drake_foster's Reviews

Best 6V6 tubes out there, period.

They are Russian equivalents of 6V6GT. Do note that the 6P6S tubes were made by two different factories. One was the Reflector factory located at Saratov, other is the old Svetlana or the SED Winged "C" factory located at St. Petersburg. The one made in the old Svetlana factory with the Winged "C" logo are the best.

Here's a thing about them, I buy them in pairs or quads. They cost me around $8 to $10 per tube but when it comes to reliability and longevity they curb-stomp those overpriced New Sensor and JJ 6V6 tubes that are sold in the market. In terms of quality they are up there with some of the best NOS 6V6 tubes. Just remember to go for the ones with the SED Winged "C" logo.

Decent quality low priced 12AX7 tubes.

My VHT Special 6 Ultra uses these tubes. A pair of these tubes does cost more than a quad of 6N2P-EV tubes that I use in my RedBear Mk120 amp, but they are still pretty low priced by 12AX7 standards. They are quite reliable too.

An underrated gem of an amp.

Grabbed it used for $240, and to be honest I grabbed one hell of a deal. For a little amp it packs quite a wallop. My amp is bone stock and I don't think it requires any mods. The stock speaker which they call Chromeback sounds great, I don't feel any need to replace it. It even has a tube driven effects loop. It works great for practicing indoors, as well as for recording stuffs. If that ain't enough, the little guy is handwired, so longevity and reliability ain't gonna be a problem with this amp.

High quality Boss FZ-2 clone.

This pedal made by FTelettronica is a high quality but reasonably priced clone of the Boss FZ-2. There's nothing new about this pedal, it sounds indistinguishable from a genuine Boss FZ-2. However, it costs a lot lesser than those used Boss FZ-2 pedals. The cost of an original Boss FZ-2 pedal is utter bonkers these days. Make no mistake, it ain't some cheap Boss FZ-2 knock-off, the build quality of these pedals is excellent.

Cheap and rugged power amp tubes.

They were the stock power-amp tubes in my RedBear Mk 120, and I just stick to them. They cost low and if you buy them from a good seller they last really long. Even the best ones made in the old Foton factory are quite reasonably priced.

I use the ones made in the Foton factory. A quad of Foton 6P3S-E costs just $6 to $10 more than the Sovtek 5881 but in terms of longevity and reliability they blow the Sovtek 5881 into weeds. My Sovtek 5881 tubes went poof in just 5 years, on the other hand my Foton 6P3S-E tubes are now 8 years old and still going strong, that too in an amp that is used for doom metal where the power amp overdrive is everything.

Cheap, and durable.

If y'all think that the 12AX7 tubes made by JJ Electronics are cheap, well I got a news for y'all folks. A major reason why I never modified my RedBear Mk120 to work with 12AX7 tubes is the the price of these 6N2P-EV tubes.

I buy two quads (Matched trio of 6N2P-EV specially selected for low noise, and high gain + One specially selected low noise, and high gain 6N2P-EV with balanced triodes for the P.I.) for just $71.

That's approximately $9 per tube, and that ain't some randomly selected bunch of tubes, each of those tubes are specially selected for low noise and high gain. In terms of longevity and reliability they leave currently produced tubes in dust. So as long these 6N2P-EV tubes exist in the market I ain't rewiring my RedBear Mk120 for 12AX7 tubes.

One of the best low priced alternative to Royer R121.

It sounds almost indistinguishable from the Royer R121. The only difference between them is that the high end on the RM BIV-1 is a bit more relaxed and warm. In a mix the difference ain't that huge.

Serious bang for the buck microphone.

It's a pity that Samson discontinued this microphone, because it was one hell of a microphone for $40. Although it does come with two replaceable capsules I mostly use the CS2 instrument capsule (because I play guitar, duh!). It blows the Shure SM57 out of water. The biggest difference between them is the mid-range clarity, this microphone has a far cleaner mid-range response than the SM57. Unlike the Shure SM57 it doesn't have harshness in the presence spectrum. The overall sound of this microphone is a lot cleaner and linear than SM57 due to which it's able to capture details better than the SM57. If that ain't enough another surprising trait of these microphones is their build quality, they are heavily built and can take on the rigors of live tours with utmost ease. Samson shouldn't have discontinued them.

One of the best speaker ever made by Eminence.

Usually I ain't fond of the Celestion clones made by Eminence. They usually don't sound as good as their Celestion counterparts, but this speaker is an exception. It has the best aspects of G12M25 Greenback, and G12M65 Creamback. It has the sweet woody mid-range of the G12M25 Greenback, but at the same time it has the higher power handling and strong lows of the G12M65 Creamback.

Can't go wrong with the small stone.

The small stone was a pretty well known phaser, and this nano variant doesn't disappoint either. It has a nice warmth to its phasing sound that's often missing on other 4-stage phaser pedals like the MXR Phase 90, and the Maxon PT-999. Of course there are phasers out there with more bells and whistles, but I prefer the simplicity of a one knob phaser.

Unbelievable value for money.

These XFX Boutique pedals are handmade by a bloke from Malaysia. It cost me around $70 including the shipping and taxes and to be honest it's impossible to beat at that price range. There's no PT2399 trickery in this pedal, it's a real bucket brigade based delay, and it has a delay range from 10 ms to 580 ms. The compander circuit used in this pedal is actually a lot cleaner than the EHX Memory Toy, and MXR Carbon Copy.

Here's a thing about analog delays. It's easy to make a dirty sounding bucket brigade delay, just build a bucket brigade delay with a poor quality compander and voila you have a dirty sounding analog delay that rolls off your highs and makes the clock noise bleed into your signal. On the other hand it's actually quite tough to make clean sounding analog delays like this one, and the EHX Memory Man.

An extremely underappreciated guitar.

The Revstar has always been my go-to guitar. It plays great, feels good in the hand. Its build quality, and sounds is good as pricey Gibson guitars. The stock pickups on this guitar sound damn good, I've never felt the need to replace them. Yamaha needs to market this guitar better, it has a lot of potential to be the top selling guitar in the market, but it all goes to waste due to poor marketing strategy of Yamaha.

Best clone of the Pearl Octaver.

It's an accurate clone of the Pearl Octaver OC-7 made by Krister Östman from Zeta Sound. It's the priciest pedal on my pedalboard, but then again I always wanted a Pearl Octaver and it still costs lesser than the used ones. For those who don't know about the Pearl Octaver, it was an analog octave pedal from the 80s that lets the player combine the dry signal of the guitar with one signal that's one octave higher, another that's one octave lower, and a third one that's two octave lower. This pedal does all that without relying on any digital doohickey. Put it before an amp boosted by a tube screamer and you'll be in doom metal heaven.

One of the best TS808 clones out there.

It's an excellent handmade TS808 clone that costs even lesser than the TS9.

Almost as good as the Sonic Research Turbo Tuner Pedals.

These pedals are made in Japan, their manufacturer JHT Sound Works ain't that well known. I ain't sure who copied from whom but their working system is same as the Sonic Research Inc Turbo Tuner. Just like the Turbo Tuner these pedals too use an electronic LED array based stroboscope that's directly driven by the guitar signal, thus their signal tracking speed is extremely fast.

Just like the Turbo Tuner the electronic stroboscope on these pedals tracks the signal in real-time with zero latency. Even their tuning accuracy is +/- 0.02 cents which is same as the Turbo Tuner. The only thing they lack when compared to the Turbo Tuner is that their reference pitch adjustment range is limited to just 420.0 Hz to 459.9 Hz. The reference pitch adjustment range of Turbo Tuner pedals is huge, it goes from 300.0 Hz to 599.9 Hz. However for just $60 these tuner pedals blow away many pricier tuner pedals into weed.

Great quality wah.

It's was my first wah and it's still going strong. The depth knob offers a lot of tonal flexibility, and the wah itself is darn easy to control.

Good cab with crappy speakers.

I bought this cab used for just $250. The quality of this cab is good, but the rat tolex on mine does smell funny. The stock Celestion G12L-35 speakers were utter crap, so I swapped them with a quad of Eminence GB128 speakers.

Cheapest tube amp in terms of initial as well as maintenance cost.

Back when I bought it used it cost me mere $200, but that ain't the only thing cheap about this bad boy. Even its 6N2P-EV, and Sovtek 5881/6L6WGC tubes cost dirt cheap. The amp is in damn fine condition but the rat tolex kinda stinks. As for the wiring, that's the most surprising part about this amp, it's handwired. I never expected such a cheap ratty looking amp to be handwired. As for its sound, it sounds very similar to a JCM800. It has a bit more gain but other than that it sounds more or less same as a JCM800.