I just picked one of these up off eBay and received it last week. I play baritone and am using it as the preamp along with an IR loader for the cab sim on an amp-less board. As is, these pedals sound amazing and really being life to any overdrive pedal or boost going in to it. Now, you’ve made me want to see how it sounds with the 12AU7. I really appreciate the effort you put in to this video. It was excellent. The graphs and sound comparisons were incredibly helpful. Thank you!
Awesome! Yeah I love this pedal! I mostly use it for synths, but I occasionally use it on the lowest gain setting as a pre-amp for DI-ed bass guitar and it sounds great for that too. I also find the EQ super useful. Nice! Yeah the 12AU7 was my favourite, followed by the AX, I didn't love the AT. I'm glad you appreciated the video! It ended up taking wayyyy longer than I anticipated. So it's good to hear someone found it useful. I did it partly for my own sanity bc I knew if I didn't record the difference between the tubes I'd just be really indecisive and keep swapping back and forth for days haha. I don't think I did the best job of explaining starved plate circuits or how it makes the tube behave (there's plenty of info on this on google), but I think I managed to atleast show the difference in tones and gain range etc
@@akozero I’m an old guy. I’ve been playing bass since the 1980s and picked up the baritone about two years ago as a songwriting aid and it’s since become my primary instrument. I have the VT999 set as my preamp on an amp less board. My pedals go in to it, which then goes in to a Boss GEB 7 to a Sonic IR. I’ve been experimenting with different amp sims for a minute now, and every one I tried just lacked that tube sparkle. I figured, screw it. The Behringer was inexpensive, about $80 US, and is basically a mod-able TS circuit with attached tube, built in EQ, and metal case? I didn’t feel I could loose, and man was I right. Within the first hour I had this thing dialed in to the best sound I’ve had since I stopped using amps. My only issue was too little control of way too much gain for what I play. I’ve been running the gain at about 1 1/2 to 2, volume at 7, and pushing the tube with the boost on a Full Drive 3. I was searching for brand and manufacturer reviews of different tubes when yours came up in the stream. Your explanations were top notch and exceptionally presented and really gave me a much clearer idea of what I was looking for. The spectrograph analysis of the peaks and drop offs… bro, you honestly blew my mind and gave me a whole new rabbit hole to dive down. Thank you for the knowledge sharing and inspiration. I really do appreciate it
@@KyleKalevra that sounds like a fun setup you got there! Baritones are cool AF! Yeah I pretty much bought the VT999 for the same reason, I just wanted something with a bit of a different sound to my other overdrives/distortions (a Boss OS2, big muff and this old Fab overdrive) and the VT999 was just so cheap compared to the other stuff I was looking at and it had a built in EQ (I'd previously been having to use a seperate EQ pedal) so I just thought why not. For that price even if I just use it on one recording I've kinda got my monies worth. I like those other pedals a lot but idk the VT999 just has a whole different sound. I'm not a guitarist, but I do own a couple of tube based tape recorders so I'm kinda familiar with the tube sound, and this pedal definitely has that kinda sound. Yeah I had the same issue with the gain with the stock tube, and a couple of people suggested changing the tube to a 12AU7 for a more even gain spread/range. Which is where I got the idea for this from. I did some Googling and yeah it became a massive rabbit hole for me too haha. Anyway it worked nicely for me, and it gave a nice new tone to the pedal too. It's great to hear you're digging the video! It ended up spiralling into a much bigger project then I expected as these things do 😂😂😂
@@akozero one recommendation I have is to keep that EQ pedal in your chain. Before the VT will allow you to alter your input signal allowing you to use it as a volume and gain boost. You can also use it to mimic other bass pickups, if it’s at the very beginning. After the VT, which I do, allows you to really dial in that output signal, cleaning up and increasing the bass response while leveling out the mids and highs. Also, the Fulltone Plimsoul. It’s an overdrive with a second voicing of distortion you can dial in. Fuzzy, rich, great low end. It’s my go to distortion. Thanks brother. It’s been a great talk
@@KyleKalevra Nice! that's a good idea! I'll give that a try. I mostly just end up cranking the bass all the way up on the VT, so I might be nice to do that on the EQ and have a bit more tweaking room on the low end. will give that that a try next time I have it set up
From experience, i have to say, you should never be using your bare hands to change the tube out. It creates hot spots from you fingers grease. you will notice this on tubes with burn marks. if you have to go bare hand, make sure to clean the tube.
Thank you for the video. It substantially confirms what I heard when changed the tube. I'm a guitarist; I use the pedal as a preamplifier, connecting the pedalboard after the VT999, or using the "send-return" sockets. If I'm allowed, I would suggest to use a 12V power supply as a further improvement; the difference is clearly audible. Thanks again
No probs! Thanks for checking out my video and I'm pleased it was useful. I bet it sounds great as a preamp for some other effects! Thanks for the suggestion, I did read a couple of comments online saying swapping for a 12v sounds better. But I was a bit concerned about it burning out the other components - does it actually work ok with a 12 v PSU then? And if so, what does it do to the tone?
@@akozero I use a 12V PSU on a regular basis with the VT999. Any OP-amp can be supplied with any voltage among 8V and 18V, so there is no way to damage the unit. The sound is noticeably warmer. It's not simply a sensation; I have a switchable PSU, so I'm able to keep exactly the same setting, switching between 9 and 12V on the fly The VT999 is supplied with a 9V PSU only for commercial reasons, I suppose; including an unusual 12V PSU would have been too onerous.
@@voxhumana4950 thanks for the info! that is interesting. I'm going to have to try this next time I use the pedal. Yeah I guess 9V is a lot more standard for guitar pedals so it would have probably made economic sense to stick with that.
@@akozero As far as I know (from collected information, not from any in-depth study) the lack of linearity in the tube workings is greater as much the voltage is lower. I supposed that a slightly higher voltage may reduce the higher order harmonics amplitude. You could test this hypothesis, if you consider worthwhile, by the same means you used in your video.
Thanks for the video, and the mesures that come with it. The subject of the effectiveness of changing of tubes on inexpensive home studio consummer device is of interest to me. I wonder, is there a big difference in sound if you test the unit with an 12AT7, let's say with gain at five versus a 12AX7 with gain at 3, or 2? I mean,do you think we could get similar results as yours if we simply use less gain with the original 12AX7 tube? At similar effective gain, do you think the differents tubes woud have the same noise?
These are all good questions! Regarding gain, yeah in theory I think your right regarding the gain range and that you could use a lower gain setting on the higher gain tube and get the same kind of drive/gain as using higher gain setting with a lower gain tube. And indeed you could also a get more spread on the gain range on all the tubes by just feeding a quieter signal in. However I have quite a specific use for this pedal which is using it with a bass synth that outputs at a fixed line level. It's a waldorf rocket, which has a fixed output level without a master volume control. So, as a result of the master volume of the synth being basically fixed at max line level I just found that the gain range of the 12AX7 maxed out at about 50% of the gain knob's max value. Which just gave me less to finnesse. Whereas I found the 12AU7 just gave me a nice spread of different drives/gains across the whole range of the gain knob. That being said gain isn't the only factor here, I also just personally found I liked how the pedal sounded with the 12AU7 most, at all levels of gain. I'm not sure how the gain/drive actually changes the tone with each of the tubes, but I wouldn't be surprised if the tonal characteristics were different for each tube at different gain levels - I just compared them all at max with the graphs. Perhaps more testing can be done here. As for noise yeah that's a good question also, I'm really not sure what would happen to the noise. The testing I did with noise was just recording the output of the pedal with the gain set to max with no signal being fed into it, there is probably some more nuanced testing that could be done there. I must admit I had assumed that the 12AU7 would be the least noisy because it has the lowest gain, but it was noisier than the 12AT7. Not really sure why that was. Maybe a lower quality tube? Maybe something to do with how the circuits around the tube are designed. Anyway, hope that all makes sense and thanks for checking out the video! This is a new kind of video format for me!
Changing the tubes, along with changing the amperage of the power supply, most certainly changes the tonal characteristics. Out of the box, the supplied tube and power supply amperage (230 mAmp, if I'm not mistaken) pair well with each other. That said... I am running a Genalex Gold 12AX7 with a full 1 AMP power supply (dedicated / direct-in ... meaning, no daisy chaining or other draw/bleed). There is, most certainly, a tonal difference. Your desired tone is up to you, of course. I did swap/compare tubes and varying amperage (230 ma, 300 ma, 500 ma, 1 A), with varying tonal changes. Outside of the endless (useless) tube debate, I want to also comment that the pots (3-band EQ, gain, master) are very smooth and highly usable. The VT999 is my overdrive of choice (configured a la full 1-AMP power amperage with the Genalex Gold 12AX7). Running a metal zone (such as Danalectro Fab-Tone or similar) directly in the front of the VT999 is most excellent for soloing. The most important tonal characteristic of a tube (or valve, which is also a valid term, in a different way) is the imperfect draw of electrons through a screen controlled by an input signal (e.g., electric guitar pickup alternating plus/minus). This imperfection is sonically pleasing.
Nice! Yeah a few people have said chaining the PSU for higher voltages and wattage helps. Haven't tried it yet but I will. Yes! The pots are nice indeed, and the full size knobs are really ergonomic too
I think a more useful test, might really be between all the different makes of 12AX7/12AX7A. In my little MIC100 Tube Ultragain, I use a few different makes of tube. My current favorite, is a 1962 IEC branded Mullard 12AX7A, closely followed by a 1965 Conn branded Raytheon 12AX7. They both sound quite different.
Nice! Yeah I'd be curious to test different brands. When I ordered the tubes originally I was a little dubious about whether or not you'd actually be able to hear the difference between the different tubes, bc ofc a lot of people in the forums were adamant that with the starved plate gear the differences weren't noticeable. But now I know there is deffinitely a discernible difference it opens up the potential for me to invest in some higher quality brands. I've been eying up those MIC100s for a few years, but I wasn't sure how good they'd be, would you reccomend?
The MIC100 does it's job, but is really for adding thickness, more than drive. I know my tubes are being heated in it, although only about half of what I know they can take. (The amount of glow a tube has in the two heaters, directly shows how much juice it's getting, and If it's glowing orange like a toaster, at all, it has an effect on your sound.) @@akozero
I'm no circuit designer, but it seems logical to me that the lower the gain range of a tube that's not getting the higher voltage level that it was designed for, the more effective it will be with the limited voltage that it *does* get.
I hadn't thought about it like that but yeah tbf that does sound logical, I wish I knew more about circuit design to say whether or not that's what's going. Maybe someone out there who does know about this stuff can chime in on this thread
I just picked one of these up off eBay and received it last week. I play baritone and am using it as the preamp along with an IR loader for the cab sim on an amp-less board. As is, these pedals sound amazing and really being life to any overdrive pedal or boost going in to it.
Now, you’ve made me want to see how it sounds with the 12AU7.
I really appreciate the effort you put in to this video. It was excellent. The graphs and sound comparisons were incredibly helpful. Thank you!
Awesome! Yeah I love this pedal! I mostly use it for synths, but I occasionally use it on the lowest gain setting as a pre-amp for DI-ed bass guitar and it sounds great for that too. I also find the EQ super useful.
Nice! Yeah the 12AU7 was my favourite, followed by the AX, I didn't love the AT.
I'm glad you appreciated the video! It ended up taking wayyyy longer than I anticipated. So it's good to hear someone found it useful. I did it partly for my own sanity bc I knew if I didn't record the difference between the tubes I'd just be really indecisive and keep swapping back and forth for days haha. I don't think I did the best job of explaining starved plate circuits or how it makes the tube behave (there's plenty of info on this on google), but I think I managed to atleast show the difference in tones and gain range etc
@@akozero I’m an old guy. I’ve been playing bass since the 1980s and picked up the baritone about two years ago as a songwriting aid and it’s since become my primary instrument. I have the VT999 set as my preamp on an amp less board. My pedals go in to it, which then goes in to a Boss GEB 7 to a Sonic IR. I’ve been experimenting with different amp sims for a minute now, and every one I tried just lacked that tube sparkle. I figured, screw it. The Behringer was inexpensive, about $80 US, and is basically a mod-able TS circuit with attached tube, built in EQ, and metal case? I didn’t feel I could loose, and man was I right. Within the first hour I had this thing dialed in to the best sound I’ve had since I stopped using amps. My only issue was too little control of way too much gain for what I play. I’ve been running the gain at about 1 1/2 to 2, volume at 7, and pushing the tube with the boost on a Full Drive 3.
I was searching for brand and manufacturer reviews of different tubes when yours came up in the stream. Your explanations were top notch and exceptionally presented and really gave me a much clearer idea of what I was looking for. The spectrograph analysis of the peaks and drop offs… bro, you honestly blew my mind and gave me a whole new rabbit hole to dive down.
Thank you for the knowledge sharing and inspiration. I really do appreciate it
@@KyleKalevra that sounds like a fun setup you got there! Baritones are cool AF! Yeah I pretty much bought the VT999 for the same reason, I just wanted something with a bit of a different sound to my other overdrives/distortions (a Boss OS2, big muff and this old Fab overdrive) and the VT999 was just so cheap compared to the other stuff I was looking at and it had a built in EQ (I'd previously been having to use a seperate EQ pedal) so I just thought why not. For that price even if I just use it on one recording I've kinda got my monies worth. I like those other pedals a lot but idk the VT999 just has a whole different sound. I'm not a guitarist, but I do own a couple of tube based tape recorders so I'm kinda familiar with the tube sound, and this pedal definitely has that kinda sound.
Yeah I had the same issue with the gain with the stock tube, and a couple of people suggested changing the tube to a 12AU7 for a more even gain spread/range. Which is where I got the idea for this from. I did some Googling and yeah it became a massive rabbit hole for me too haha. Anyway it worked nicely for me, and it gave a nice new tone to the pedal too.
It's great to hear you're digging the video! It ended up spiralling into a much bigger project then I expected as these things do 😂😂😂
@@akozero one recommendation I have is to keep that EQ pedal in your chain. Before the VT will allow you to alter your input signal allowing you to use it as a volume and gain boost. You can also use it to mimic other bass pickups, if it’s at the very beginning. After the VT, which I do, allows you to really dial in that output signal, cleaning up and increasing the bass response while leveling out the mids and highs.
Also, the Fulltone Plimsoul. It’s an overdrive with a second voicing of distortion you can dial in. Fuzzy, rich, great low end. It’s my go to distortion.
Thanks brother. It’s been a great talk
@@KyleKalevra Nice! that's a good idea! I'll give that a try. I mostly just end up cranking the bass all the way up on the VT, so I might be nice to do that on the EQ and have a bit more tweaking room on the low end. will give that that a try next time I have it set up
I did this exact same experiment and I did notice a change in voice with a tube swap particularly with a older tube. Great show!
Nice! Thanks for checking out the video, I'm pleased you enjoyed it! Yeah I'm curious to see how the tone changes as the tube ages
fast forward to 3:52 to get into the meat of the video
and then after you watched two seconds of that... fast forward to 7:11.
also don't mind me... I"m an asshole. very good video.
Amazing video ! Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I love my VT999, tested it with all those types and prefer AU
Thanks dude! Pleased you liked the vid ❤️🙌🙌 yeah the 12AU sounds great!
Great video! Looking forward to buying a VT999 for my setup. Seems like a very versatile pedal!
Thanks! Pleased you liked it! Yeah I love the VT-999, and you litterally can't loose for that price really
From experience, i have to say, you should never be using your bare hands to change the tube out. It creates hot spots from you fingers grease. you will notice this on tubes with burn marks. if you have to go bare hand, make sure to clean the tube.
Thanks for the info! I didn't know that could be an issue, But it totally makes sense 🙌 Also thanks for checking out the video
0 science to back that!
Thank you for the video. It substantially confirms what I heard when changed the tube.
I'm a guitarist; I use the pedal as a preamplifier, connecting the pedalboard after the VT999, or using the "send-return" sockets.
If I'm allowed, I would suggest to use a 12V power supply as a further improvement; the difference is clearly audible.
Thanks again
No probs! Thanks for checking out my video and I'm pleased it was useful. I bet it sounds great as a preamp for some other effects!
Thanks for the suggestion, I did read a couple of comments online saying swapping for a 12v sounds better. But I was a bit concerned about it burning out the other components - does it actually work ok with a 12 v PSU then? And if so, what does it do to the tone?
@@akozero I use a 12V PSU on a regular basis with the VT999. Any OP-amp can be supplied with any voltage among 8V and 18V, so there is no way to damage the unit.
The sound is noticeably warmer. It's not simply a sensation; I have a switchable PSU, so I'm able to keep exactly the same setting, switching between 9 and 12V on the fly
The VT999 is supplied with a 9V PSU only for commercial reasons, I suppose; including an unusual 12V PSU would have been too onerous.
@@voxhumana4950 thanks for the info! that is interesting. I'm going to have to try this next time I use the pedal. Yeah I guess 9V is a lot more standard for guitar pedals so it would have probably made economic sense to stick with that.
@@akozero As far as I know (from collected information, not from any in-depth study) the lack of linearity in the tube workings is greater as much the voltage is lower.
I supposed that a slightly higher voltage may reduce the higher order harmonics amplitude. You could test this hypothesis, if you consider worthwhile, by the same means you used in your video.
That's interesting! And indeed sounds plausible. that might make a good follow up video when I next get some
Time
Thanks for the video, and the mesures that come with it. The subject of the effectiveness of changing of tubes on inexpensive home studio consummer device is of interest to me. I wonder, is there a big difference in sound if you test the unit with an 12AT7, let's say with gain at five versus a 12AX7 with gain at 3, or 2? I mean,do you think we could get similar results as yours if we simply use less gain with the original 12AX7 tube? At similar effective gain, do you think the differents tubes woud have the same noise?
These are all good questions! Regarding gain, yeah in theory I think your right regarding the gain range and that you could use a lower gain setting on the higher gain tube and get the same kind of drive/gain as using higher gain setting with a lower gain tube. And indeed you could also a get more spread on the gain range on all the tubes by just feeding a quieter signal in. However I have quite a specific use for this pedal which is using it with a bass synth that outputs at a fixed line level. It's a waldorf rocket, which has a fixed output level without a master volume control. So, as a result of the master volume of the synth being basically fixed at max line level I just found that the gain range of the 12AX7 maxed out at about 50% of the gain knob's max value. Which just gave me less to finnesse. Whereas I found the 12AU7 just gave me a nice spread of different drives/gains across the whole range of the gain knob.
That being said gain isn't the only factor here, I also just personally found I liked how the pedal sounded with the 12AU7 most, at all levels of gain. I'm not sure how the gain/drive actually changes the tone with each of the tubes, but I wouldn't be surprised if the tonal characteristics were different for each tube at different gain levels - I just compared them all at max with the graphs. Perhaps more testing can be done here.
As for noise yeah that's a good question also, I'm really not sure what would happen to the noise. The testing I did with noise was just recording the output of the pedal with the gain set to max with no signal being fed into it, there is probably some more nuanced testing that could be done there. I must admit I had assumed that the 12AU7 would be the least noisy because it has the lowest gain, but it was noisier than the 12AT7. Not really sure why that was. Maybe a lower quality tube? Maybe something to do with how the circuits around the tube are designed.
Anyway, hope that all makes sense and thanks for checking out the video! This is a new kind of video format for me!
This was a great review thanks for putting this up!
Thanks bud! Really pleased you liked it and thanks for checking it out ❤️❤️🙌🙌
Changing the tubes, along with changing the amperage of the power supply, most certainly changes the tonal characteristics.
Out of the box, the supplied tube and power supply amperage (230 mAmp, if I'm not mistaken) pair well with each other. That said...
I am running a Genalex Gold 12AX7 with a full 1 AMP power supply (dedicated / direct-in ... meaning, no daisy chaining or other draw/bleed). There is, most certainly, a tonal difference. Your desired tone is up to you, of course.
I did swap/compare tubes and varying amperage (230 ma, 300 ma, 500 ma, 1 A), with varying tonal changes.
Outside of the endless (useless) tube debate, I want to also comment that the pots (3-band EQ, gain, master) are very smooth and highly usable.
The VT999 is my overdrive of choice (configured a la full 1-AMP power amperage with the Genalex Gold 12AX7).
Running a metal zone (such as Danalectro Fab-Tone or similar) directly in the front of the VT999 is most excellent for soloing.
The most important tonal characteristic of a tube (or valve, which is also a valid term, in a different way) is the imperfect draw of electrons through a screen controlled by an input signal (e.g., electric guitar pickup alternating plus/minus). This imperfection is sonically pleasing.
Nice! Yeah a few people have said chaining the PSU for higher voltages and wattage helps. Haven't tried it yet but I will.
Yes! The pots are nice indeed, and the full size knobs are really ergonomic too
so you use a 12v 1amp power supply all the time with it?
Thank you!
You're welcome! Thanks for checking out the video 🙌🙌
I think a more useful test, might really be between all the different makes of 12AX7/12AX7A. In my little MIC100 Tube Ultragain, I use a few different makes of tube. My current favorite, is a 1962 IEC branded Mullard 12AX7A, closely followed by a 1965 Conn branded Raytheon 12AX7. They both sound quite different.
Nice! Yeah I'd be curious to test different brands. When I ordered the tubes originally I was a little dubious about whether or not you'd actually be able to hear the difference between the different tubes, bc ofc a lot of people in the forums were adamant that with the starved plate gear the differences weren't noticeable. But now I know there is deffinitely a discernible difference it opens up the potential for me to invest in some higher quality brands. I've been eying up those MIC100s for a few years, but I wasn't sure how good they'd be, would you reccomend?
The MIC100 does it's job, but is really for adding thickness, more than drive. I know my tubes are being heated in it, although only about half of what I know they can take. (The amount of glow a tube has in the two heaters, directly shows how much juice it's getting, and If it's glowing orange like a toaster, at all, it has an effect on your sound.) @@akozero
Nice! Yeah I'll have to track one down, I'd like to try it out on some vocals
The Bugera tubes are rebranded Svetlanas.
@@RandyFricke nice! Thanks for the info 🙌
I'm no circuit designer, but it seems logical to me that the lower the gain range of a tube that's not getting the higher voltage level that it was designed for, the more effective it will be with the limited voltage that it *does* get.
I hadn't thought about it like that but yeah tbf that does sound logical, I wish I knew more about circuit design to say whether or not that's what's going. Maybe someone out there who does know about this stuff can chime in on this thread
@@akozero This video has me wondering if it's possible to design tubes that run at 9/18 volts optimum. That might be a thing...
@@beatfrombrainyeah that's an interesting idea. I believe subminiature valve tubes may work on lower voltages?
Big Change !
Yep! I was suprised how noticeable the difference was
Something's up with that AT7.
Oh! How so?
ummm, Prongles...
😂😂😂😂 Ikr