JMguitars
New member
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
