Crazy Tube Circuits Venus

I found 100% more tube feel, dynamics, articulations and sound with a Digitech 2112 SGS , that has two 12ax7 tubes going out the balanced left / right outputs, going into two VHT Valvulator 1's ( one 12ax7 tube each ) that has a buffer and finally into two Crate Power Blocks.


I dropped in some gold pin 12ax7 tubes in my 2112 SGS and Valvulator 1's.
The 2112's gain knob allows me to add more gain from Fender cleans, boomy Vox breakup, Marshall, Mesa Boogie to beyond rectified, since the gain knob goes from 0 to 100.

Some guitar player in our audience thought I was using a Kemper, but he was blow away that I was using an old Digitech rack unit.

The way the two 12ax7 tubes, in the 2112 cascades into my two VHT Valvulator 1's is super dynamic.

Tubes are more natural feeling than modeller's IR, but the technology is getting better.
 
I’m seriously considering selling some of my pedals to get this. Good thing getting these shipped to India is a but of a PITA otherwise I would have bought one immediately.
I’ve always wanted a Tube Driver but the large enclosure and power supply/cable was always a turnoff. This solves all of those issues for me.
 
I don't get the appeal of the original, or this one. I've tried the original once years ago, tried various modeled versions of it...they all have this fuzzy edge to them that I find really unappealing, and a low end that seems to kinda cave into itself. It's almost like a tube-powered fuzz pedal in a bad way to me.

There used to be a lot more starved plate 12AX7 tube pedals, mic pres and whatnot and I can't think of ever hearing a good one.

It's definitely a sound I just don't want. If others make it work, more power to them.
 
I'm a sucker for tube drive pedals. This has some nice qualities to it, definitely different on a bunch of levels. I've been playing BK's going on for almost 30 yrs (geez) at this point, started off with the 3 knob version and gravitated to the 4 knob ones. The eq controls are very dynamic in regards to volume/gain and frequency shifts. The gain structure in the CTC sounds a slightly bit different imo, can't put my finger on it though.
I'd be curious to try one though.
 
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