BK Butler Tube OD's....?

[zozoe]

Greetings,,, Always wanted one, but was never a priority, nor is it pressing right now, but which of his pedals is the sweetest, buzz free models,, & not necessarily the most rare, but that kinda 'dirty is fun to know too...

There's one w/3, 4, or 5 controls, & I want 'that' violin sound, or something close.


Thank in advance,

 

[dystrust]

I've never seen a 3-knob Tube Driver, but I'm familiar with the 4 and 5-knob versions. Appearances and apparent specs aside, the 4 and 5-knob don't sound at all similar. The 5-knob Real Tube sounds closer to a BOSS DS-1 than an overdrive pedal. It's possible to dial in A LOT of distortion, the high end is quite aggressive and sharp, and the pedal feels "hard" rather than "squishy". The 4-knob OTOH is the one for the David Gilmour / Eric Johnson tones. The biggest takeaways IMO were that the pedal is really loud, and the EQ was a lot less powerful than you'd expect compared to many of the OD options available now. The wall wart is also really impractical for a pedal that doesn't sound all that great in the grand scheme of things.

Honestly you're probably better off with the Hermida/Lovepedal Dover Drive. It's good enough for Eric Johnson's fly rig and a lot more practical.

 

[ErikH]

I had the white one for a while. It was "meh". If you're doing OD pedal stacking, sure, it can be handy, but there are better options out there.

 

[Securb]

I have the rack version it is my holy grail. It makes every amp sound glorious. I have used it in front of an amp and as a true preamp with a power amp. As a preamp, it is very Marshallesque the rack has a CONTURE and BIAS control, the EQ is very malleable there is a huge range of tones available including the violin-like tone you are looking for. I bought mine used for $105 in the late 80's. They are going for silly money these days on the secondary market. If you are patient and shop around I have seen some going for $200 - $250 but that is rare and you have to jump on them when you see them going that cheap. The GAIN in these things is crazy. I had mine in front of a JC-120 with my thrash band. You can go from a gentle break-up to full-on metal with these units.