Kaluna High Voltage Tube Drive £295

The Kaluna is a valve-based overdrive that runs from a ninevolt supply, although you’ll need a 500mA output on your power distributor to get its ECC83/12AX7 glowing away through the grille. With Drive at minimum, the Volume knob will give you a decent cleanish boost in about the last third of its range, but the Drive knob is capable of many shades of drive through to saturation as it pushes the valve. A powerful three-band EQ – Bass, Middle and Treble, each with up to 12dB of cut and boost – offers plenty of sonic sculpting capability, particularly in the midrange, to place the drive in the mix or to tune it to perfectly complement your amp.

Although there are some really driven tones available from the pedal, our preference is with the Drive at lower levels (and the rest set accordingly) in that role of transparently adding an extra switchable channel to our amp, all with a sensitive amp-like response to pick attack.

VERDICT It ain’t cheap, but it’s real valve overdrive that can easily slot onto a pedalboard