Home › Forums › Help/Technical Questions › Are all the tube pedals ‘starve plate’ design? What does that mean exactly?

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  • January 28, 2009 at 4:44 am #77616
    CHOUT
    Participant

    I’ve never been totally sure what that term means, I’ve just heard how a lot of devices with tubes in them are running in ‘starve’ mode, which I assume the tubes aren’t being pushed too hard>>>???

    January 28, 2009 at 4:52 am #92086
    julian
    Moderator

    I don’t think so.

    That’s why they have toroidal transformers inside them, to step up the voltage enough to drive the tubes normally.

    January 28, 2009 at 8:30 am #92101
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    well there’s starved and starved, all it means is there’s a lower voltage going through the valve…amp valves will have hundreds of volts going through them and have very high currents….you would probably kill yourself if you poked your fingers in the sockets…..and as you probably know they also get very, very hot…..I don’t think any pedal produces the same voltages as that, so in effect they are all ‘starved’ to some extent I suppose.

    ….. but julian is right EHX tube pedals contain a toroidal transformer that imo drives them enough for practical pedal use. If they got as hot as they do in the back of an amp you would probably melt the sole of your shoe and burn your fingers everytime you ajusted it!!!! you’d have to let it warm up/cool down for 10 mins after/before using it and it would probably be a pretty stupid thing to have on the floor at a gig to be honest.

    January 28, 2009 at 12:27 pm #92109
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    I’ve just read on the Black finger page that “the Black Finger’s toroidal transformer allows for a full 300 volts of swing” so there you go…….don’t poke your fingers in it to find out if it’s ‘staved plate’ :D

    January 28, 2009 at 12:37 pm #92111
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    Julian is spot on actually….from the ‘EHX tube pedals overview’

    In all of our vacuum tube pedals, we run the pedals at full power with approximately 300VDC on the plates giving the tubes a chance to shine in a relatively small guitar pedal footprint.

    So no, they aren’t being ‘starved’ of voltage that’s for sure! I’m actually very interested in the design of these now….very clever, I wonder how they stopped them from getting red hot like they do in an amp? something to do with currents and ampage and stuff I know nothing about no doubt! ;)

    January 29, 2009 at 10:58 pm #92209
    Ned Flanders
    Moderator

    This is why I want a EH hot tubes because it has high voltage to the tubes and it is real tube distortion unlike the starved plate tube pedals from other companies. I hope to get one of the final 300.

    January 30, 2009 at 11:36 pm #92294
    puretube
    Member
    Quote:
    I’ve never been totally sure what that term means, I’ve just heard how a lot of devices with tubes in them are running in ‘starve’ mode, which I assume the tubes aren’t being pushed too hard>>>???

    A lot of them out there are “starved”…

    BUT: NONE of the E-H Tube pedals are!!! :nono:

    January 31, 2009 at 5:11 pm #92350
    CHOUT
    Participant

    puretube,
    how do the pedals’ tubes run with high voltage and not get extremely hot?

    January 31, 2009 at 5:25 pm #92351
    julian
    Moderator

    I don’t think preamp tubes ever get all that hot like power tubes do

    January 31, 2009 at 6:04 pm #92355
    puretube
    Member

    Right! and they are well-vented, too…

    February 12, 2009 at 11:44 pm #93223
    JRiggles
    Member

    Heat (as in the power in watts) is a function of both voltage AND current…so…if I had to guess, I’d say that a lower current is likely keeping the tubes from getting wicked hot. Besides, if I remember right, tubes are voltage driven devices, not current driven.
    Hope that helps!

    (Puretube or anyone who knows, please correct me if I’ve misspoken)

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