Duncan MacKinnon, founder of Stompnorth Pedals, knows a thing or two about valves in guitar pedals. Below, he dives into how they work and why we love them...

My introduction to building guitar pedals was a Build Your Own Clone – ESV Fuzz. The ESV stood for Extra Special Vintage on account of its Phillips Ac127/01 germanium transistors. Its sound is amazing and is indeed as old school as its name suggests, but I wanted to take "vintage" even further, so I started looking for valve kits and soon found a booster that used a single 12ax7 valve.

I loved the way it sounded and the response it gave, so I knew that valves were the way I wanted to go with my own projects. As a synth player first and foremost, I was used to manipulating waveforms and textures, but even from this hi-tech perspective I still found vintage hollow-state circuitry [i.e valves] offered more pleasing sounds and possibilities than the more modern solid-state, transistor and op-amp driven circuits - which, of course, are also tremendous.

The sensitivity and flexibility of a valve is, in my opinion, unrivalled in guitar pedal building where subtlety, response, transparency and sound quality (not necessarily fidelity) are the aim. A valve in low voltage "starved plate" mode offers a certain type of response and transparency which is different to the more full-on high voltage valve circuits. You can max-out a 12au7 pedal and still know which guitar you are playing. I also think they have a really pleasing and unique sound all of their own. This is the reason I designed one of my own pedals around a 12au7 running 9 volts.

STOMPNORTH Clipshear Getter Drive

£199.00

Default Title - £199.00

Bringing Valve Power to Your Pedalboard!

Stompnorth's flagship pedal combines MOSFET transistor, valve, and silicon and germanium diodes to achieve a multitude of low to mid-gain tones.

Stompnorth founder Duncan MacKinnon designed the Clipshear Getter Drive to be an integral part of your rig, an "always on" pedal that enhances your core tone. It provides up to 21dB of boost that can push the input of your valve amp, with an addictive and characterful analogue character courtesy of the MOSFET.

Controls

The Gain control adjusts the amount of gain the MOSFET produces, which is then fed into the pre-amplification circuit of the valve. You can achieve deliciously organic overdrive - MOSFETs are known for their amp-like qualities - in combination with the Volume control.

The Valve control adds gain to the valve signal path, which produces an amazingly responsive and warm character ranging from subtle boost to sweet overdrive and flat-out saturation. Used in tandem with the Gain control, you can achieve tons of sustain and a thick overdrive sound.

The Si/Ge/Off toggle switch gives you two different flavours of diode clipping. The Silicon setting adds an aggressive, precise punch with plenty of sizzle, while the Germanium diode is quieter, much more spongy, and can achieve tons of saturation.

There's enough headroom in the Clipshear Getter Drive to experiment with rolling back your guitar's volume to further expand the range of available textures.

The Stompnorth Clipshear Getter Drive is handmade in Scotland from the highest quality components. It's the perfect pedal if you're after superb translation of your core tone for low to mid-gain purposes.

Features:

• Valve drive with silicon and germanium diode clipping
• Up to 21dB of gain
  
• Highest quality components, including Jupiter capacitor
• Gain, Volume, Valve, Si/Ge/Off controls
• Handmade in Scotland
• Power: 9V power adaptor (min 100mA), centre-negative (not included)

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How a Valve Works

A valve can be thought of as a glass tube, with an anode (plate) at the top, and a cathode at the bottom. Electricity in a valve flows in the opposite direction to the accepted norm of positive to negative, and it does so in a wash of electrons called space charge; this is the bit I love the most! When you turn a valve on, the cathode has to warm up, and then space charge is produced. This flows from the cathode to the plate through a vacuum. Not carried by radio, or wire of any kind, but literally floating through space, a tiny bit of outer space, (with flying saucers and ray guns), right there in your pedal.

Your guitar signal enters through another internal component, the grid, which sits in between the plate and cathode. When a signal with positive potential enters the grid it gets caught up in, amplified by, and carried in the flow of space charge all the way to the plate, then on into your amplifier in an awesome shower of tone-bearing electrons.

Another fascinating thing about valves is their sheer theatre. They are huge in comparison to other components - you can see the internal workings through the glass. Also, each one is slightly different inside. The getter flash (silver cap) is another brilliant factor of valves. The science is fascinating and they look great, but this subject is best saved for another occasion.

Read: What Is A True Bypass Pedal?

Un-Reinventable

In short, I think valves are magnificent, eloquent, and beautiful pieces of engineering that have un-reinventable qualities, which I think is why they are still so commonplace in guitar gear (and high end audio gear) today. They were not replaced by the transistor as we were told they would be - valves are here to stay.