
Tube preamp distortion-without the benefit of equal or greater amounts of power tube distortion to go with it-can be as gritty and unappealing as any ugly solid-state grind. For one thing, most of the lively, complex, delicious tone and feel that we associate with a good tube amp emanates from the saturation of the amplifier's power tubes, rather than its preamp tubes. While guitar players have been conditioned for years to believe that anything with tubes must automatically sound better than any similar thing without tubes, the truth is that all valve-based circuits are not equal. There has been much debate in the guitar community about the quality and relative usefulness of tube-based pedals.
