Tubesteader's 4th Tube-Powered Gain Pedal is its first Compact - the rather smart Eggnog Tweed-voiced Overdrive / Preamp

I’ve long considered getting in one of these Tube-Powered overdrive / preamps - I’ve had a few Kingsley Amplifiers Pedals for instance on my wishlist over the years, and I’m well aware of all-tube brands like Effectrode - whose pedals sound amazing but are just too large for my preferences and not at all pedalboard friendly. With the current status being that I don’t have any kind of tube-powered pedal in the collection yet. I’m partly conflicted for Eco / Sustainability reasons too - as Tube pedals need so much energy to operate - typically special power requirements also - and most of that gets lost through excess heat - so not particularly eco-friendly - and particularly in an energy crisis!

The most likeliest candidate to be added for a wwhile was Tubsteader’s 3rd pedal - the Orange Amps style Sunkeeper Preamp - which I really love the sound of. I was on the cusp of pulling the trigger on that one - on at least a couple of well-considered occasions - but something held me back. Tubesteader’s first 3 pedals were all slightly over-sized as regards my preferences - or circa 20% larger than a typical 1590-BB size enclosure. They each require 500mA at 12V to power their 2 x 12AX7 Tubes - where the internal voltage gets charged up to a massive 260 Volts or thereabouts - from the 12V input.

The new Eggnog is incredible in that it’s a proper compact pedal size format yet still full-featured - roughly 125B in format - and only requires a single 12AX7 Tube - so the power requirement shrinks to a more manageable 300mA at 12V - again with internal voltage pumped up high - to around 250V this time.

Mr Tubesteader himself Olly Balan - has figured out how to in effect replace his typical 2nd Tube with a potent MOSFET gain stage - where the MOSFET + 1 x 12AX7 can produce a similar degree of breakup texture and dynamics as the 2 x 12AX7 of the previous trio - or at least that’s my take on it! Strymon obviously use a JFET input stage on all their more recent pedals - specifically to generate more liveliness and feel, and deliver some preamp warmth and touch-sensitivity to the signal.

Discrete transistors have frequently been used to replicate tube-amp style topologies - to varying degrees of success. While with One Tube and One MOSFET you kind of get the best of both worlds and a much neater form factor with a lower and less complicated power requirement.

Controls - Master Volume (Gain), Boost, Volume, Bass, Mid, Treble, Boost Footswitch, Bypass Footswitch.

So what we have in the Eggnog is one of the most lively and dynamic Tweed Amp style pedals I’ve come across. My friend Joe Perkins really rates this pedal as you can witness in his below demos. 

This just seems to be the perfect format to replicate the Tweed Amp tone as authentically and as practically as possible. You then have 3-Band EQ to eke every ounce of tone out of the circuit, and a further Boost Footswitch - which supposedly is not a separate circuit - but simply sends more juice into the MOSFET stage.

I’m properly onboard for this one - it will definitely be my first Tubeteader pedal - albeit I’m not 100% sure of my own timings / schedule as I’m overcommitted already for February - where I often have the full schedule for the month set out in just the first week!

The Eggnog Tweed-Voiced Overdrive goes on sale for $249 on the 15th of February - courtesy of the Tubesteader Webstore.

There’s just a couple of demos made thus far - and they’re both great - made by Joe Perkins of course!

I’m long since convinced and won over - and I think this is going to be a really big-seller for Olly! So expect to see these out of stock a lot. I’m hoping he makes more in this handy format!