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Picture your guitar signal being massaged by a complex set of filters moving through a vacuum tube maze. Energized by 2 - 12AX7EH tubes, the Tube Zipper's patented moving filter tastefully adds controlled analog harmonics to your signal. In typical EH fashion, each control can be set over the edge, generating a host of novel tones.

Truly novel. Order today and add a unique weapon to your arsenal.

Electro-Harmonix Classics Tube Zipper Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal

Write A Review | Read Harmony Central Reviews

Average of 9 User Ratings

Overall

Overall: 9.44

Quality

Quality: 9.44

Features

Features: 9.67

Value

Value: 8.89

Customer Reviews

Overall

Overall: 9

Quality

Quality: 9

Features

Features: 9

Value

Value: 9

This product is good for anyone that...
Posted by pcgta from ontario, canada on Apr 13, 2009
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: amateur/active musician
Reviewer's Play Style: experimental/noise/+rock/jazz/blues
This product is good for anyone that wants a tube distortion with an added filter. Very tweakable. Kinda bulky space-wise yet rugged construction-wise), but it's justifiably so b/c of the tubes. When I turn it off it is dead quiet. Make sure you don't trip on the adaptor cord b/c I find it'd very easy to slip out years later after heavy usage, and also it's a unique adaptor type. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for out-there effects or anyone in need of tube distortion. You can turn the resonance knob all the way down and the filter is bypassed. The frequency light continues to work when the pedal is turned off, allowing you to see how it will modulate your signal. I also find that you need the master level a bit lower than you think and raise your amp's level instead b/c you get used to the fat sound. Turning off the effect: your clean signal is super loud so turn the master level on the pedal down. This product is fun to use with a drum machine and delay. Overall, it's a good effect but is pricy b/c of the construction and two tubes.

Overall

Overall: 10

Quality

Quality: 10

Features

Features: 10

Value

Value: 9

This pedal has so much to offer. This...
Posted by jsw0142 from Dallas, TX on Dec 22, 2008
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: active musician
Reviewer's Play Style: classic roc/alt/funk/indie
This pedal has so much to offer. This is for anybody into experimental style playing. I have found myself tweaking, looked up and 3 hours had gone by. Quality is excellent, value is a little pricy, but the features of this pedal are greater than any other analog pedal out there. The passthrough is excellent, no noise at all. Get this pedal if you are looking to create your own unique sound.

Overall

Overall: 10

Quality

Quality: 10

Features

Features: 10

Value

Value: 8

This pedal is absolutely amazing! I've...
Posted by zephrrock from Indianapolis, IN on Oct 13, 2008
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Active Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Rock, Alternative, Funk
This pedal is absolutely amazing! I've been wanting to buy this pedal for two years now but had to settle for the Mini Q-Tron due to lack of money. But I finally got it and all i can say is "wow"! It's everything I thought it would be and more! Electro-Harmoinx simply makes the best effects pedals in my opinion, and this is no exception. The Tube Zipper might be confusing for some if you don't know how to work it, but just stick with it and mess around with the dials and find what you're looking for. Now go get that John Frusciante funkified sound!

Overall

Overall: 10

Quality

Quality: 10

Features

Features: 10

Value

Value: 9

This thing is off-the-wall insane!!...
Posted by logan lewis from oklahoma on Jun 10, 2008
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: active
Reviewer's Play Style: rock/alternative
This thing is off-the-wall insane!! This is the first pedal I bought about two years ago and I'm still figuring out new sounds to this day!! If you want something crazy and cool get this pedal...also makes a pretty good overdrive if you can stop making crazy noises.

Overall

Overall: 9

Quality

Quality: 8

Features

Features: 10

Value

Value: 7

I recieved the Tube Zipper for...
Posted by Sean P from Memphis,TN on Dec 31, 2005
Experience w/product: I own it
Reviewer's Background: Aspiring Musician
Reviewer's Play Style: Dirty Blues Rock, any Classic Rock
I recieved the Tube Zipper for Christmas expecting an English Muff'n. I was pleasantly suprised! First of all, it came in a cool box. We're off to a good start. When I opened this wonderful box I found a piece of paper with some sample settings. Great! I watched the demo on this site and the thing looked complicated, but after fooling around with it you'll get the hang of it.

One of my favorite aspects of this effect is the size. Its' BIG! (Compared to my only other effect pedal) It's an impressive sight. It also has a cool grill covering up the tubes.

I put a 7 for value because that's average and...I did't buy it.

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Write A Review | Read Musician's Friend Reviews

Harmony Central Reviews
Ease of Use: 7.1 Sound Quality: 9.4
Reliability: 7.9 Customer Support: 6.5
Overall Rating: 8.9

REVIEW BY: Zipped
Ease of Use: 8
Easy And I mean easy. If it wasn't easy then I wouldn't say it was because it i...
Easy And I mean easy. If it wasn't easy then I wouldn't say it was because it is. you're gonna love it. Turn the knobs and your heart will... well it'll probably still beat... but it sounds damn cool and it is easy. So ease-of-usey. ...
Sound Quality: 8
Fender gear to give this beast wings to fly and soar and kill all the peasant-v...
Fender gear to give this beast wings to fly and soar and kill all the peasant-vermin-bad-tones out there with its glorious, awesome super blinding white tone! what a monster. not one but two juicy power cells under this hood(especially if you swap them out for tung sol's. Let your ears runneth over with pure cream. And if you like weird, well guess what...you're already there! ...
Reliability: 8
Be nice to it and it will be nice to you...just like an eastward breeze on a we...
Be nice to it and it will be nice to you...just like an eastward breeze on a western bent hot summer day with big mosquitos and even bigger mosquito gyms! Oh what a breeze soft and gentle and that's the way you should treat this pedal. ...
Customer Support: 1
I don't think there's anyone you can contact about this pedal. And if there was...
I don't think there's anyone you can contact about this pedal. And if there was, you definitely would not want to anyway. the bad-ass that made this pedal would probably chew you up on site and spit you out later, somewhere off site maybe. i wouldn't want to find out, soo....(the rating is to deter you from seeking the master. Don't do it ...
Overall Rating: 10
i don't really play a style of music anymore. I play tube zipper. simply tube z...
i don't really play a style of music anymore. I play tube zipper. simply tube zipper. all else falls away in a haze of wash-about noise and vermin fecal decal murmurs. Tube Zipper has changed my life. For the better I can't say but the impact is equally catastrophic. If only I could rid myself of this horrible curse of a pedal that has possessed me and caused my oatmeal to turn into maggots of melody in the mouth of my musical soul. I've taken it too far. The Tube Zipper was the edge and I've plunged over. Leave it alone. it's bad news man. Bad, bad news ...
REVIEW BY: Josh
Ease of Use: 5
The top 3 knobs (resonance, frequency & sensitivity) are highly interactive and...
The top 3 knobs (resonance, frequency & sensitivity) are highly interactive and slight adjustments produce big changes, like previous reviewers have stated. They'll all behave with varying degrees of sensitivity in relation to the amount of input gain and drive dialed in as well. The number of possibilities is enormous. There really is a big learning curve associated with the use of this pedal--I've had it for 8 months now and have found great sounds using it, but I feel like I've only scratched the surface of what's possible. The manual's suggestions for settings are useful starting points for exploration. ...
Sound Quality: 10
This pedal sounds incredible to me. The envelope is smooth, nuanced and oh so ...
This pedal sounds incredible to me. The envelope is smooth, nuanced and oh so tweakable. The tube driven overdrive/distortion/fuzz section produces a huge range of superb distortion sounds from light overdrive to sizzling, ultra-saturated fuzzy distortion (vintage though--not modern metal sounds). In higher gain settings there is noise of course. With the drive and input gain all the way down and the master volume up though it's totally transparently clean and dead silent--you can hear just how good the envelope filter sounds when playing this way. I usually use it just as an envelope filter and use other distortion or fuzz units in conjunction with it. The filter sounds excellent with distortion and/or fuzz after it. After digging in and experimenting, and finding sounds I like I'm finding I use a wah wah pedal less often and leave the envelope filter on a lot of the time. It's sooo responsive to picking strength that I feel I get better, more controlled wah effects with the filter than I can using my foot on a wah wah pedal. The envelope filter is quieter with fuzz or distortion than a wah wah pedal as well. My current setup (which has gone through a lot of changes in the last year or so): Les paul > ernie ball volume pedal w/ tuner out > Snarling Dogs Super Bawl Whine-O-Wah > Tube Zipper > Fulltone Distortion Pro > Fulltone Ultimate Octave > Marshall 60 watt combo amp set to light breakup with guitar volume all the way up. I'm really digging my current setup. Everything is all analog with true bypass. I just need an analog delay in there to really round things out. I also want a good univibe effect. ...
Reliability: 10
I have a hard shelled pedal board (by MKS) that the Tube Zipper has been perman...
I have a hard shelled pedal board (by MKS) that the Tube Zipper has been permanently affixed to for 8 months. It's still working and always has. I try not to throw the the pedal board around. I couldn't afford to have a backup of the Tube Zipper or any of the pedals I own for that matter. I wouldn't want to drop the Tube Zipper, it has tubes in it. ...
Customer Support: N/A
Overall Rating: 10
I'm a bluesy guitar player with a fondness for psychedelic sounds. This pedal ...
I'm a bluesy guitar player with a fondness for psychedelic sounds. This pedal is great for what I do and inspires my playing. I believe, like other reviewers have said, that the Tube Zipper could find a niche in any genre of music. I've played a Q-Tron and a Mini Q-Tron at the music store, and once briefly owned a Boss AW-3. The Boss was a piece of ****, and the other Electro-Harmonix pieces didn't sound as good as the Tube Zipper. I wish it's overdrive/distortion section and it's envelope filter section were each seperately footswitchable. I like to be able to leave the filter on and turn a distortion sound on and off without bending over and twiddling knobs. This necessitates the use of another distortion device. Overall, the Tube Zipper is a fabulous device. ...
REVIEW BY: Martin Sketchley
Ease of Use: 6
With six knobs and two switches there's enough here for any technophile guitari...
With six knobs and two switches there's enough here for any technophile guitarist. I thought this would give me huge scope to create a wide variety of sounds to give different voices to songs, but it quickly became clear that minor adjustments to any one of the knobs can have a dramatic impact. This causes two problems: first, if you find a good sound you've got to find some way of recording the exact positions of the knobs on the Zipper. Second, it's going to be difficult to find a proper musical use for 90% of the noises this thing creates unless you have hours of free time, and have developed a decent method of recording the settings. What I've done is found a pretty good sound I'm happy with, adapting this with minimal alteration of the settings between songs. I'm sure there's a whole lot more to discover with this piece of kit, but I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to do so. ...
Sound Quality: 9
The Tube Zipper offers a high quality overdrive/distortion sound that can range...
The Tube Zipper offers a high quality overdrive/distortion sound that can range from a mild, tube-amp crunch to a real bumblebee-in-a-sack-type sound. The envelope filter offers sounds that range from auto-wah effects to sounds like loose elastic bands over a cardboard box. Again, getting the most out of this is going to depend on having the time to experiment with it. Overall, the sound is great. I particularly like the ease with which feedback can be achieved. ...
Reliability: N/A
It's worked without problem so far, although I haven't gigged with it yet. I'm ...
It's worked without problem so far, although I haven't gigged with it yet. I'm pretty careful with my gear, and when it's not being used I keep the Tube Zipper in its box, in the bubble-wrap and plastic bag it came in. I would gig without a backup Zipper (I'm not buying TWO!) but I would have a spare set of tubes, just in case. ...
Customer Support: 8
I emailed once to ask about maintaining the Tube Zipper and when the tubes shou...
I emailed once to ask about maintaining the Tube Zipper and when the tubes should be replaced and got a friendly reply within 24 hours. That's pretty good in my experience. ...
Overall Rating: 7
I recently formed a band having been away from playing music for 17 years. We d...
I recently formed a band having been away from playing music for 17 years. We do dark indie-pop along the lines of Nick Cave and Bad Seeds, Echo and the Bunnymen, that kind of thing. As I sold a lot of my gear (everything except the guitar and amp) in the intervening period, I've had to buy new cabling, effects, etc, hence the Zipper. I don't use much else, just a BOSS DD3 and a George Dennis GD120. This is partly to keep the complexity of my setup down, and also due to the fact that the Tube Zipper offers such wide ranging possibilities. When I want to adjust my sound between songs, I tweak the Zipper, mainly the distortion and input gain. I haven't yet used it on the trill setting or the down envelope. If it were lost or stolen would I buy another one? I don't know. I would probably try something less complicated, to be honest. ...

Electro-Harmonix Classics Tube Zipper Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal

Overall: 9.44 Read 9 Reviews

$199.50

MSRP: $266.00 Savings: $66.50(25%)

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