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EBS ValveDrive DI
Bass DI & Overdrive Pedal
Signal Processors > E!ects
By Chris Kor! Published October 2014

Could this thoughtfully designed bass front-end be the answer to every

bassist’s stage and studio prayers?

The ValveDrive DI is intended for bass guitar and is part valve DI box , part overdrive pedal. It
has both a balanced, high- impedance XLR output (suitable for mic inputs, at 20dBV) and an
unbalanced, low- impedance, line -level ( 10dBV) jack output. Its sole input, a 1MΩ quarter -inch
jack, has an associated 10dB pad switch, which means it should work "ne with active or passive
SOS Competitions
pickups. On the top panel is a large, polished -chrome chassis that houses an ECC83 (12AX7)
valve. EBS have thoughtfully contrived to power the pedal using a standard (and included) 9V Win! GIK Acoustics Impression Room Kit
DC power supply, while stepping this up internally so that the valve and its attendant circuitry WIN award-winning Aston Microphones
have a high-voltage supply. Below the chassis are the pedal’s self -explanatory knobs (volume, Element mic
treble, middle, bass and gain), and "nally the bypass and Vintage footswitches.

The EQ controls work more or less as you’d

expect, other than that there’s quite a ‘scooped’
sound by default. To achieve a ‘#at’ response
you have to turn the Bass and Treble controls
down but leave the Middle knob at around 12
o’clock. There’s enough range on all the bands,
though, to get pretty much any kind of tonal
balance you’re likely to need, especially once
you take into account the Vintage switch. This
switch’s exact workings aren’t made too clear
by the manual (which describes it rather
vaguely, as “changing the tonality” and adding
some compression), but to my ears it seems to
boost the mids a lot, which is useful if you’re
not after a modern, ‘zingy’ sound. The e!ect of the Vintage switch varies quite dramatically
depending on how much drive you’ve dialled in. At lower gain settings, it seems to "ll the sound
out a bit, negating some of that scooping, but when applying a fair bit of distortion it adds quite
a lot of extra bite.

There’s overdrive available in buckets — this thing really can pile on as much of the stu! as
you’d reasonably need — but it’s also capable of subtle saturation and everything in between.
With the gain turned just a notch above zero, and the volume turned up to compensate, you
can coax some very authentic soul and reggae tones out of this DI, especially with Vintage
mode engaged and the treble backed o!. At the other extreme, you can achieve some
delightfully nasty tones, along the lines of Aphex Twin’s brutally abrasive ‘Come To Daddy’.

So, this device is capable of some very useful sounds across a remarkably broad tonal range,
then. But I did have one gripe. The manual makes reference to the bypass switch being able to
operate either as a ‘normal’ bypass or as a mute, depending on the position of a switch on the
back panel. Yet, this switch doesn’t exist! (When I contacted EBS, they told me that the manual Readers' Ads
was out of date and that they found that there just wasn’t room on the back to accommodate
what was an early design feature). As it stands, the bypass switch works as a mute on the XLR VIEW ALL ADS CREATE FREE AD
output and as a bypass on the jack, which, for me, rather limits the pedal’s usefulness. For
example, if you wanted to use it as an occasional e!ect live, you’d need a separate DI box to On the same subject
connect to the pedal’s jack output; if you tried to connect the XLR out straight to the FOH desk,
Waves Vocal Bender
you’d end up muting yourself whenever you bypassed the pedal. May 2021
Electro-Harmonix Eddy
That criticism aside, the ValveDrive DI is a great -sounding and very versatile pedal. Whether
April 2021
you want to use it as a spot distortion e!ect through a bass amp, or a valve ‘warmer’ on your
Mixing With Pedals
way to front -of -house or a recorder. Chris Kor! April 2021
Warm Audio WA-JP Jet Phaser
£269 including VAT.
March 2021
United Plugins Transmutator
www.soundtech.co.uk
December 2020
www.ebssweden.com
From the same manufacturer
Published October 2014 EBS Stanley Clarke Signature
May 2021
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