Hagerman Valve Tube Protector

[KevinV]

I really like what the Hagerman Valve does for my tone, but I hate the protruding tube. I ordered a 12AX7 size tube cage from eBay that's designed for amp building and modified the pedal to incorporate it. I had to lose the rubber grommet as the cage wouldn't sit flush with it on. Besides removing the grommet, it only requires drilling 3 holes for the cage after you get the insides removed. If you do so, be careful of the input/output jacks. The metal jacks thread into plastic barrels and I ended up cross threading the input. There isn't much for it to grab onto before it bottoms out due to the spacer, so it was unusable as is. I wasn't sure if the barrel needed to be isolated from the housing so I put some electrical tape over the hole, cut an opening, installed a rubber gasket on the metal barrel, and it went on just fine and all is working as intended.

Here's a stock shot of the bare pedal and another with the cage installed.