Hi!
Please send this to Stephen Fryette and your development team, and please read to the end
- thank you very much!
I am having a flash of inspiration - and I immediately come to think about Fryette as the most suitable company to do what I dream of.
Every guitarist wants “real tube” overdrive. We search high and low for pedals and digital solutions promising ‘real tube overdrive sound’ - never to really ‘get satisfaction’.
At the same time modern times demands more and more mobility and convenience.
For years I have been searching for analog pedals that can do the real 6V6/6L6 overdriven edge of break up tones, as these seems to be hardest to emulate in pedals or digital, and so far I haven’t found a good solution for this. But a unit like proposed here would easily be able to do much more.
So I have been thinking, if you can’t emulate a tube amp with smaller components - is it possible, to put a real tube amp in a pedal format, that can make real e.g. Fender Super Reverb edge of breakup (and more) sounds in a pedal format? A modern solution that could work both silently and with speakers, delivering real tube overdrive sound?
Asking chatbots, they answer that it is possible, but the high voltage required makes it inconvenient.
But thinking about the size of Fryette Power Stations - and I realize that size is not the problem here. And Fryette has made products in the past close to what I’m thinking about (like the Valvulators, multichannel preamp racks units and the Power Stations not least.
This makes Fryette the ultimate company for what I envision here!
Here is what I want - a polished steel metal encased pedal, lets say a bit wider than a Power Station, that includes the Power Station functions, a 4-channel preamp with tone controls, and footswitches for boosts, and let’s say 4 “channels” - so that you get a clean, crunch, distorted and solo-lead - and a boost option that amplifies any of the 4 you are on. There should be enough control buttons and dials to easily handle all the features.
The tubes, including the large power tubes, should be oriented horizontal, all of them under glas plate, so that you can see the tubes at all times - so an “Amp in a Box” with real cool polished steel design, with the glowing tubes visible at all times. I understand the problems of putting this on the floor regarding safety - especially if someone drops fluid on it is problematic. I don’t know if there are measures to be done for safety here, perhaps some internal voltage defuse safety mechanism. Also venting stripes could be designed on the sides and perhaps even on the top looking cool - but I imagine the tubes to be located so that the back end of the pedal is more or less open, probably with a metal grill - and probably also including a vent fan.
This would probably be a bit wider than Fryette’s Power Station, and if not entirely proper sold as a floor unit, it could be sold as a “Desktop Preamp / Amplifier / Power Station - all in one solution”.
So, If all features of the Power Station could be kept, and you add a 4-channel Preamp module, IR solutions for direct etc - and orient the unit as having the buttons on its top surface like a pedal - you basically have what I am talking about.
A unit that could operate stand alone, both as a amp in a box, or combined with pedalboards and other preamps, or your other amps even, as a true heart of modern big rigs - with effect loops for both pedals and studio line level effects, in a gorgeous polished steel Fryette design, make sure there are beautiful amp sized jewel lights for each “channel” in different colours, make them green, yellow, orange, red - and lets say blue for boost, together with the always visible 6L6 or 6V6 pair of tubes - (and hopefully preamp tubes as well) - and we got the most cool and beautiful ‘Amp in a Box Pedal and Power Station unit’ for either floor or table - ever invented!
So lets say the channels, Fender Clean and Crunch, Marshally overdrive and lead - but knowing Fryette, I’m sure you could put a couple of switches in to manipulate these basic channels into much more, for a wider user range.
If in anyway I could have done this myself, I would, but it’s not in my scope of abilities, but knowing Fryette’s history, I realize this is the company that could do this, and make it right.
Hope you could play along with this idea, and use it!
Best regards!!!