Electro-Harmonix Hot Tubes Nano Overdrive Pedal Reviews

I'd been eyeing the Hot Wax pedal (combo of the crayon and hot tubes). My wife bought me the crayon pedal as a gift. I took it as a sign to buy the Hot tubes. I was not disappointed. It provides awesome no frills drive. It pairs well with other pedals (especially the crayon). I've played it into both tube and solid state, both clean and cranked: impressed.

I grabbed this pedal because of the various glowing reviews online and in my never-ending hunt for gritty tone at reasonable volumes. It is different than other dirt pedals I own and really is kind of its own thing. It is very dynamic and has a lot of volume and a fair amount of low end--okay, a lot of low end. With the tone switch off, it's a pretty dark sounding pedal...until you get the overdrive up past 1 o'clock, where it starts to focus and brighten. But the real magic is when you put a TS or SD-1 style pedal in front of it. LOOK OUT! This thing is an absolute ripper with that combination. You get the chewy compression and that ragged, crunchy goodness on top. Even though this thing doesn't appear to be attempting to emulate any particular amp (maybe a tweed?), with a mid-bump OD in front, you could very much argue that this does amp in a box better than a lot of pedals marketed as such. For the price, it's a no-brainer. It's killer.

I've had this pedal for two days and I won't use another OD ever. It's soooo 70's!!!! The Stones, The Faces, you name it!!! I almost want to give these out as Christmas presents to every guitarist I know!!!! Clean dirty to heavy dirty…. ITS GOT IT ALL!!!!

I've had this pedal on my board for 2 years and love, love, love it still. I bought it as a tube screamer initially, which it does quite well. But I also have this pedal always-on with volume at 9-o'clock and drive at 12-o'clock to bring a nice creamy tube sound to my non-tube amp. As advertised, it really it responsive to the dynamics of my playing, and breaks up nicely when I increase my attack. You can also drive it harder by putting a clean boost pedal in front of it. Built solidly like a tank, totally stage worthy.

Not that the OD Glove isn't also a great pedal, but my pedalboard only has room for one overdrive. While the Glove sounds like a cat fight, the Hot Tubes is tamer and for me, has finer control. It's a perfect combination with my PRRI+Weber California speaker. The PRRI is a clean amp, but you can push it into overdrive, although it would be too loud for me. The Hot Tubes makes it easy to get a nice overdrive at lower volume. The Hot Tubes can also work as a clean boost.

I'd been seeing these around on message boards, and even though I wasn't looking for another OD, I checked out the demos. I really liked what I heard and thought that for the price, it was worth taking a chance. But then they were hard to find. None of my local guitar shops had them in stock, which said to me people are buying them. Even checking online yielded no joy. But a couple of weeks ago I checked Sweetwater again, and they had some in stock. So I wasted no time and ordered one. It arrived in two days with the free Sweetwater shipping, packed just the way you'd expect, nothing was going to hurt it.

The sound is as others described. I have three other EHX OD pedals (Soul Food, East River Drive, and OD Glove.) The Hot Tubes is definitely it's own thing. So far I prefer to run it with the tone circuit on. It's got a somewhat aggressive, raw tone with a growling bass that becomes more apparent as you turn up the gain. The bass is tamed by turning the Tone up a bit (I set it to about 1 o'clock.) I haven't had a chance to pair it with other pedals like the Soul Food or East River Drive, but I'm looking forward to trying it. I'd even like to try it with the OD Glove, as I run that pedal at 18v and have it set kind of clean and open. So running the Hot Tubes into that could be as interesting as running those other two OD's into the Hot Tubes.

Overall, I'm very happy with it. It is a great addition to my other EHX OD's. And, as always, Sweetwater was great about getting it shipped quickly.

This pedal is hot.Works great with single coil pickups touch sensitive works with the volume on the guitar to get you to that sweet spot. I recommend getting one and thanks to T.J.Jackson always good service from T.J.

Wow. This thing is great. I bought it on a whim. I've always wondered a CMOS OD (this, Red Llama, but not much else) sounded like. I was ordering something else, saw these were only $, & threw one in the basket. My first impression was Big Muff without scooped mids. Fuzz, but smooth. Roll of the volume a little & it's LPB-1-ish. (LP Special, P-90s, 5-watt Ampeg GVT BTW)

Very nice pedal,great options for honing in a good sound that i like,bluesy

If your looking for a relatively cheap drive for bass look no further. This can get you from a small amount of grit to full blown fuzz all while retaining low end. What's not to love?

True tone by pass switch which is a plus. You can go from an Overdrive sound to a distortion like sound that makes pedal very versatile and highly sought after. I like the fact that you can roll the volume Knob and go to a clean sound or you can lighten your pick attack and it will clean up as well.

Haven't pulled the trigger on this one yet. I had the original, ac cord, folded steel and that thing was a monster. Took it on many a gig, but folded steel only goes so far, and one of the pots got crushed. Oh well. But now, I just got the feeling that the new one ain't going to be the same, so I'm just going round and round. Guess I'll just check it out and see, nothing is ever as good as the past anyway.

So this Hot Tubes pedal did what I wanted. It smoothed and fattened my clean tone with slight break-up at hard strumming. Then with my Blues Driver on, it mellowed the gain to sound more airy and organic. And if I ease up on picking with the BD-2 on, it still cleans up to the previous slight break-up of the Hot Tubes played hard by itself. So I have a fat, almost-clean sound and an organic, almost-dirty sound. And it was made in New York City. I'm as pleased as a blue ribbon pig at the county fair! It did take some dialing to get the Blues Driver to stack with the Hot Tubes right, but well worth some twiddling. The Hot Tubes fixed a lot of things in my sound that I have been wanting corrected. Almost more like a pre-amp tone shaper than a regular Over Drive. It seems to fit a particular niche that no other pedal has been able to fill up to this point. Kudos to Electo Harmonix for making a really useful pedal that is also affordable.

Set the drive around 1 o clock, and roll the guitar volume knob to about 8. Here is where I find my tone. works great for pushing my other overdrive pedals as well. Turn it on, leave it on, forget about it.

I play a Orange CR 60 Which is analog but honestly it sounds 90% like a tube amp but no quite. When I add the hot tubes pedal, not as a distortion pedal but just as an overall tone booster with the eq on it basically sounds like a Tube amp with the Tubes cooking!

Right out of the box happy. I play Teles and ASATs and was looking for a pedal to help get me in a more Eric Clapton/Johnson tonal place. Right out of the box with no tweaking the Hot Tubes tamed the high end bite and delivered a mid range smooth boost. Once I sat and fiddled a bit it showed a lot of over driven range.
Best of all it doesn't sound like I just kicked in a pedal. It adds to or enhances my existing sound.

I have to admit, I'm an "Overdrive" pedal junkie. This one is different than any others I've owned, used, traded in or kept on my pedal board. Through a Roland JC-40 (clean) and a Tele, the Hot Tubes, to my ears, sounds the most tube-like (and I've had a bunch of OD pedals).
Of course the Tele bridge pickup can be rather "spikey", but the Hot Tubes tamed it nicely, with some warmth. Still, it retains its "Tele-ness."
Also, with only three knobs and a tone toggle switch to play with, this little pedal has a lot going on, once you start tweating it. The "Overdrive" knob gives you the full range - from barely and compressed at the beginning, to roaring fuzz at the other extreme. And, plenty of sustain, if you want it. Takes commands, too, from your attack and guitar's volume control.
I can understand why the original big, old Hot Tubes pedal is in demand by vintage tone freaks. So glad EHX brought it back, in a smaller package and at a truly reasonable price. Can't lose!

I'm a big fan of the proper descriptions when it comes to OverDrive pedals.
Everything EHX says about the Hot Tubes is true. It has tons of character, responds well to attack (I don't use a pick; just thumb & forefinger); The Hot Tubes is a seriously honey-toned-overdrive that adds the right amount of grit and mean-ness, when needed.

I own about 10 different EHX pedals and have never been disappointed.
(A Tele Deluxe, a Gretsch Country Gentleman & a Ric 360/12 through a Fender Twin & or a Blues, Jr IV model is where they go; I work as a songwriter/recording artist, writing about 40 songs a year & releasing a couple of albums over the course of each year.)

So, here's the thing: Any thing that inspires a song is very welcomed.
And this pedal is full of inspiration & sweetness. Lots of "70's character."
(Think The Stones "Sticky Fingers"/"Exile On Main Street" era);

Details?
I tend to use the tone toggle in the "on" position. I think this is where the pedal's subtleties open up & shine. From subtle grit to more "assertive" tones, the ways you can contour this jewel will make your tones step forward; You can't go wrong.

Last thing: I've read a number of reviews here that say when the "tone toggle" is in the off position you'll need to compensate with some treble boost to clarify your tone a bit.
I agreed, but DON'T let that scare you. When the toggle is in the "off" position, but still engaged, there is a fat, but warm, density in the OD.
I still find it very solid & very usable, but you'll likely compensate for it by dialing in a bit more top from the amp.

SWEET little pedal...

A thing of beauty. Smoothest, best sounding transition between clean and breakup in any pedal I've ever heard. I mostly use it to add warmth and a bit of fuzzyness to a fairly clean Vox ac15 - especially lovely with lower output single coils. Very responsive to finger or pick pressure. Gobs more warmth and depth compared to most overdrives; I set my amp a bit more to the treble side and it sounds great. High gain settings can be flubby in the low end, but stacked with another overdrive or into a distorting tube amp it gives you huge warm, raging, compressing distortion.

overdrive / fuzz pedal with big sound, breaks up nice and cleans up with rollback of volume knob on guitar. Goes from a light almost clean overdrive to a heavy Tommy Iommi /Black Sabbath distortion.pedal is very responsive to your picking and play style definitely a must on the pedal board and with the switchable tone bypass there are many tonal possibilities. This pedal will surely not dissappoint

Placed before my amp or in my pedal board, this baby rocks!
I get that bite I love in both clean and crunch channels.

It's under 60 bucks and has a tonal range that beats more expensive boutique brands. Personally, this is not my one and only go to OD pedal, but some of the sounds you can get out of this thing can't be found on other pedals.. at least that I've tried. I run this on my board after a plexi-clone that IS a boutique brand (which I love). The hot tubes can take already overdriven tones to next levels, or it can give you a really, really nice gritty OD on it's own. It's cheap too!

EH hit a homer with this one! It's not a TS clone thank God! This one delivers nice thick, creamy od that keeps your original tone intact. Works great with humbuckers but its with singlecoils where the magic happens imo. I like using the Hot Tubes to od an already overdriven amp although using just the pedal through a clean amp is great. Much better than most od pedals I've used that way. For me, this is my Jimi tone with my Strat. Very happy with this one!

I bought this for a clean boost, and clean boost it does. I've used it in FX loop for vocals and ukulele and it worked great.
I don't care for it's overdrive, unless its anywhere in a chain with another overdrive/distortion. When using this with my Ibanez TS amp, it makes the tube screamer sound so much better, no matter how the Hot Tubes pedal in configured. I won't use my tube screamer with out this pedal.
Either a clean boost, or an addition to another od, distortion, TS, this pedal rocks.

EHX has long been an industry leader with pedals. I had some when I started playing in the 80's. I then went to the multi effect units over the years. Guess what, I've come back to pedals and love them. Even in front on my pod hd which feeds my 120 watt peavy vypyr tube amp this thing warms up the sound to a classic Marshall stack. It,s a medium to high gain pedal. More so than the east river drive. Less so than the glove. Yes I have them all. Now I just bought the soul food which I think is the best of the whole lot, but this one has it,s own place and is a great hard rock pedal, the price was right too. As always I recommend Sweatwater to all musicians for service,reliability,shipping,and salesperson helpfulness

I'm glad to see some other favorable reviews here. There's some bashing going on for both the original Hot Tubes and this Nano remake, and I don't get it. Unless you are programmed to just expect everything to sound and behave like a Tubescreamer or other mass production overdrive, there's a lot to like here. I actually put this thing near the end of my chain and you can even boost it with other OD's (it loves Tubescreamers). But the primary function of this pedal with the knobs at noon is to give you this thick, fat, bluesy tone with lots of low-mids. It actually stays fairly clean from 8:00 to 12:00 on the OD knob, and then gets almost fuzzy as it breaks up beyond that. I guess you could kind of compare it to a Fender Bassman overdriving, but really, it's just a sound of its own. I agree that it likes single coils slightly better, and I deducted a half point due to the fact that it is a dark pedal that doesn't open up much with the tone control. But it is a really cool, under-appreciated circuit - and it costs all of 58 bucks.

This pedal sounds absolutely HUGE for such a small and simple overdrive. Sounds fantastic on single coils and excellent on humbuckers as well. The overdrive will get nice and fat and fuzzy when you set all the dials past 3 o'clock. Or keep them all at 12 o'clock for a nice boosted overdrive tone that KEEPS THE SOUND OF YOUR GUITAR INTACT! A lot of OD pedals out there really change the tone of your guitar. Not this pedal. It is very transparent and doesn't color your guitar tone much at all, even with the tone switch off. I usually keep my tone control around 1 o clock to keep it from getting muddy, or I'll shut it off completely for that muddy grunge rock sound. For those of you comparing classic OD pedals, this really does not sound anything like a tube screamer or any BOSS OD pedal. If you want those distinct sounds, get one of those pedals. But for a simple OD pedal that wont change the fundamental tone of your guitar (like a tube screamer does), for 58 bucks you can't beat this pedal. This pedal sounds a lot like the Fulltone OCD, but costs less than half the price. This is a staple in my pedalboard!

There's a lot of different sounds to be had by experimenting with the settings on the Hot Tubes. It can be a fairly clean boost, a cranked, tubes-burning amp or even a passible fuzz. Comparing it side-by-side with a vintage '70's model, they're incredibly similar in tone, to the point where I'd rather have the new, just for the ease of having the pedal so small (fits better on the board) and the warranty (though I doubt I'll ever use it). Hard to go wrong with this one, especially at this price point.

Versitile tube tone. Works fine in the mix. Good with single coils and humbuckers.

Good overdrive. Gets the job done. Does what it's supposed to do. Simply ok on its own. Does sound amazing with a boost in front of it. I find that with the tone off it gets a LOT of bottom end, so you have to turn up the treble on your amp and/or guitar to make up for it (unless you want a really dark overdriven sound...).

I could not find a usable/enjoyable sound out of this. The tone switch cuts the volume and makes the sound even worse.