Face Pedals seek your backing for Eric, a valve-powered mini overdrive pedal
A Tube Saturator pedal with a real valve inside
German company Face Pedals has come up with a new mini valve-based drive pedal, and is launching the project as a Kickstarter campaign.
Eric
This new design is in the vein of a tube saturator effect, emulating the sounds of a cranked tube combo. The Eric has controls for Level, Low and Saturate knobs.
Face Pedal Eric Tube Saturator Pedal
Saturation
The whole premise of the Eric is to get ‘amp-like’ saturation via a pedal. Many companies have attempted this over the years and so it will be interesting to see how well this one will fare.
This particular foray uses Russian pencil tubes, which were also used in Russian fighter planes. Apparently, they are quite reliable and sturdy. Pencil tubes are not only smaller but also produce no significant heat, dispensing with the need for the otherwise obligatory air holes you would normally require to help dissipate the heat.
I’m pretty sure these tubes are the same type that ZVex uses in his Nano Amp. I owned one of these mini amps for quite a few years and those valves were dinky! They also sounded really good and didn’t generate much heat at all.
NOS?
I would suggest having a look at the Face Pedals Kickstarter page and checking out the demo video below as well. The only major concern might be how long the Eric’s makers have access to these components, as I believe these type of valves are no longer in production. So if they are using New Old Stock parts, there could be issues with availability of these Russian pencil tubes, which may limit Face Pedals’ ability to manufacture the Eric.
RRP – EUR 299
Face Pedals Eric Kickstarter page
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- Face Pedal Eric Tube Saturator Pedal: Face Pedals
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