Effectrode's TD-2A "Tube Drive" contains Three 12AX7 dual triode tubes operating at 300VDC and biased to produce extremely symmetrical signal clipping across 6 cascaded gain stages. In practice this means the pedal responds empathically to pick attack with a smooth and graceful breakup characteristic on low drive settings, producing an expressive warm blues tone.
Increasing the drive introduces rich and musical harmonic overtones that pack serious punch for a larger-than-life, “hot-rodded” amp tone. The tone quality of the Tube Drive is exceptionally musical, organic and sounds distinctly different to pushing an amp with a solid-state diode clipping or even hybrid opamp/tube overdrive pedal and it won’t mask the natural sound of your guitar and amplifier.
The last of the TD-1A Tube Drive Pedals now lives in David Gilmore's studio. The current model "TD-2A'' features all of the modifications prescribed by Phil Taylor, David Gilmore's guitar technician.
The TD-2A Tube Drive features three 12AX7 preamp tubes operating at 300VDC. That equals SIX cascaded gain stages for ultimate responsiveness to pick attack.
Tone: The tone knob is an active "Baxandall'' stack circuit. Although it can boost or drop frequencies at 1-2 KHZ at noon it has no bearing on the original signal.
Drive affects clipping across the entire tube cascade.
Volume affects the overall output level.
Mellow/Bright adds treble to the signal before the tube clipping circuitry
Active Bass Boost increases the bottom end frequency
Footswitch: silent true bypass switching
5751 Version - installed in the V2 (middle position), the 5751 gives a more full bodied, richer, rounder tone with a wider sweet spot at lower gain settings for more bluesy and milder overdriven sounds, whilst still having a good range of overdrive sounds.
