VTLD1 - Tubes vs. Solid State From the Perspective of Your Guitar Pickups

[@bjorntannberg1581]

I have one. And I love it.

[@toddsharpamps]

Glad to hear it! Thanks

[@jimmayer2520]

Thank you, Todd, It's great to see you delivering an awesome tone to players. Would a box like that work for Bass? Or is this tuned for Guitars? Thanks, Jim

[@johnrolavs6794]

Hi Todd, got a question my friend, hope you can help. Not a super techy fella, but you explain things in a simple manner so think I'll be able to follow. For my rig I play my guitar to a Mel9 pedal to a SY-300 to a Headrush Pedalboard into 2 FRFR 108's for stereo sound, so it's an all transistor system. I don't know if it's relevant, but I also got my friend to hook up the Headrush to the SY-300 via midi so I can sync the timing of the effects on both units more easily and also still get sound when the SY-300 is physically on, but the foot switch is turned off. Before the midi connection if the SY-300 was off at the footswitch no signal would reach the headrush. The SY-300 is connected to the Headrush via patch cable too. If I were to put one of these at the start of my chain would I be able to get that "tube" sound? Would it be a wasted effort because the signal ends in a non tube amp, or would the midi connection negate this?

[@toddsharpamps]

Not familiar with your particular effects there but just the same - the VTLD1 isn't really about coloring your overall sound in a large way but more about the relationship between your guitar pickups and whatever effects they are driving so that there is a tube there in the first place along with tube drive to your effects in the loop, and tube recovery stage after your effects chain. . The boost feature of course offers some color and it is a really good sounding tube straight gain boost with a tone control. It's not a distortion boost though. I have had feedback from a few VTLD1 users who do say that it definitely warms things up in such situations where there are no amps on stage, straight into helix or the like, in ear monitors, etc.

[@rjeric8185]

Would fuzz go b4 it?

[@MrBallynally2]

I know the Kingsley pedals but you are the first one w a valve in to effect pedal(s) and out to another valve. One thing though: that signal is so small and it is going through subsequent valve gain stages anyway. It seems unnecessary. However, i can imagine 2 uses.1 into a non mv amp and you want to shape the preamp w a hit of the rails like the Kingsley pedals do and 2 in front of a ss amp. Another thing i dont really understand: why w you boost a signal w a valve, then go into a ss effect pedal, then into another valve and then into an input of a...em.. valve amp? The video explains voltage swings but arent you just adding gain stages and then clamping them down prior to the amp's input? Maybe i have to hear it first instead of just making statements. The Kingsleys are pretty nice, maybe this pedal has some magic properties..

[@toddsharpamps]

Good questions - There are 2 stages and the first stage is about talking to your guitar pickup and then talking to your chain of pedals. So that is about receiving your pickup in terms of load impedance, headroom and drive level adjustment. It's adjustable - so you dial in what you may (or may not) need. In most cases, this is a unity or near unity gain setting. The Boost is also adjustable and is obviously intended to boost the signal level for effect. The return amplifier is merely a second stage to compensate for anything you may have lost in your pedal chain or if you dropped your overall send level for any number of reasons. Yes there are two cascaded tube stages, well designed and relatively quiet. Both with high headroom and ample gain if you should need it but under most conditions the drive and recover level settings are about obtaining unity gain and touch sensitivity rather than loading tons of "gain" on. Still, as you pointed out - if you want to add a lot of gain to hit the input of your tube amp significantly harder, you can do that too, and you get a delicious more natural saturation that tubes uniquely deliver. I would do that with the boost settings and leave the other loop settings simply to obtain unity gain and to recover dynamics within the pedal loop.There is plenty of gain boost to be had if you want/need with level control at all stages so - everything is adjustable.

[@toddsharpamps]

Why valves? I attempted to explain that in the video. I imagine you may be thinking that tubes would just be too noisy? That is not the case here. Many guitar amps have internal efx loops with adjustable gain at both send and receive points, and most of those loops are inserted after channel selects, tone stages, etc., not to mention whatever stomp boxes you have in front of the amp inputs. Do we question why cascaded amplifier conditioning circuits in that scenario? The VTLD1 is an efx loop for your pedals that you put in front of your amp with exceptional Boost and Mute/Tune features thrown in. Thanks for your questions

[@toddsharpamps]

Fuzz would go in the loop. Probably first or early in the chain. See the warehouse video for example with OD pedals including an Arbiter Fuzz Face: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3XSp4eDncmqg6ssi=7UN94laO62LBVz7B