Ibanez TK999HT Distortion

What are the effects, or types of effects available?
Disto - rock to metal. VOID and EQUAL built. hi and low fashion

What technology is used? (Analog, digital, tube ...)
Lamp

UTILIZATION

The general configuration is simple?
Yes. You turn the knobs and you do walk your ears

The manual is clear and sufficient? ...
Probably. Never used

SOUND QUALITY

The effects are they effective, responsive and realistic enough?
Yes

Which instruments do you use?
Gibson SG standardized - Amp / Marshall head

OVERALL OPINION

How long you use it?
9 months

What is so special that you love the most, least?
Plus: The versatility
The least: It is necessary to remove the Moitiers the pedal to change the lamp.

Did you tried many other models before buying it?
Yes Boss OS3 - The Zakk Wykde - Satchurator

How would you rate the quality / price?
A bit expensive but when you find your sound, the price is more important

With experience, you do again this choice? ...
YES


NOTE: To be honest, I left the Tubeking about 4 months in the closet and I've replaced the Satchurator I connaissai already because of the Tube sno king did not please me. I play black / black sabbath / pink / Creedance and the sound of the metal tube king sounds too. After reading on different forums, some spoke of changing the lamp by a 12AU7 12AX7 originie. So I bought a 12AU7 (a EI) and much revelation!! I satch not sell and I keep that which is the best netement. I can finally turn the Drive to more than 0.5 (which gave me a pap with 12AX7) and find a rock tone. Hard rock for her, I almost max and it's perfect. Short for Player Pop / Rock / Hard (soft ^ ^) made the change immediately!

Everything has already been said.

on the other hand should be open to study the electronic diagram and how the distortion is generated: does the pretty 12AX7 tube preamp serves only as a distortion diodes and transistors, or is it part and parcel of 'distort?

UTILIZATION

Simple and minimalist manual.

The TK999HT has a noise gate built that reacts when the palm of the hand block chords: use sparingly in my opinion, but it is useful when many effects pedals are the chain and generate a lot of parasites.

SOUND QUALITY

The TK999HT is scheduled to give a dimension "tube amp" to a transistor amp. I guess we can also be used, via a direct box, in a mixer.

Personally I use an amp on "all tubes", which has no saturation (or very little), a Hiwatt Custom 100. And then it becomes grandiose.

Settings "70" overdrive "or" 80 "metal" give me the impression of pushing a Marshall JCM thoroughly, and more ... Other proposed adjustments, the more metal-oriented contemporary, less to my taste, but provide great sound, both very warm and distorted, that is rich in harmonics and with a good performance at low frequencies.

In a little fiddling I found punk-rock oriented sound or HxC, very dynamic. Certainly a Hiwatt custom is a great amp, but with the TK999HT, I feel like a wall of amps at home.

OVERALL OPINION

Compare the animals to other pedals I know:
. Ibanez TS: nothing in the TS is an overdrive (with excellent tube saturation emulation). The TK999HT is a distortion with a very pronounced grain (the "clip"). The two effects are complementary.
. Boss Metal Zone: I regarded as my reference distortion. It's over. I still consider a good pedal, but it sounds "cold" compared to the TK999HT.
. EH Big Muff: nothing to see. The fuzz does not TK999HT little or pushing the gain up. The two effects are complementary.
. Black Star HT Dist X: effect very similar in design to the TK99HT. Very good pedal also more expensive. This gives sounds very similar on both. The Black Star seems to generate more noise and noise.


In my opinion, the Tube King pedal is an essential for anyone wishing to have a big sound, heavy rock to metal through punk, HxC. When one has tasted the distortion tube, transistor pedals sound good fade.

Excellent quality / price ratio in my opinion.

Tube Distortion
Gain and Volume
Bass treble EQ medium
A noise gate button (what a great idea!) I come back
A presence button (lo / hi) I come back
12V AC power supply (included)

The case is particularly heavy, metal, diamond-shaped (that is actually a square) and quite massive. Of course, on a pedal board it takes up space but for me it will replace three pedals, a distortion because I had to drive, one for solos and a noise gate.

I'm not 10 to form a bit tedious and the adjustment knobs with plastic contrast to the heavy piece of metal that is the case

UTILIZATION

It could not be simpler to use.
It adjusts the knobs as you want and it works.
The noise gate and it is well up until the noise disappears once the basic pedal activated.
Access is impeccable, again I do not 10 because the presence button is very small, it's a shame because I would have liked to switch from one to another easily.

SOUND QUALITY

A real killing. Distos all my electronics (I mean not to light) pales beside ... I have tried many, the Boss DS-2, the ProCo RAT 2, Boss Power Stack which are all good pedals, but do not offer the range offered by Ibanez

You can go to a good vintage rock to modern metal though. The EQ is very effective, what happiness!
We do make a good drive or a crunchy solo smooth, worry-free.

I love the presence button. I think they are very clever at Ibanez to call it "presence lo / hi." In fact in a position Lo, we have a vintage distortion, almost analog, root. Lo position, it was a more honest, more modern, but more metallic. It offers versatility sacred since the gain up to a hi-gain, but still pretty well defined (the default of some large pedals is that they go into a spin with lots of bees or boiled, if the remains clear).

Again I do not 9, but I'm hard, because of the noise gate. This is an absolutely brilliant idea to have it built into the pedal. It is very effective, ie it's not the food of the pedal (except extreme setting) we feel it is really for her. But ... I confirm others believe it sizzles when it is activated or deactivated. It is light, but we hear it. This happens especially if the level is really addressed to the limit (what we do in general) it is necessary to push a little more. What a shame.
But the good noise gate the job done as well as external pedal so ...

And then the rest of the must pair it with an overdrive (I have a Vox Big Ben, also lamp) is fantastic.

PS: can you play metal with it? If you play it, you may need a special pedal. If like me you play pop / rock varied enough that can go a bit from time to time on a small metal riff, it does so very well.

OVERALL OPINION

I have since yesterday, and I am absolutely delighted. I have not tried other tube distortion but competing (type hi-watt) seemed less versatile). In any case, significantly better than the distos transistor.
The market OCCAZ is good on this model, as not to miss.

The pros: the sound, versatility, the noise gate built, the presence button to switch between vintage) modern look super strong.

The -: the size, the small noise noise gate

The distortion is still an important element hyper on my pedal board and so far it surpasses them all. If I change one day it will be for an amp with a real distortion to € 3000, and it is not tomorrow the day before! (This will probably never be the same).

Distortion pedal for high gain, tube analog technology, input, output to the amplifier and entrance area. Setting the gain, output level, EQ (low, mid, high with two types of possible presence) and VOID (noise gate very radical).

UTILIZATION

It's very simple: I did not use the manual. Quickly found its desired, as long as this type of distortion you like Of course!
The black knobs do not exceed the horizontal plane of the pedal (you can see from the photo they are in a sort of cavity): this avoids to put the shots in, it's very well thought out. The two knobs are flat and gray solid so no worries either at this level. One branch is expected that the lamp heats a little, we made adjustments and go!

SOUND QUALITY

For me that's what I was looking for: a clean, distortion-rich harmonics that can adapt to many amps through all settings. There is something "creamy" really valuable for a distortion pedal!
I put 8 because the noise gate (VOID) has a defect: sometimes, when it sizzles off the sound ... provided that it is ultra violent. However it is a phenomenon that does not happen often in practice (this means especially in the studio) and depends on the type of riff you play ... But an agreement released, the very end is not clean because of the sizzle. Fortunately you can turn it off!

OVERALL OPINION

It's been a month and I really enjoy to combine it with the distortion already present on my VOX Valvetronix XL-30. The possibilities are enormous. I also tried this pedal on a Fender all-tube combo 50 watts, it was really good! Better than a Marshall 100 watt head any transistor in any case. I compared with the famous Metal Zone 2 and although the type of distortion is very different, the sound of the Tube King is really hotter and cleaner!
Currently it is for me the best pedal "big distortion", so yes I would do this election ...
EDIT 16/12/08: Be careful though marketing to the effect on the pedals tube. While the sound is a little less cold than a transistor distortion but it is still light years away from true all-tube amps like Mesa or ENGL!