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JACQUES TUBE BLOWER
I have been trying to crack the coveted
secret of perfect overdrive for years now, collecting every pedal
bearing the magic name and its sister. Lots of these pedals have real
qualities but it is obvious that the best remains at this day the
vintage Ibanez TS-808. One of my good music friend finds a fourth
TS-808 for my collection. I nicknamed this pedal WEST. The moment I
unpacked WEST, its sheer perfection striked my collector senses: this
lady had everything. The right paint chips at the right places, the
right wear of soulful gigs and, most of all, the righteous tone.
While there is no such thing as a schrink of frequency range
when you push up a vintage JTM45 or a Tweed Deluxe, most overdrive
pedals have nothing more to offer than a nice midrangey distortion tone
for a raging tube amp impersonization. If you except the legendary
TS-808 of course, which , preserving full frequency range while miming
maxed tube amp reactions, has become the most valuable overdrive ever.
Auditioning WEST with other overdrive contenders was just getting a new
pair of ears, making once again this particular pedal champ of the
champs.
Putting together all the numerous emails I have received these
last 3 years about overdrives, here is the top ten wish list I have put
up:
1. More gain
2. Morphing continuously from clean to more gain
3. Bass boost-which occurs naturally on pushing Marshall amps
4. Treble boost-which occurs naturally when pushing black face Fender amps
5. Normal price
6. Complete library of settings
7. A full single coil AND humbuckers compatibility
8. Respect of the amp you plug in
9. Respect of the guitar and of the dynamics of your playing
10. and last but not least: a classic, serious, heavy look
I guess you know by now what I did. The whole TUBEBLOWER project was to
get these ten points WITH THE TONE OF THE WEST TS-808. Here is for
example the range of the TUBEBLOWER's DRIVE pot which was the real
challenge. This nice picture shows us that thet TUBEBLOWER can go much
CLEANER and distort much more than TS-808. The Jacues Tube Blower provides all the features of the original TS, and more! Does this sound too good to
be true to your ears? I have evidence to prove it.
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