markbass Distorsore

[shwashwa]

has anyone noticed that this pedal used to have 2 tubes and now it has one? my "tube guru" says that you really want a tube distortion to have 2 tubes, where one overdrives the other, rather than having just a tube in the pedal as a gimick or a gain stage. is this true?
here is a link to some pics where you can see the differences

markbass Distorsore - Google Search

[M Sterling]

I know that they put out photos of the Compressore with a DI out on it, but it was never produced that way. I think the production SuperSynth had more knobs than the pre-release photos as well. Unless you've actually seen one in person with two tubes, I would be willing to say that the idea never actually made it to production.

[shwashwa]

well, there is a namm video floating around somewhere with the 2 tube version and the demonstrator mentions the 2 tubes, so it seems that it was probably released, and it seems that some european sites might be selling the 2 tube version

[GBassNorth]

I have a Blackstar HT Tube Overdrive pedal (with one tube only) for my quitar and it sure provides a ton of overdrive, distortion and fuzz depending on how you set any of the three output channels. So not sure if you really need two tubes in a pedal for overdrive.
FWIW I also have a vintage pre Ernie Ball Musicman HD150 guitar/bass amp that has a SS preamp and Tube power section (kind of backwards from a normal hybrid amp), it can go from Fender clean to Marshall scream. I'm not sure how the tubes are lined up in the circut but since they're all 6L6s I don't think they are driving eachother (could be wrong, not an amp geek).

[father of fires]

Well most preamp tubes have 2 stages so you can use one stage to overdrive the other. Two tubes would be excessive for just an overdrive.

[ga_edwards]

Originally Posted by GBassNorth

I have a Blackstar HT Tube Overdrive pedal (with one tube only) for my quitar and it sure provides a ton of overdrive, distortion and fuzz depending on how you set any of the three output channels. So not sure if you really need two tubes in a pedal for overdrive.
FWIW I also have a vintage pre Ernie Ball Musicman HD150 guitar/bass amp that has a SS preamp and Tube power section (kind of backwards from a normal hybrid amp), it can go from Fender clean to Marshall scream. I'm not sure how the tubes are lined up in the circut but since they're all 6L6s I don't think they are driving eachother (could be wrong, not an amp geek).

Not really that odd. My "tube guru" (designs and builds custom guitar amps for a living) says that classic tube drive tone comes from the poweramp tubes, not gain stage preamp tubes. That's why products like the THD Hot Plate and Marshall Powerbrake were invented, so you can run the amp hard as reasonable volumes.

As such, quite often, adding a tube to a preamp circuit doesn't do much at all to improve tone, and is quite often just a marketing ploy.