A good tube amp is hard to beat, but what if you could harness that sound and put it right into an effect-sized enclosure, complete with actual tubes? That’s what happened with today’s pedal, the Electron Brothers Brass Knuckle High-Voltage All-Tube Overdrive. This big yellow beast uses an all-tube signal path to create the harmonically rich overdrive tones only tubes can…let’s dive right in!
Although based on the much-revered British amps from the late 60s to early 80s, the circuit has been modified to create everything from classic-styled crunch to searing saturated lead tones, all dripping with pleasing harmonics. This pedal does not “clean up” in the traditional sense, rather it is “driven” from the get go and responds beautifully to the player’s touch on low to mid gain settings whilst retaining harmonic content. You could say it’s always just a little angry, but can be tamed by anyone willing to explore different guitar volume settings. Of course, it’s always ready to explode back to life as soon as pick attack and/or guitar volume is increased.
An internal voltage multiplier provides 290 VDC allowing the tubes to be biased as they would in a typical guitar preamp section. In fact, apart from special circuit design aimed at making the output suitable for pedal boards, that’s precisely what the Brass Knuckle is – an all-tube preamp. Being a real tube amp front end, it loves being slammed by your favourite boost or drive pedal! It’s friendly to others, though, with an output section designed to work well with most pedals. The Brass Knuckle makes a great addition to any ampless rig as well, so there’s no need to sacrifice any of that wonderful tube amp feel just because you’re going direct.
As you’ll hear in our demo below, the sounds you can create with the Brass Knuckle High-Voltage All-Tube Overdrive are BIG. Driving any tube OR solid state amp into sweet, sweet sonic bliss, this pedal brings the real deal tones right to the forefront of any rig. Big props to the Electron Brothers crew on getting all this tone into a still-pedalboard-friendly enclosure, and for making it sound as amazing as it does. Be sure to check out their website for more info and ordering – we can’t wait to see what this company comes up with next!!
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