Tonebone Hot British Review

JMguitars

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Here’s a review of a Tonebone Hot British pedal that I’ve been using for the last 2 months through my THD Flexi.

In case there's interest in the pedal, I bought this pedal from Adam Hung at Hung Brothers #03-83 at Sim Lim Square for SGD 460. Demos are allowed though you have to bring your own guitar.

Various US forums have active discussions regarding the preamp tube inbuilt within the TB pedal. For my part, I’d omit any comments on the extent the tube has to do with tone or if the feature is a just marketing gimmick. Personally, as long as the pedal sounds good, that’s all that matters.

I like my pedals simple and the TB is no different. To this effect, there are about 5 controls, Level, High, Low, Contour, Gain and another 3 EQ features. The controls are very interactive and I managed to get JTM tones all the way to 80’s style JCM stuff.

Straight out from the box, the pedal sounds “Marshal-ly” irregardless of the knob position. I like that it sounds fairly similar to my Guvnor 2 pedal except that unlike the Guvnor, with a bit of playing around, I could dial out the woofiness/mid-range from the pedal.

To summarise, the TB Hot British’s flexibility allows users to dial in varying degree of Marshall tones from JCMs to Superleads to JTM approximations. The pedal works well irregardless if I am playing it using a clean amp or if its switched on to boost an already driven amp. It’ll be on my pedalboard for awhile as I always need a Marshall tone once in a while.

The controls are very interactive as the and there is more than one way to get a similar tone. Getting a specific sound however requires some time as you will to tweak and try out various control combinations. Gain is more than sufficient for classic rock to heavy metal. What essentially holds it back from doing all-out speed/death metal is moreso the basic EQ parameters of the pedal.

Distorted tones are warm sounding and can be tweaked to sound spongey, scooped or mid-rangy depending on your preference. Unlike the TB Classic, the TB Hot British is built to be played with your volume knob turned all the way up.

It should be mentioned though that whilst the pedal manages to reflect the nuances in one’s playing, as the gain is increased, the tone becomes more compressed sounding. Nevertheless, I have found that I could still differentiate the individual tones of different Strats and different pickup settings.

Just a short word on hardware, the pedal is small enough not to occupy too much real estate on a pedalboard. I like the knobs. The knobs feel sturdy enough to be kicked around. …. not that I’d advocate doing so since there is a tube within the casing.

To conclude, I’ll be leaving the TB on my pedalboard since I’m always a sucker for Marshall tones. Other than requiring a separate 15v adaptor, I don’t forsee any other special requirements although I’m inquisitive to see how soon the next preamp tube change needs to be made.

Mark
J&M Guitars
 
Lifehouse said:
Good review! Thanks, though $460 is alittle pricey. What's your test gear like? :D

Lifehouse,

I tested the TB with 3 guitars; a PRS, a Strat and a Tele.

The amp I used was a THD Flexi 50 set on either clean or semi dirty.

As a comparison, I did try the TB opposite a Boss SD1 and OD3 and a Time Machine Boost set on treble boost.

With the tests done, I've taken the Boss pedals out of my pedal board and just left the TB and the TMB as they complement each other quite well.
 
Heya Mark,

i've been interested in getting one of those for myself as well... but i was wondering if they could be powered with one of the multi pedal power sources like the One spot or the DC-brick. But i suppose the 15v requirement makes it incompatible with most standard power sources. just hate having an extra wall wart...
 
Lifehouse said:
Good review! Thanks, though $460 is alittle pricey. What's your test gear like? :D

Well...you can get the pedal from www.mrmisse.com for $420.

I got a TB classic from him and never regretted it man! Worth every coin that i invested in. I've own a DS1, RAT2 and GT2 and played a keeley modded DS1, maxon OD9 and nothing comes close to the smoothness and richness of the TB.

Was deciding on either the HotBritish or the Classic then. But turned to the classic for its flexiblity. The Hotbritish can only create Marshall sounds very well and the Classic is alittle bit more flexible. But the classic though can't get the hotbritish sounds and vice versa. Smart move from Radial. haha..
 
tonbone

Hi Mark, just ordered one thru Amazon. I trust your taste and knowledge. I heard the clips on the website. Oh Gosh, it has a couple of great tones that i craved. I love the smooth Santana lead with that fat sustain. One question though, does the package comes with a adapter. Damn if it doesn;t.....
The evidence audio cables i got from you are doing well, but i still crave for the Zaolla cables. Let me know on getting one asap.
I will only see the Tonebone in 2 weeks so i will put up a small reviews onc i am through with the settings....
 
PinkSpId3r said:
is the hotbritish or classic more versatile den gt-2?

GT2 is more versatile. But the tone of GT2 is not as smooth as the tonebones. And sometimes, the GT2 is just too harsh for my liking.

But for its versatility, the GT2 can't save your settings, so you'll have to keep tweaking if you need different tones. Tried the Tri-AC, but it simply doesn't match the GT2 for tone.
 
pickg said:
Heya Mark,

i've been interested in getting one of those for myself as well... but i was wondering if they could be powered with one of the multi pedal power sources like the One spot or the DC-brick. But i suppose the 15v requirement makes it incompatible with most standard power sources. just hate having an extra wall wart...

Yup, its a slight problem. You would need a dedicated 15v adaptor.

Given that I also have the Tonebone AX2 (ABY pedal) I am using one 15v supply to power both.
 
Re: tonbone

troubledyouth said:
Hi Mark, just ordered one thru Amazon. I trust your taste and knowledge. I heard the clips on the website. Oh Gosh, it has a couple of great tones that i craved. I love the smooth Santana lead with that fat sustain. One question though, does the package comes with a adapter. Damn if it doesn;t.....
The evidence audio cables i got from you are doing well, but i still crave for the Zaolla cables. Let me know on getting one asap.
I will only see the Tonebone in 2 weeks so i will put up a small reviews onc i am through with the settings....

Great to hear you trying out the Tonebone. The one I purchased from Hung Brothers included the 15v adaptor.

As for the Zaolla cables, I'm waiting for their reply ... its been slow in coming during this festive season.
 
PinkSpId3r said:
ooh..so the gt-2 is actually more value for money? hee

It depends on your own guage of a good tone. Frankly i was very reluctant to sell my GT2 for the tonebone. But after experimenting more with the TB, i realised that its much warmer and responsive to my playing.

Not that I'm playing down the GT2, but you get what you paid for. The TB is much better overall coz you won't be using all the sounds you can get from a GT2, but not with the TB unless you're into heavy metal.
 
Woah..... good shite

Wow.... just got my tonebone hot british today... and couldnt put it down..... very convincing tube distortion. What power source do you use to power it Mark? Mine came with a 110v input but im in NA so that works, did you get another adaptor for the tonebones that is suited to the SG voltage?
 
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