I will be posting full details in the next few days - stay tuned The only other piece of equipment you will need is a suitable 16vAC power supply - there are many 16vAC 1.5A types available as burglar alarm supplies - just buy one of these and solder a 2.1mm dc socket on the wires - because it is an AC supply it does not matter which way you connect the wires I may be able to supply board kits on request, but have not worked out prices as yet, because this is a very new project. However, you can build your own if you would like to, because I shall be placing the complete design layout, PCB, chassis, and artwork details exclusively for all registered members of the freestompboxes forum.
Bk butler tube driver parts plus#
I will be building these on a one by one basis as time permits, and the price will be US$330.00 plus postage etc. Very low noise and hum levels, due to the fully regulated bipolar power supply
I gave my finished prototype a run, last night at practice, and was complimented on my great guitar sound (not playing ability mind you ). There is only one wire to connect the board to the chassis earth. The three boards are solder pinned togaether and form a very strong structure to hold the tube and controls etc. There are three circuit boards - a mother board that holds the footswitch, input, output and AC power supply sockets a small board to hold the 12AX7 tube and it's passive components, and a board to accomodate the driver dual op amp and three control knobs. Butler has always made these stock with 12AX7 tubes, but owners typically experiment with tubes having different gain factors to tailor their tone.Inspired by Dirk Hendrik's Real Tube Screamer pedal project elsewhere in this section, and after reverse engineering the B K Butler Tube Driver, and noting some similarities, i have designed a brand new design for a REAL tube drive pedal, housed in a Hammond (or equivalent NSC) 1590BB case.
It would seem that the tube itself would make very little difference to the sound, but it actually is an integral part of the sound, and different tubes or tube types will alter the sound in different ways. This is called a “starved plate” design, and you won’t see much tube glow, if any, if you look inside. The circuit only draws about 30mA and the tube is actually only running at 12v, a fraction of what these tubes run in a typical amplifier. It filters and colors the sound with the tube characteristics. That strong signal is fed into a vaccuum tube, which does not work to amplify the signal as it would in the pre amp stage of a typical amplifier. The hard clipping part of the distortion comes from the integrated circuit chip, or op-amp. Inside is a hybrid fuzz – pre amp circuit. The standard 4 knob version features a LEVEL (volume control), HI (treble), LO (bass), and DRIVE control. The Tube Driver looks like something from the bridge of the Enterprise from the 1960s Star Trek television show. The TD has a very unique voice that I have never heard another overdrive replicate. It can be difficult dial in a tone setting that hits the sweet spot, and some people find it finicky and hard to get along with due to some design issues, but in the right setup, with the right amp, nothing sounds quite like it. It is not very versatile sounding through some amps, but exceptionally good with others.
At low drive it can deliver a Fenderish smooth gain boost or a bluesy overdrive. At high gain, it is very reminiscent of the lead crunch tone of a Marshall JCM800 amplifier. It generates anything from a smooth, light overdrive tone, to a classic rock-style heavy distortion. It has evolved over the years and there are many versions. Butler (Brent Butler).Īround 1978 Butler designed and began making an early version of the Tube Driver, one of the first tube overdrive pedals. It was designed and built by audio electronics engineer B.K. BUTLER REAL TUBE OVERDRIVE – The Tube Driver is a booster/overdrive pedal with an IC and vacuum tube driven preamp circuit inside, used by guitarists such as David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Eric Johnson, Billy Gibbons, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, J Mascis, David Holt, Keith Urban, and others.