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tube emulator pedal, any idea?

Find a used TubeWorks Blue Tube pedal. It's not a tube emulator, but rather a real tube preamp in pedal form. It's a great way to turn a SS rig into a tubescent sounding one.... Having tried the sansamp pedals I have to say that there's no contest... The Bluetube is awesome.
Have a lot of curiosity for that Bluetube...lot of you are talking about this one. Where I can find one of those?
 
I have a Stingray Ray 5 and I love the sound but when I plug into a SansAmp bass driver or the cheapest Behringer BDI21 tube driver, I really hate my sound. I notice that my active bass doesn't sound good like my pasive basses but I really want to use my stingray to play. It doesn't sound like a tube and sound distorted all the time. I put the bass flat, the amp flat, close the drive knob but doesn't work at all Any other device that can emulate tube amp than cost under $200?
First you might have the wrong bass - if you find yourself not liking your tone with a nice bass like a Stingray but do with your other basses, then the MM simply isn't for you 0 this doesn't make it a bad bass or you a bad player - just not a match, that's why we have a variety of choices.
Second - Does the Stingray have centre detents? (A place where the know wants to "stop" in the middle? if not its an all boost or all cut model - try the sound all the way up and see if you like it better - you will always be running through the preamp so don't cripple it in hopes of sounding passive (my G&L sounds WAY better active than passive and I'm totally a passive guy - but these pre-amps are nothing more than another stage of gain so don't get too hung up on the activeness of it - the pickups are still passive so they should sound so.
Third - do you mean you don't like the MM with the Sansamp or Behringer? try without - again, this bass basically has one built in (more or less) so try the bass straight in again my G&L (and the MM I used to have) both sounded best straight inot the amp as the preamp already has some tone shaping and extra again built in - I tned to always have something between my passive basses and my amps but not the active ones - they don't need the extra "hair" - Leo's preamps are pretty "non-linear".
 
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Looking for that kind of SVT tone but without broke my wallet.

Zoom B1on

$50 new. It has an SVT amp sim and you can pick and choose different cabinet sims or have no cab sim. Tons of eq flexability as well. I used to own a VT Bass and I find the Zoom to sound just as good with MUCH more flexability plus you get...what?...like an additional 99 effects.
 
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If I ever have $400 to spend on a pedal I will get this immediately!

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Also since I can't afford that Tube Driver I tried out a used Mesa Bottle Rocket with 2 12AX7 tubes in it. I love it! Real tube overdrive and preamp. Its a great pedal and will keep me happy until i can justify floating the cash on the Tube Driver. Has more bass than you would ever need. Tons of gain that can take you to full on distortion. The tubes can be swapped for 12au7 for a lower gain experience. I haven't replaced the tubes yet but I plan on experimenting with different tubes when the time comes. They can be found pretty regularly used at around $200.

I got lucky with mine and found it at a local GC and they thought it was broke because they hooked it up wrong so I got it for what they paid for it. Twas a good day. :D
 
Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but anymore I am mainly running a DI rig when I play out anywhere. Instead of using a standard DI, I have an Ampeg SVT Tube DI. It utilizes a 12ax7 preamp tube to give you the Ampeg warmth without the huge rig. They are pretty hard to find now because they were a side project that was discontinued long ago, but it gave me just what I was looking for. It has both a balanced XLR out for running to the board and then a separate 1/4" out that you can run to a solid state amp as well if you desire. One of my best purchases in quite a while. Radial makes a DI called the FireFly now that has a similar tube preamp in it and has 2 channels (for active and passive basses). It might be worth looking into because you would be able to switch basses on the fly and get that tube warmth/growl...
 
So, I'm guessing you are really after a fantastic overdrive pedal? Real Tubes vs Jfet or other transistors is relatively mute these days, there are great pedals with either and great Overdrives are no longer the domain of tube units. Often a good overdrive will have several clipping stages and some tube overdrives have just the one. My favorite tube sounding Overdrive is the Joyo American Sound. It's amazing and it's all solid state....and cheap as chips and sounds far better than a lot of units 10 times it's price, seriously....go get one.
 
I tried to like the real tube ones (black pedal, rack mount unit), but I did not like it on bass. I preferred the blue tube ones.

The real deal B.K. Butlers are much warmer and have more bass response than any of the ones modeled after it. That includes TubeWorks, Blue Tube, Chandlier, the black ones made in Taiwan, etc...

He now makes them with bias knob to increase the full range of tube drive from low subtle smooth creamy gain to raging tube breakup distortion.

Edit: well maybe not the Blue Tube. It has plenty of bass but not a lot of gain.