I want to salute Korg for the Power Tube Reactor - the koncept is such a missing piece in the guitar pedal world - there are countless preamp pedals, and very very few pedals that can provide realistic analog emulated power amp grit and sag. Korg therefore, is on to something here - one of the first more simple pedals specifically aiming for power amp distortion - and I want to get this - hopefully able to place it after one of my many preamp pedals, and get a more realistic sound on lower volumes or direct. I wish many more pedal-manufacturers would work on concepts like this, and have wondered why only simple diode-clipping preamp pedals are released. Only Origin Effects and a few others have made pedals providing proper analog emulated power amp effects. So thumbs up to Korg - this is a step in the right direction !
Check out Axiom Effects PAE-1 Power Amp Emulator - this guy has done this power amp emulation right. All analog, 9v pedal. Complete transformed my preamps sound when plugging into clean class D power amps. PAE-1 after the preamp before the class D power amp gave back all the sound, saturation, compression, soft clipping, feel etc to the signal. Best pedal I’ve bought in 2023. Others are getting hint! I want to try one of these Nu Tekt pedals too!
The Harmonic Distortion sounds like a REALLY GATED FUZZ when you first turned it on. It is really crazy, but also pretty cool. Awesome video as usual Leon!
the orange super crush 100 is crushing it as a solid state amp atm. For those missing the sag of tubes and the compression - the super crush has a FX loop. would be awesome to have the TR-s in the loop giving it some 'tube' character
Thanks for the great (as usual) demo Leon. While everyone else seems overwhelmed trying to understand these things you just dig in and get some great sounds out of them. You don't always explore the the milder end of things but this time you did and I appreciate that, hope you'll continue to because seeing the full range of things is what's important to me in these demos. Thanks!
Awesome review! Imho, the power tube reactor is one of the best gain pedals - it´s so dynamic and handles the low gain perfectly! The compression and blend option is great.
The power tube reactor might be good for bedroom players who can’t turn their tube amps up. Put it into the fx loop and get that tube sag which they are missing out on. Or solid state amp players who have a sterile amp and want some tube warmth.
Yeah, I feel like that's really what it's for. Filling the sonic role of a valve power section in ampless rigs, for example. Which is a product that I have *desperately* wanted to exist for a hot minute now.
Lol it's like every pedal that comes out on the market nowadays, is extremely useful and sporting new and interesting character! And to have to build this one yourself is a great idea...it's like you become one with the pedal making it very personal.
I’ve owned a vox mini superbeetle amp, it has a nutube in the preamp, for a few years now and absolutely love it. Been running it at fifty watts abs and wow it’s incredible. In some settings that harmonic distortion doings like the beetronics fuzz. Nice demo
I keep coming back to this. Not many demos. Yours helps. I'd love to run a preamp pedal, in to the Korg tube reactor, then in to an IR loader. But like you say, it's not so much a power amp Sim as a tube compressor.
A tube compressor with overdrive? Nah it definitely does what a tube power amp stage does (the sag), but you should add a guitar preamp stage before it for the tone control and gain character and an IR or cab sim after it.
I hear some cool Tones somewhere in the meddle of the mix with those controls. I think the tube gain is best between 12 & 1 o clock JMO. Yeah Those mini pots really are not meant to be fooled around with too often. Sounds great with both guitars. Thanks for sharing c];-)
How warm / hot do they get? I have a couple of pedals that take a tube, and have a voltage converter inside to run it, but they get quite warm. As I vaguely remember, this sort of tube is more like a cold cathode fluorescent display, so hopefully they don't. That's the one advantage I can think of, over a conventional tube. The ones that take "real" tubes let you try out different tubes in them, of course. I remember a demo showing that these nu:tubes are very micro-phonic, and if you tap them it can sound like a triangle - the metal one note percussion instrument. Maybe it's best not to try that though, since they're not cheap.
I assume the reactor is being played into an amp. Wouldn't it make way more sense to run this into a transistor amp to get sag, or better yet a cab sim DI?
Great review. As usual sir. I thank the guys that sent you this!!!! I had a Vox Amp with NuTube I think it was by Korg I believe and it sounded great.. It had other problems though and would cut out for no reason. That power tube pedal would be good after like a modeler to warm it up at the end of the chain to me! The distortion sounded like the EH ripped speaker fuzz to me.. I was shocked you said EH as well, because it was the first thing I thought of . We think alike kind sir! hehehe Man, that LP is absolutely gorgeous. May I ask where you purchased that? I can just imagine you seeing it and being like I would be and saying, I don't need this, but I really do need that guitar! What a beauty! I see your fathers Strat is getting a good work out too with those Lace pickups that are under rated in my humble opinion. They are old tech, but they work and are quiet. I think the excellent Skid row Video of them playing the Jimi Hendrix song little wing or whatever it is the one guitarists I think is using a strat like yours and with Lace pickups I believe, and maybe a floyd.. I can't remember, but it's the best version of that song I've heard.. Anyway, sorry for being so verbal this AM. I'm hyped because of the 2nd cup of really strong coffee I made this AM. So strong in fact my mother had to weaken it with water for herself! hehehe.. Hope you and yours are well sir and be safe in your travels across that great big country down under! 😀
!!!NERD ALERT!!! I've been using a Vox Valve energy Nu-Tube "Silk Drive" pedal as a clean (-ish) direct to interface preamp into various amp sims, and it's honestly made quite an improvement within overall dynamics and "feel" that's genuinely only just marked second place when being compared to my prior Victory Amps "The Jack" V4 all valve pedal (that I unfortunately had to sell due to an emergency)! Also much like that Victory preamp whilst significantly more affordable? It also allows me to put analog pedals (Wha/Nu-x Fet boost/BMP-DLX/EQD Life Clone) in front of it and not have to worry about interface input channel clipping, as seemingly the Nu-Tube Vox Silk Drive not only convincingly handles all that like a proper amp front end, but it also translates quite well fed into most amp sim modelers/plugins! Well, once appropriately dialed in IMO that is... 🤓 A lot of people (myself included) inherently scoffed at the Nu-Tube technology once it first began making it's way into guitar gear, and subjectively KORG/Vox initially missed the mark with first run products like the Nu-Tube TubeScreamer & almost all of the MV series of amps. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That said tho? The real Nu-Tube outlier "Sleepers" are definitely IMO the Vox MV50 AC & Super Beatle micro guitar/bass amps, as well as the now discontinued Valve Energy pedal line... With the afore mentioned SILK DRIVE being most under appreciated of the whole lot! Seriously Leo... If you find one? Get that mofo! Then slap it in front any digital modeler or interface amp sim for instant dynamic WIN! You'll thank me later! Hahaha! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cheers! #noobtube
@@LeonTodd Even as just as a stand alone clean preamp w/ pedals? The VOX Silk Drive slays at dialing in that "edge of break up" tone! I assume their Mystic Edge (AC30) & Copperhead (Marshall) offerings perform just as well, and all of the line have this "link" capability where stomping on one simultaneously cuts off any other within the chain! Why the line ultimately didn't catch on or sell like hotcakes? I dunno, but they are definitely "sleepers" that should be investigated IMO! Ha! Cheers mate! 🖖
hey hey. Great vid, and great product. I've been playing a Roland JC40 lately, and think this would be a great way to get a more amp-like feel to it. wondering if could/would ever do a vid about how you'd get the Jazz Chorus to feel as much like a tube amp as possible? Would really love to hear a shootout between this and products like it with the JC as the platform. I've got a tour coming up and would love to be able to use the JC as my main / only amp. Would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.
The fun with tube amps is hitting that sweet spot where the power amp starts to break up a little and sag, which often coincides with huge amounts of volume. This combined with a good preamp pedal and the JC set really clean and loud might work but I wouldn't expect to be able to change the fundamental character and feel of the JC too much on its own.
Great concept and I’d love a Power Tube Reactor but the price is so steep. ¥30,000 in Japan which is $340Aus $230US. If it was half that, they’d have a winner. But priced as it is I wouldn’t be surprised if these are discontinued before the end of the year.
They're $200 direct from Korg via Reverb, but sadly you may be correct. That's probably solely the fault of Korg's marketing department and the pandemic.
Thanks for the video. How does the Korg Power Reactor sound with pedals such as chorus, reverb, delay, tremolo etc.? How about cab sims or IR loaders? Where would you put this pedal in the signal chain in relation to other pedals in an ampless rig? Cheers.
The reactor sounds great! What would be the typical use in a signal chain? Would this make a good preamp / pedal platform to then send direct into an IR Or power amp / cab? How do drive pedals sound in front of it?
you should try the Vox MV-50 hi gain mini amp with a horizon drive(i use only the gate and attack) in the front of it which uses the nu tube tech. really cheap but sounds good
You never minimalize the power sag tone I wanted to hear what it did with heavy distortion, in the one to two parameter on the power sag I wonder if you get some signal chop
Hardt to imagine anyone breaking out a nail-file on stage to dial in that tone they need for the next song because they need to sound like the the ableton saturator effect
So are these actual product that are going to be released in the next year or were they a limited release thing? Korg put out some videos but didn't actually mention if they would be available for purchase.
I really like your style to explain but the purpose of this pedal is to work as an amp, and testing it thru a broken/hot amp is interesting but perhaps a secondary to try.
That Harmonic Distortion is totally out of control. Kind of like a charging rhino. I'm not sure about the practical use of that, but it's delightfully nasty to listen to.
When you're doing a distortion pedal demo on a crunchy overdriven amp instead of on a spanky clean amp, you're not doing a demo of a pedal. Especially when you crank volume on the pedal.
The Power Tube Reactor kills it.
I want to salute Korg for the Power Tube Reactor - the koncept is such a missing piece in the guitar pedal world - there are countless preamp pedals, and very very few pedals that can provide realistic analog emulated power amp grit and sag.
Korg therefore, is on to something here - one of the first more simple pedals specifically aiming for power amp distortion - and I want to get this - hopefully able to place it after one of my many preamp pedals, and get a more realistic sound on lower volumes or direct.
I wish many more pedal-manufacturers would work on concepts like this, and have wondered why only simple diode-clipping preamp pedals are released. Only Origin Effects and a few others have made pedals providing proper analog emulated power amp effects.
So thumbs up to Korg - this is a step in the right direction !
"But our tubescreamer clone with 2 different components is going to change your life broooo!"
Check out Axiom Effects PAE-1 Power Amp Emulator - this guy has done this power amp emulation right. All analog, 9v pedal. Complete transformed my preamps sound when plugging into clean class D power amps. PAE-1 after the preamp before the class D power amp gave back all the sound, saturation, compression, soft clipping, feel etc to the signal. Best pedal I’ve bought in 2023. Others are getting hint! I want to try one of these Nu Tekt pedals too!
The Harmonic Distortion sounds like a REALLY GATED FUZZ when you first turned it on. It is really crazy, but also pretty cool. Awesome video as usual Leon!
Kudos to Korg for trying something a little out there!
the orange super crush 100 is crushing it as a solid state amp atm.
For those missing the sag of tubes and the compression - the super crush has a FX loop. would be awesome to have the TR-s in the loop giving it some 'tube' character
Thanks for the great (as usual) demo Leon. While everyone else seems overwhelmed trying to understand these things you just dig in and get some great sounds out of them. You don't always explore the the milder end of things but this time you did and I appreciate that, hope you'll continue to because seeing the full range of things is what's important to me in these demos. Thanks!
Awesome review! Imho, the power tube reactor is one of the best gain pedals - it´s so dynamic and handles the low gain perfectly! The compression and blend option is great.
The power tube reactor might be good for bedroom players who can’t turn their tube amps up. Put it into the fx loop and get that tube sag which they are missing out on. Or solid state amp players who have a sterile amp and want some tube warmth.
Yeah, I feel like that's really what it's for. Filling the sonic role of a valve power section in ampless rigs, for example.
Which is a product that I have *desperately* wanted to exist for a hot minute now.
interesting!
Lol it's like every pedal that comes out on the market nowadays, is extremely useful and sporting new and interesting character! And to have to build this one yourself is a great idea...it's like you become one with the pedal making it very personal.
The fender sure has been getting a lot of love as if late. Got so much quack, sounds so good!
Awesome really keen on the power tube reactor. Not many standalone power amp Sims!
Korg needs to make a PTR with 100-watt power amp in one solution for modeling rigs. They would sell like hotcakes!
BTW, Awesome demo!!
I would buy that in an instant. Shove an IR loader in there and you have a dream power amp solution.
@@neighbourhoodmusicianAB power amp? oh hell yeah
Or, just buy a power amp and plug it in..
I’ve owned a vox mini superbeetle amp, it has a nutube in the preamp, for a few years now and absolutely love it. Been running it at fifty watts abs and wow it’s incredible. In some settings that harmonic distortion doings like the beetronics fuzz. Nice demo
I keep coming back to this. Not many demos. Yours helps. I'd love to run a preamp pedal, in to the Korg tube reactor, then in to an IR loader. But like you say, it's not so much a power amp Sim as a tube compressor.
A tube compressor with overdrive? Nah it definitely does what a tube power amp stage does (the sag), but you should add a guitar preamp stage before it for the tone control and gain character and an IR or cab sim after it.
I like the Power Reactor and that could be useful. The Harmonic Distortion I would not have much use for.
Amazing. PTR has really that in-your-face "brown" sound for me. Should be amazing with DOD 250 or treble booster.
I hear some cool Tones somewhere in the meddle of the mix with those controls. I think the tube gain is best between 12 & 1 o clock JMO. Yeah Those mini pots really are not meant to be fooled around with too often. Sounds great with both guitars. Thanks for sharing c];-)
This sounds so much better than the videos Korg put out themselves, which made these pedals sound kinda sterile
Should try the power reactor with a amp in a box pedal, like the benson preamp into a cab IR. See if it makes the benson more amp like.
Great playing! thanks a lot
How warm / hot do they get?
I have a couple of pedals that take a tube, and have a voltage converter inside to run it, but they get quite warm. As I vaguely remember, this sort of tube is more like a cold cathode fluorescent display, so hopefully they don't. That's the one advantage I can think of, over a conventional tube.
The ones that take "real" tubes let you try out different tubes in them, of course.
I remember a demo showing that these nu:tubes are very micro-phonic, and if you tap them it can sound like a triangle - the metal one note percussion instrument. Maybe it's best not to try that though, since they're not cheap.
Nah they don't get warm like a traditional tube.
@@LeonTodd Interesting. Thanks. The heat from them does put me off using the ones I have in hot weather.
I assume the reactor is being played into an amp. Wouldn't it make way more sense to run this into a transistor amp to get sag, or better yet a cab sim DI?
That's how they're marketing it but honestly I think it's just a tube based compressor with a dry blend.
makes sense. bummed i didn't care for the sound. thanks!
Great review. As usual sir.
I thank the guys that sent you this!!!!
I had a Vox Amp with NuTube I think it was by Korg I believe and it sounded great.. It had other problems though and would cut out for no reason.
That power tube pedal would be good after like a modeler to warm it up at the end of the chain to me!
The distortion sounded like the EH ripped speaker fuzz to me.. I was shocked you said EH as well, because it was the first thing I thought of . We think alike kind sir! hehehe
Man, that LP is absolutely gorgeous. May I ask where you purchased that? I can just imagine you seeing it and being like I would be and saying, I don't need this, but I really do need that guitar! What a beauty!
I see your fathers Strat is getting a good work out too with those Lace pickups that are under rated in my humble opinion. They are old tech, but they work and are quiet. I think the excellent Skid row Video of them playing the Jimi Hendrix song little wing or whatever it is the one guitarists I think is using a strat like yours and with Lace pickups I believe, and maybe a floyd.. I can't remember, but it's the best version of that song I've heard..
Anyway, sorry for being so verbal this AM. I'm hyped because of the 2nd cup of really strong coffee I made this AM. So strong in fact my mother had to weaken it with water for herself! hehehe..
Hope you and yours are well sir and be safe in your travels across that great big country down under!
😀
Good coffee, not a bad place to be in!
@@LeonTodd Exactly sir!
Sounds like your plexie needs a bigger transformer. Maybe try power tube coolers. Great stuff! Love it🎯🎯
!!!NERD ALERT!!!
I've been using a Vox Valve energy Nu-Tube "Silk Drive" pedal as a clean (-ish) direct to interface preamp into various amp sims, and it's honestly made quite an improvement within overall dynamics and "feel" that's genuinely only just marked second place when being compared to my prior Victory Amps "The Jack" V4 all valve pedal (that I unfortunately had to sell due to an emergency)!
Also much like that Victory preamp whilst significantly more affordable?
It also allows me to put analog pedals (Wha/Nu-x Fet boost/BMP-DLX/EQD Life Clone) in front of it and not have to worry about interface input channel clipping, as seemingly the Nu-Tube Vox Silk Drive not only convincingly handles all that like a proper amp front end, but it also translates quite well fed into most amp sim modelers/plugins! Well, once appropriately dialed in IMO that is...
🤓
A lot of people (myself included) inherently scoffed at the Nu-Tube technology once it first began making it's way into guitar gear, and subjectively
KORG/Vox initially missed the mark with first run products like the Nu-Tube TubeScreamer & almost all of the MV series of amps. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That said tho?
The real Nu-Tube outlier "Sleepers" are definitely IMO the Vox MV50 AC & Super Beatle micro guitar/bass amps, as well as the now discontinued Valve Energy pedal line...
With the afore mentioned SILK DRIVE being most under appreciated of the whole lot!
Seriously Leo...
If you find one?
Get that mofo!
Then slap it in front any digital modeler or interface amp sim for instant dynamic WIN!
You'll thank me later!
Hahaha!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cheers!
#noobtube
Yeah I'm pretty impressed with what I've tried so far!
@@LeonTodd Even as just as a stand alone clean preamp w/ pedals? The VOX Silk Drive slays at dialing in that "edge of break up" tone! I assume their Mystic Edge (AC30) & Copperhead (Marshall) offerings perform just as well, and all of the line have this "link" capability where stomping on one simultaneously cuts off any other within the chain!
Why the line ultimately didn't catch on or sell like hotcakes? I dunno, but they are definitely "sleepers" that should be investigated IMO!
Ha!
Cheers mate!
🖖
hey hey. Great vid, and great product. I've been playing a Roland JC40 lately, and think this would be a great way to get a more amp-like feel to it. wondering if could/would ever do a vid about how you'd get the Jazz Chorus to feel as much like a tube amp as possible? Would really love to hear a shootout between this and products like it with the JC as the platform. I've got a tour coming up and would love to be able to use the JC as my main / only amp. Would be much appreciated. Thanks so much.
The fun with tube amps is hitting that sweet spot where the power amp starts to break up a little and sag, which often coincides with huge amounts of volume. This combined with a good preamp pedal and the JC set really clean and loud might work but I wouldn't expect to be able to change the fundamental character and feel of the JC too much on its own.
Great concept and I’d love a Power Tube Reactor but the price is so steep. ¥30,000 in Japan which is $340Aus $230US. If it was half that, they’d have a winner. But priced as it is I wouldn’t be surprised if these are discontinued before the end of the year.
They're $200 direct from Korg via Reverb, but sadly you may be correct. That's probably solely the fault of Korg's marketing department and the pandemic.
Your description at 17:23…. That’s it!
Thanks for the video. How does the Korg Power Reactor sound with pedals such as chorus, reverb, delay, tremolo etc.? How about cab sims or IR loaders? Where would you put this pedal in the signal chain in relation to other pedals in an ampless rig? Cheers.
The reactor sounds great! What would be the typical use in a signal chain? Would this make a good preamp / pedal platform to then send direct into an IR Or power amp / cab? How do drive pedals sound in front of it?
you should try the Vox MV-50 hi gain mini amp with a horizon drive(i use only the gate and attack) in the front of it which uses the nu tube tech. really cheap but sounds good
You never minimalize the power sag tone I wanted to hear what it did with heavy distortion, in the one to two parameter on the power sag I wonder if you get some signal chop
Hardt to imagine anyone breaking out a nail-file on stage to dial in that tone they need for the next song because they need to sound like the the ableton saturator effect
Sup Leon!!!! Wish Korg would produce some more rack mount tuners. Sold Out!!! Wtf Korg! 🤣🤣🤣
Still have a DTR-1, it's GOLD
@@LeonTodd Rub it in...🧟♂️🤣
The Power Tube Reactor made your amp sound like a Fender to me
So are these actual product that are going to be released in the next year or were they a limited release thing? Korg put out some videos but didn't actually mention if they would be available for purchase.
Inexcusable that those pots are not freely accessible. They seem crucial to the sound design process.
Thanks. I built pedals and want to build the korg type circuit. FNQ Australia
I am amazing, thanks.
Please korg make a nts1 into a guitar pedal. Would sell like crazy. Effects are great.
I really like your style to explain but the purpose of this pedal is to work as an amp, and testing it thru a broken/hot amp is interesting but perhaps a secondary to try.
power tube have a booster mod?
_Instant Richie Blackmore/Black Sabbath:_ Just add Distortion pedal👍🏻
Is that an EMG DG20 in your Fender Stratocaster?
Fender Lace Sensor Golds
Those are some juicy motherfuking farts I don't get that tone until semi-clean Channel with dual distortion
Perfect for a iem/ foh feed just get a decent preamp in front
It's funny that this solid state tube thing has been around for a couple of years now but is only now starting to make an appearance.
Also, can't believe you didn't play harmonic generator by The Datsuns 😂
So are you running into an amp?
Harmonic distortion without the gate
That Harmonic Distortion is totally out of control. Kind of like a charging rhino. I'm not sure about the practical use of that, but it's delightfully nasty to listen to.
You Hit the nail! What is the truth about the Red Box? For me it sounds like a broken defective amp!
Every time I make comments anymore I keep winning prizes.. 🤣🤣
When you're doing a distortion pedal demo on a crunchy overdriven amp instead of on a spanky clean amp, you're not doing a demo of a pedal.
Especially when you crank volume on the pedal.
I have two of the VOX nutube pedals, very respectable. This, is overpriced and a kit at that.