Hagerman releases Vulture Skull tube overdrive with vintage TV tube

October 31, 2026 · 4 sources

Hagerman Amplification released the Vulture Skull Tube Overdrive as a Halloween release, priced at $289 on the Hagerman webstore¹². Guitar Pedal X published its coverage on October 31, 2026, and Mixdown followed on November 2¹³.

The pedal ships with a new-old-stock 6U8A or equivalent, a valve originally made for television sets that combines a triode and a pentode in a single glass envelope³. The triode serves as a clean gain stage and the pentode as a clipping stage³. Because these tubes are scarce, the pedal also accepts related types including the 6EA8, 6AN8A, 6LN8, 6JW8, 6KD8 and 6GH8A³. Guitar Pedal X reports that builder Jim Hagerman uses a variety of 6*8* and 6**8* tubes¹.

The two footswitches stack rather than acting as independent channels³. The first, labeled Bypass, engages the clean channel; the second, Boost, brings in the overdrive channel and more saturation¹². Hagerman suggests the clean stage for adding harmonic warmth or taking the sterile edge off a digital rig, while Boost pushes the pentode into saturation for a mid-gain overdrive the maker says has plenty of sag and bloom³.

Voice and Drive sit between the two stages, with Voice acting as a tilt-style tone control ahead of the clipping tube, while Tone and Level come after it²³. Hagerman on the Voice control:

Guitar Pedal X's Stefan Karlsson described the Vulture Skull as slightly richer sounding than the tube side of his Keeley Tube Drive and a little more expansive, adding that it offers more range than the Keeley on the tube side but cannot match the combined gain of the Keeley's Tube and Super Phat Mod channel output¹³. He also noted the pedal has no tube guard or shield in place to protect the tube⁴.