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Tonebone Classic/Tonebone Hot British Tube Distortion

Radial Engineering serves up the tones utilizing a real live 12AX7 on the inside to roast your signal into sonic flavors covering both sides of the pond with their Classic and Hot British Tube Distortion pedals.
Built like a brick you-know-what, the pair of Canadian-made kick-ass pedals light up the bottle with a 15-volt (DC) wall wart. Not enough juice to stir up the real goods? Read on faithful followers of the filament.
Both boxes share similar family traits in the layout department and their easy-to-read graphics, switches and tactile rubber type knobs make changing tones a snap. Changing the tube, however, is another story. Get out the tool kits, folks, as this operation basically involves disassembling the unit to get to the PC board-mounted socket. Definitely not a between tunes fix, but hopefully something that only needs to be addressed on a rare occasion.
The Tonebone Classic bases itself on good ‘ol USA tweed era heritage with a copious amount of versatility in the tone and gain departments to boot. While the Top End switch alters the high content offering a Bright, Flat and Dark position, the Mid Boost switch centers itself around a musical 360Hz, so even if you park in the maximum 12dB boost spot, you’ll get more meat and cutting power without that boxy, mid-range crap.
The High and Low controls take the reigns after the distortion is set, providing a way to shape the overall tone on its way out the door. There’s even a Filter control which gently rolls off upper frequencies and, to these ears, also seems to help keep the pedal’s fidelity in balance with that of the amp engaged in.
The Drive Gain switch offers three levels (low, med, high) of juice with which to goose your signal. This, in conjunction with the Drive dial, conjures up everything from low-gain crunch to a blackface Twin on steroids.
For the test drive, I opted for my trusty ‘73 Strat and a few humbucker-equipped axes. Amps included a blackface Princeton Reverb, Peavey Classic 30 and a variety of heads on my mondo sounding one twelve Theile-designed Boogie cab.
Overall, with every combination in the line of duty, the Tonebone Classic proved itself to be extremely musical and - it breathes! Single notes have a luscious space about them while even low-end chords retain their definition and string-to-string character. Through low-gain chewy tones to having both the Drive Gain and Drive controls dimed, this little black and blue box wreaks amazingly articulate and organic sounding overdrive and distortion characterized by a well-defined attack and incredibly pleasing harmonic content and dimensionality. The bottom end remains tight, focused and punchy at any level of signal aberration. Dynamics reign supreme as well - lighten up on the guitar’s volume and the Classic cleans up while, conversely, laying into a solo coaxes the unit to bark back with every twist and turn.
The clear and concise little manual offers a handful of very useful sample settings with details on the specific guitars and pickup settings used. Blank charts are also included for charting your own home-brewed tones.
While the language might be the same, the Hot British Distortion speaks with a decidedly English accent.
And although the tone controls are centered around the same frequencies as its American cousin and both share the same Mid Boost and Top End switches, it’s the tube sizzle factor and more midrange manipulation that gives this mate the ability to nail everything from Plexi Marshall madness to seventies Hi-Watt tones and then some.
Hey, ya think the tube inside this one says... ECC83?
Unique to this Brit, the Voicing switch allows you to take out a big scoop worth of mids should you be in the mood to thrash your head about whilst screaming odes to the chicken sacrifices. It really does the death metal chunka chunka-thud thing to a tee! Wanna Plexi Marshall vibe? Kick over to the Fat position and the juicy tones slice through the mix like butter with a rich sustain that seems to last for days. This is the stuff Les Pauls are made for.
The Contour knob also accentuates the midrange rumble (or lack of) by balancing the highs and lows in relation to the switch position used. I found with this at 11 o’clock and the Fat position on the Voicing switch and a 7dB gain on the Mid Boost, the pedal transmogrified my Boogie Maverick head and cab into a massive sounding rig exhibiting a real tight, chunky bottom with the same vibrant harmonics as the Classic characterized by an attack with a slightly spongier feel.
The Hot British Distortion’s manual also offers some great tonal examples to dial in. Dig Martin Barre’s early Tull tone? “Jethro’s Snot” will get you there. And the list goes on and on.
Both the Classic and Hot British Distortion do the deeds with incredibly realistic tones enabling one to readily “cross the pond” faster than the (now defunct) Condorde at warp speed!
And you can bet a couple of loonies (that’s slang for the Canadian dollar coin, eh?) That this ultra dynamic duo will earn a permanent place on your pedalboard once you give ‘em a go’round.

Tonebone Classic Tube Distortion: List - $299 US
Tonebone Hot British Tube Distortion: List - $299 US
For more information contact:
Radial Engineering
604-942-1001
www.tonebone.com