As billed, Todd Sharp's solution to maintaining and in some cases elevating what we may discern to be the fidelity in tone coming from our cherished tube amplifiers is mission accomplished. We loved what the VTLD1 did to not only preserve what Todd refers to as our "true north," but we quite enjoyed giving the loop a little extra signal pre-boost. This is all about feel and what response we're getting from the notes we play. The proverbial sound blanket that takes away inspiration from our hard-fought end game often can be overlooked because it is subtle and not always readily apparent just how much we may have sacrificed.
There is endless variability to drive your pedals, as far as setting the amount of gain on the front end of the loop (Drive) and on the back end (Recover), as well, which is what is then delivered to your amp. If you've ever considered what feels and sounds best to you when you feed your vintage Marshall or Fender a lower voltage from your wall (we love 113 to 115 volts AC) with a standard variac or invaluable solution like the Amp Maniac or Brown Box, this is similar, when evaluating what some pedals want to see. Some just breathe a little when they're not hammered with 123 to 125 volts. Having a variable HPF (high-pass filter) makes for grabbing just the right amount of brightness a cinch, and in this case we're talking round, warm tube luminescence. As discussed, we found that the way Todd set up the output impedance to play nicely with pedals that are finicky about that did not create any issues with our Teese or Budda wahs or fuzz pedals (Dunlop EJF1, Analogman Sunface Germanium Red Dot, Kingtone Mini V2).
The additional tube gain stage activated via the variable Boost switch is unlike your typical solid-state one-knob boost pedal. Engaging the Boost creates the perfect spongy grind, allows for setting EQ appropriately for different guitars and pickups, and cleans up well when rolling back your volume. Yes, if you're a straight-into-the-amp purist type but still hear a fidelity loss with your longer cable runs onstage, you could just buy one for the boost alone and simply throw a tuner in the dedicated Mute/Tune output. If you want to avoid having to figure out how to deal with the relatively large external power supply, simply grab the CIOKS AC10 or CIOKOLATE power supply, and you're good. Todd Sharp Amplifiers continues to bring to market thoughtful and high-quality solutions, and the VTLD1 is a timely antidote for those who love to line up myriad alternative stomp box sounds, but dislike what that may do with their "true north" compass. Quest forth... TQ—Scott Ulrichs
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