tc electronic Tube Pilot Overdrive

The sound of tubes is one the most hyped aspects of guitar sound. Emulation products are so good one might wonder if tubes are more often emulated than used as the real thing. From a convenience point of view tubes often come in huge not-so-handy amp cabinets. Not that tubes do not come in pedals but it is often with a substantial price tag and doubts about the tubes actual role in an otherwise transistorized signal chain.
In clear contrast to this TC has cast the Tube Pilot as a "keep it simple" product. You can basically put your signal through a real tube, decide how hard you will drive the tube into saturation and then adjust the output volume. That's it. How does it sound then ? This is of course a matter of taste, but feeding a humbuckered tele signal into the pedal I think it is quite transparent both as a direct signal and fed into a conventional guitar amp. So basically anything you wish to give a tube flavour could be fed through this box. Technical note: Pedal has a 30 sec warm up time and consumes 400 mA, so make sure your power supply is to this. Switching in the pedal happens not on the down stomp but when you lift your foot from the switch. Weird choice but not a problem in my book.