Crazy Tube Circuits Space Charged

upon looking around the Internet recently I stumbled upon a company called crazy tube circuits, and unsurprsingly they have a real tube overdrive. the demos make itsound insanely good which makes me really keen to buy , however I feel there must besome draw backs to tube pedals like do they warm up, should you replace your tube, and do youneed to bereally careful transporting it? any help is appreciated, particularly ifyou have an opunion onthe Pedal (I've not really ever heard an overdrive quite like it)

thankks

those guys make great stuff, all of it soudns great and is built well... its pricey though

heat... unless the tubes are run at high voltage like in an amp most tube pedals run in what is called 'starved plate' configuration, and the tube doesn't really do mroe than color the sound since its not able to do much amplifying on less than 200 volts.... even witha charge pump this tube's anode is seeing like 18 volts, which is not within tis normal operating range. Yes tthis tube will generate a little heat from the filaments, tis how they work, but without serious votlage swing that heat's not going to build up. It won't even get as hot as a lightbulb.

I would guess this circuit is very tube-driver-ish. If you like that sort of thing you'll probably like this. Pretty much all starved palte with solid state op amp designs have similar characteristics.

thanks! would i have to worry about not dropping my board or bumping it into anything or would the tube be fine?

depends how well mounted the tube socket is, but assuming you don't whack the pedal directly I would think it'll be fine unless the tube came from teh factory with a very poor vacuum

edit: which is possible if its a new sensor 12ay7 if crazy tube circuits doesn't buy from a company that tests and burns them in or test and burn in themselves in house.... I never say never, but odds are you won't have any issues even if yougive the pedal a love tap with hammer every couple weeks for shits and giggles. If the tube craps out on you just go buy a better quality tube. JJs might not be the most exciting sounding tubes on the planet but their failure rate is really low and they take a lot of abuse. And in a starved plate circuit? A vintage 12ay7 (if you could find one) would be a real waste.

I want it on record that (apart from some old ei tubes from Yugoslavia that had a 1 in 2 failure rate but sounded righteous when they worked at all) I've never had a preamp tube fail in my whole tube amp life.... not even when amps have been dropped. They wear out after a few years hard use at high voltage, but they don't tend to stop working entirely, just loose tone and gain. I've heard tales of tired preamp tubes freaking the fuck out but I;ve never seen it in all my years of tube amp use, abuse, restoration and repair. Generally if something goes insanely wrong with a preamp tube like this the socket or supporting componentry is to blame. Even that's pretty unusual

greatgreat thanksfor that!

most tube nightmare stories have to do with arcing pentode power tubes (its not good to push certain pwoer tubes past the point of weak tone, they short and sparks might shoot out and if your fuse doesn't blow fast enough? VERY BAD THINGS)... most other tube amp nihtmare stories have to do with old or udnerspec supporting components dying or drifting into a value that's unsafe for such high voltages and KABLOOEY! the tubes are not usually to blame. its either the owner's negligence or the manufacturer's cheapness or just plain old age. A well serviced tube amp thatw as designed to last is actually extremely reliable. The idea that tube amps are unreliable is utter amdness. I've seen more solid state amps have unexplainable catastrophic failures over the years. You don't even wanna know how many SWR heads I've seen emlt down due to under-designed power supply circuitry. You wills eldom run into soemthing like that even in a budget tube amp. The voltages are so high that you can't cheap out very much and have the thing work right in the first place.

My main concern for you is that you'll spend a bunch of money you can't afford and you won't actually like the tone from this thing. Starved plate tube ODs are a very specific thing. The tubes aren't really amplifying, a dual opamp is, like in any OD/dist pedal... the tubes more take the place of the clipping diodes.

https://www.jj-electronic.com/en/12ay7

take a look at the data sheet for a typical current production 12ay7. Notice the bottom anode curve for 50 cruddy volts? You're getting maybe 18v if there's a charge pump. The tube ca safely operate on any plate voltage below 300, but its way outside of design spec like this and isn't performing as an amplifier anymore. If you look at 'typical characeristics on the top sheet you'll see how a dual triode of this type is actually designed to operate. Those are optimal, 'hifi' conditions and one might tweak the palte or cathode values a bit to create more gain or earlier internal distortion on one side of the waveform or the other for guitar use, but trying to run the tube like a low voltage device causes it to cease to act like a tube... It'll do something, and it might even amplify a smidgen, but mainly its just a complex clipper. Its my opinion that the whole thing is a giant gimmick and that similar results can be achieved in ltos of more cost effective ways.

right yea, it'shard to get lots ofpedals here in nz so I doubt I would be able to try it maybe I'll ask at my local stores and seeif they have any tube drives

I would try any 'tube' drives that run on 18v or less. it'll give you an idea what you're in for dynamics wise

that's the Ibanez tube king, butler tube driver, any tube works pedals from the 90s, the vox cooltron pedals... I feel like the Radial Tonebone tube pedals are also starved plate designs that run on like 22v or something? but I'm not sure off the top of my head. There are also a lot f cheap mic preamps that use a triode or two in starved plate to add some grit and squash to a basic servo type mic pre.