Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
MI Effects V1 Tube Zone Overdrive vs MoVall Jumpspace
Key Points
We’ve added an original MI Audio Tube Zone V1 (shipped by Ben Bordiss) to a Capsule Collection; the compact V1 is preferred. The Tube Zone initially had scratchy pots and an LED that fluttered, but it’s settled and now sounds lively.
Controls: Bright, Mids, Character (Low‑End Roll‑Off: Tight > Loose), Volume, Drive, Tone. Character opens bass clockwise; Bright acts like an inverse low‑pass; Tone behaves like a Big Muff/tilt EQ. Wide Drive range yields vintage-to-modern voicings; Tube Zone is bright, cutting and more 3D.
MoVall Jumpspace is a budget take, surface-matching Tube Zone controls. As of purchase, the price was £18.75 (≈$25); it later rose to £43 and briefly £53. Jumpspace is ~80% of Tube Zone—SMD vs THT construction, less textured/2D—but can approach similar tones. Demos exist; for any opening or mods, consult a qualified tech.
Readers will know that I’ve long been chasing an original all-chrome MI Audio Tube Zone overdrive - to complete my MI Audio Capsule Collection. It was always going to be a matter of acquiring as pristine an edition of Tube Zone - as opportunistically as possible.
While my good friend and Australian native Ben Bordiss took matters into his own hands and grabbed a slightly tarnished edition - which I still have hopes of restoring at some stage. Ben did all of this off his own back and shipped me said example. For which I am of course extremely grateful.
Here then is my MI Audio collection to date - I may still add one or two more - where I particularly have liked the smaller original V1 editions (per the listing) - as most of those pictured V1’s below ended up in larger 1590-BB enclosures as V2’s - white I much prefer the compact V1’s!
When I first got the Tube Zone I had some intermittent unruly issues with the device - all the pots were scratchy and for certain settings the output seemed to choke out every now and again. Also I thought I witnessed the LED dying - where it kind of fluttered into action quite strong - but then faded away quickly - I was sure that the LED was exhibiting it's final death-throes!
While the same pattern repeats itself for every sessions - the LED comes in strong but then flutters away to nothingness - occasionally fluttering back into contention again - but very subtly. At the same time the circuit seems to have somehow settled in now - and seems to behave in a much more even temperament nowadays - while it's still not entirely rid of its idiosyncrasies. I had thought that some of the parts values might have drifted a little alongside the overall biasing. While that doesn't seem to be quite so evident any more - and I'm seemingly getting some really decent tones currently!
Controls - Bright, Mids, Character (Low-End Roll-Off : Tight > Loose), Volume, Drive.
The Character control is the most unusual - and comes across as some sort of inverted High-Pass Filter - where it opens up the Bass frequencies in a Clockwise direction, and progressively filters them out Counter-Clockwise - where fully rolled back delivers maximum tightness.
Bright is seemingly some sort of inverse Low-Pass Filter - delivering increasingly more high frequencies into the circuit. And then the Tone control feels like a more typical Big Muff or Tilt EQ even - where to the left it gets darker and bassier - and to the right more trebly and high frequency!
There's also a huge range on the Drive dial - all the way up to somewhat high gain distortion.
The Tube Zone has an interesting voicing - quite bright and articulate, and cutting. And you have a wide range across Vintage and Modern tones - in particular based on where the Mids and Character dials are set to! Mids counter-clockwise and Character Clockwise for classic vintage tones - and Modern the other way around!
Originally I had hoped to find someone that was willing to modify and upgrade the Tube Zone - as I feel it's just a fraction away from being perfect. None of the usual suspects though were prepared to get involved here - most unusually really, This circuit should be relatively easy to modify! And I will keep asking until I find someone who is willing and able!
As part of the same exercise / project - Ben alerted me to the fact that MoVall had done its own budget take of the Tube Zone - I'm a little surprised I was not aware of that! In any case there was one on Amazon - and it ended up being the cheapest pedal I've ever bought - at just £18.75 ($25) - it has since gone up to £43 - where I believe I saw it at £53 even at one stage too - so its price seems to bounce around somewhat. While for less than £20 - this Jumpspace pedal is an absolute bargain.
The MoVall Jumpspace is around 80% of the Tube Zone - not quite as lively or vibrant sounding, nor as tonally complex - while it does retain that massive range - which takes you up all the gears from bluesy overdrive to fairly searing high gain distortion!
Surface-wise the MoVall JumpSpace has the exact same labelled control topology of those 6 Tube Zone controls!
If you heard the MoVall Jumpspace outside the context of the Tube Zone you would think it an even more incredible devices. Obviously the MoVall version is based on SMD construction where the Tube Zone is full-fat THT. So there are quite evidently some parts and values differences - which you can hear very clearly in a head-to-head. The Jumpspace loses some of the subtleties from the original - and you get a more 2D soundstage - while the Tube Zone's output profile sounds and feels a little more 3D and more textured. The broader brush strokes are pretty much the same - and you can dial the Jumpspace to sound very close to the Tube Zone - but it never quite gets there exactly- hence my 80% grade.
For instance, some of my favourite settings on the Tube Zone are with Bright @ 2 o'c, Mids @ 8 o'c, Character @ 4 o'c, Volume @ 2 o'c, Tone @ 2 o'c, and Drive @ 2 o'c. Interesting that I serendipitously ended up on those settings - as the tiny dots on those knobs render as nigh invisible - and especially so from a standing position - they're impossible to spot where they're at. So the fact that I ended up on so many 2 o'c's is surely fairly significant - within the scope of the law of averages!
For the Jumpspace a similar tonality was achieved with Bright @ 4 o'c, Mids @ 2 o'c, Character @ 2 o'c, Volume @ 3 o'c, Tone @ 2 o'c, and Drive @ 2 o'c. So some seemingly significant differences there - but they do render you within a close proxmisite to the above tonal settings on the Tube Zone.
The Tube Zone can be a little unruly at times - where the Jumpspace is reliably consistent - while it doesn't quite have the mojo tone of the original! But it will likely be close enough for most, and for those who won't have the Tube Zone as a comparison - then the Jumpsace is really quite brilliant!
I don't know how much Ben paid for this Tube Zone - hopefully he got it for a very good price! While it's not going to be anywhere close to the £18.75 I paid for the Jumpspace on Amazon!
Both pedals are really worthy - and I'm delighted to own both - while overall the Tube Zone is just a little bit more special!
I'm hoping to do a further project on this pair of pedals - with a proper pedal engineer onboard to measure the value differences, and further improve the Tube Zone - with some carefully and well-considered Mods!
Demos of each pedal below!
Demos
