade Pro guitar.
It ain't making more noise than other pedals out there.
I usually used with one or two effect pedals , chorus and delay.

I don't use Fender type guitars or pickups so for that matter,
it sounds incredible with Humbuckers, a lot of crunch, power, and clarity, it ain't muddy like other stuff I've heard.

It's built solid indeed.
The only issue though is that sometimes for very unknow reason the input jack gets little loose, a few turns and it's firm again,
not a problem really.

I'd definitely use it in a gig without backup, it's got great tone and makes every medium Amp to sound like a very good Amp.

My local dealer is very helpful and reliable so No worries there.

My music played is 80's rock so this thing is a match in heaven for that brand of music.

I'm a musicians for 14 years now, and arrangements and production is what I do mainly.

I no longer own it, I sold all my pedals and Amp as well, Had to cut budget,If I ever get the chance again, Not sure I'd go for it,
I think I'll stick to Rackmount Formula.
If It got stolen I'd be mad as hell!!! I wouldn't be able to afford another one... sigh...

I compared it to many pedals before I decided that's the one for me.
I tried Boss Pedals, Marshals, Line6... you name it...
The only thing I wish it had is maybe little more Gain, that would be fantastic for soloing, but it's great as it is.

It's a very good and important tool, inspiring indeed,
I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a different tone.