VALVULATOR I REVIEWS
		Guitar Player Magazine February 2001 Issue Gizmo Alert: VHT Valvulator I I have plenty of clean gear—hum-canceling pickups, high-end amps, and rack effects connected with state-of the-art cable. But for some reason, my favorite rig is still my tired, noisy pedalboard. Consisting of six ratty old pedals with nary a true bypass in sight, it’s heavy on vibe, but also heavy on tone sucking and noise. This is where the VHT Valvulator ($249) comes to the rescue. Designed to eliminate noise, drive lots of cable, and improve your sound in the process, the Valvulator is a tube-driven, buffered preamp that can also supply power to up to eight effects. When I plugged into the rugged, stainless-steel box, and then into my pedalboard, the ever-present hum was gone. Gone. And I was still using the old power supplies! When I used the Valvulator’s isolated DC outputs to power my pedals, the sound got even cleaner. This was particularly helpful to my Korg ToneWorks delay, which had obviously never gotten enough juice from the pedalboard’s built-in power supply. But the tone wasn’t just quieter with the Valvulator in line—my effects sounded fuller and punchier, with better highs and more coherent lows. How does VHT accomplish these feats? Well, the device’s 12AX7 is slammed with high voltage, so plugging into the Valvulator is like plugging into the front end of a good tube amp—before you ever hit a pedal. The signal is then converted to low impedence, which eliminates the loading that occurs when multiple pedals are chained together. To see how effective the Valvulator was at driving long cable lengths, I strung together eight stompboxes with 80 feet of cable. Without the Valvulator, the tone had an indistinct top end accompanied by a faint squealing noise. I also noticed that my tone suffered horribly when I rolled my volume down—I lost even more treble and wildly increased audible hum. However, when I plugged into the Valvulator, the top end came back, the squeal went away, and my tone sounded glorious throughout the entire range of the volume pot. VHT recommends using the Valvulator’s second output to feed a tuner, but I couldn’t bear to waste a signal this cool on a tuner. I ran the output to another amp for a stereo rig with none of the signal loss that typically occurs when using a Y cable. I also found that plugging into the Valvulator before recording into a Roland VS-880 gave the 880’s internal amp simulations more body and warmth. It also improved the sound of direct-recorded bass and keyboards, and I even liked what it did to an old drum machine. The Valvulator is definitely the closest thing to a "magic box" that I’ve heard in a long time. —Matt Blackett Guitarist Magazine (UK) February 2001 Issue VHT VALVULATOR 1 A what? It's a highly versatile tool - a combined valve buffer-line driver and power supply. A new amp concept from VHT with no knobs... VHT deserves a good deal more familiarity on this side of the pond than it gets. Stevie Fryette (VHT’s president and chief designer) is a certified toneaholic, and his amps have garnered an impressive list of users, including Steve Lukather and Nashville session ace Dan Huff. Not content with providing killer amps like the Pittbull 45, Fryette researches all aspects of guitar tone, and this new device, the Valvulator 1 addresses a common set of problems encountered by many stompbox users. The output signal of a passive electric guitar is a delicate and easily bruised thing – a combination of low output and high source impedance means that your tone can be easily degraded, and this commonly occurs when a guitar’s signal gets passed through a number of effects devices en-route to the front end of a guitar amp. Enter the Valvulator 1. This unassuming little gadget – the size and weight of a house brick – has some clever tricks that will breathe new life into many a tired pedal board. Firstly, there’s a valve – a single ECC33/12AX7 configured just like the front end of a typical guitar amp. Unlike many FX devices with valves, the V-1 runs at typically high guitar amp voltages for maximum performance. One input jack on the side leads to two low impedance outputs which can then be routed happily through any number of stomp boxes without loss of tone, even when using long leads. Another common pedal board affliction is hum and poor frequency response due to inferior power supplies – especially on older 'vintage' pedals. The Valvulator’s answer is a set of four properly isolated and regulated 12 volt DC power sockets which almost all 9 volt stomp boxes will happily plug into. There’s enough current at each outlet to power at least two pedals. If you run an 18 volt device, just connect two outlets in series. In use the V-1 is sonically transparent, and super quiet, thanks to top quality components, a DC heater supply and superior design – no mean feat when you see just how crowded the circuit board is inside that neatly pressed steel. We plugged in three old pedals, a rusty Coloursound wah-wah, an original Electro Harmonix Small Stone phaser and an Electric Mistress flanger. It was immediately noticeable just how much better and quieter they all performed with little or none of the tonal thinning out that normally occurs when you put a pedal or two in front of an amp. The biggest benefit was with the wah pedal, which had a much more pronounced effect, and the sweep range can be varied by using the guitars tone control. This tool is aimed at any pedal user or board builder, but its versatility doesn’t stop there. “We're getting all kinds of feedback from people who are using the V-1 as a direct box for guitar, bass, keyboards..., even vocals, " says Fryette. "We've had great response from Line 6 Pod users connecting the V1 between the guitar and the Pod's input." Someone once called the laser an answer looking for a question. We couldn’t think of a more apt description for the V-1. There are other line-level preamps and dedicated power supplies, but to combine them in such a neat package, with the warmth and response that only valves deliver makes the Valvulator unique, with almost limitless application possibilities in any set-up, both live and in the studio. Take into account a very reasonable asking price, along with VHT’s reputation for cast-iron build quality and reliability, and it’s easy to see why the V-1 is flying off the shelves. If you’re fed up with the noise of cables and pedals this is your key back to the highway of great tone. Nick Guppy