Radial Tonebone Plexitube for metal?

[Inazone]

Has anyone tried a Tonebone Plexitube distortion pedal for high-gain metal? I'm happy with my Boss ME-50 for an all-in-one pedal, and I still have the ART Xtreme on my main pedalboard, but one thing I've always wanted was a multi-channel preamp/pedal with a footswitchable effects loop. The Plexitube has rhythm and solo channels, with an effects loop on the solo channel. Although some EQ settings are shared, it has separate level, contour and voicing controls for each channel.

That all *looks* pretty cool, but the MP3s on the Radial Engineering site are worthless, and there are almost no user reviews that I have found in the usual places. I haven't found one that I could try out in a shop. There is a long "clip collage" of Jeff Waters from Annihilator supposedly using the Plexitube - http://www.tonebone.com/mp3s/waters-...in-128kbps.mp3 - but it's not really helpful because it has multiple guitar tracks, drums, vocals, and is basically a full studio production. I would be using it with a Boss DD-3 and maybe a Hush in the loop, straight into a tube power amp.

Any and all input would be appreciated.

[emperor_black]

I once owned a Radial tonebone trimode. It sucked big time. Sold it after a week. How many preamp tubes are in the plexi? The customer rep told me that if i am not happy with the trimode that I should try the plexi. The trimode supposedly has only 2 gain stages but the plexi has 3. But still it sounded very thin and fizzy to me. No lows at all.

[Inazone]

Well, I am under the impression from the info and clips on the Radial site that the Trimode is intended as an overdrive, where as the Plexi is marketed as a distortion unit. Only one preamp tube, but all of their pedals are still basically solid state with a tube to warm up the tone before it hits the amp. I current use an ART Tube EQ for that very purpose, so it's one more thing I could remove from the pedalboard if the Plexitube can do it . . . but that alone isn't really a selling point at the moment.

[Dave L]

I haven´t tried the Plexitube, but I´ve had good results getting some pretty screaming tones with the Hot British thru the clean channel of my Riveras. If I were looking for something like it I´d definitely consider buying one.

I actually think the Waters clip is recorded with a Hot British, even though it´s posted on the Plexitube page as well... which leads me to believe they sound pretty similar at full tilt.

[Inearthed]

Guy on another forum had the Plexitube and thought it was terrible.

Hot British has potential.

[horns666]

"Tonebone Plexitube"???....oh, that's so un-metal!!

[jgcable]

I would never expect to get metal out of a pedal with that name.

[Inazone]

Guy on another forum had the Plexitube and thought it was terrible.

Hot British has potential.

That wouldn't make much sense, as the Plexitube is supposed to be the Hot British with the second channel and effects loop. Unfortunately, those features are what caught my eye in the first place.

A store across town has a used Hot British, but that wouldn't really do me much good. I think I'll abort this mission.