Butler Tube Driver?

Chickenwings

Chickenwings

Alnico 6/8
So i have about a dozen or more pure overdrive pedals. I like the fulldrive the best and its my workhorse....but it still does not really sound like an amp if you dig? Especially into a twin reverb..any fakeness gets shown up.
Anyway..im gassing for a BK Butler Tube Driver and want some input from anyone who has used one before i blow 300 bucks in the quest for a great overdrive pedal.
I guess im choosy, cos i wont compromise on my clean sound but id really like to be able to switch to a sound that is as organic, responsive and dirty as my marshall. That said...im not looking for marshall tone...just organic and dirty. I mentioned it cos i can play the marshall all day long and enjoy the dirty sounds, whereas pedals into a clean amp leave me non plussed after a couple of hours.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

gibson175 said:
So i have about a dozen or more pure overdrive pedals. I like the fulldrive the best and its my workhorse....but it still does not really sound like an amp if you dig? Especially into a twin reverb..any fakeness gets shown up.
Anyway..im gassing for a BK Butler Tube Driver and want some input from anyone who has used one before i blow 300 bucks in the quest for a great overdrive pedal.
I guess im choosy, cos i wont compromise on my clean sound but id really like to be able to switch to a sound that is as organic, responsive and dirty as my marshall. That said...im not looking for marshall tone...just organic and dirty. I mentioned it cos i can play the marshall all day long and enjoy the dirty sounds, whereas pedals into a clean amp leave me non plussed after a couple of hours.
Click to expand...
Biyang makes a decent sounding tube overdrive pedal and they aren't very expensive either.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

I've been chasing David(Gilmour) for a few weeks now. Looking at various parts and rigs over the years. He's stuck with the Tube Driver for quite sometime, but an article I read on Gilmourish.com says using the Tube Driver with a crank tube amp for enhancement is where it's at and it's sometimes too much for amps at low volumes.

The price tag puts me on the fence to even try it out. I don't play at low volumes, but I don't play at volume splitting volumes through 8 cabs either. I would assume playing through a Twin Reverb at gig level volumes would work well, but it's hard to be sure. I've read a lot on how organic the pedal itself sounds though. Probably not much help, just typing out loud since you brought it up.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

Check out youtube vids of Gregor Hilden and the okko diablo. Thats a really nice pedal which is quite transparent and dynamic.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

I had a rackmount version of that and I had a Mesa V-twin.....the V-Twin walked all over it and could be used straight into the board, if you have an amp failure.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

i dont mean to offend in any way...you just said Biyang makes a decent unit that is not very expensive. Its not really a glowing recommendation. Decent in my understanding means useable and servicable, not excellent or superior in any way -especially when added to terms such as not expensive. I have a heap of decent pedals. If perhaps you can give me a detailed description of the qualities of the pedal you mentioned versus the industry standards such as a tube screamer or fulldrive etc then id be keen to read it.
I think i outlined the kind of sonic qualities im after in my original post.
 
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Re: Butler Tube Driver?

I have an old one sitting around you are welcome to, and I'm not looking to make a mint. It even has the original tube. Switch is a little dirty and can momentarily cut out when you hit it, but other than that, great shape (no ac adapter).

Story goes-. I bought one of the 4 knobbers back around 85 or 86, and used it for about a year in front of some crappy amps, lol. 25 years later my Brother is coming to visit and tells me he has some of my old pedals and will bring them up. But this one is a 3 knob version. Oftentimes when we were teens if he liked a piece of gear I had, he would go out and buy the same but never tell me, as he was the older brother AND middle child, and way too prideful for that, lol. So I figure he just bought a 3 knob version, and over the years completely forgot it was his-he did that with a old MOJ Boss Compressor too- I hate compression and would never buy a compressor pedal, but he insisted it was mine.

At any rate, You can hear one all over Surfing with the Alien.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

thanks for the offer, but i think ill need to get Mr Butler to build one cos i need the 240 volt power supply.

....that is very interesting about surfing with the alien tho! I had Eric Johnson's "tones" on LP back in the 80s as well as SUrfing, but wow! i always thought he used mostly a ds1 and a marshall!
Im actually after something that does not necessarily sound blisteringly hot. MOre the lower gain vibe kinda like a tubescreamer gain at 9 or 10 o clock. IS the tube driver good at that stuff?
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

gibson175 said:
thanks for the offer, but i think ill need to get Mr Butler to build one cos i need the 240 volt power supply.

....that is very interesting about surfing with the alien tho! I had Eric Johnson's "tones" on LP back in the 80s as well as SUrfing, but wow! i always thought he used mostly a ds1 and a marshall!
Im actually after something that does not necessarily sound blisteringly hot. MOre the lower gain vibe kinda like a tubescreamer gain at 9 or 10 o clock. IS the tube driver good at that stuff?
Click to expand...


Not in my experience- it's pretty much a one trick pony, and light OD is not it's forte, though tube swapping could probably help. In fact probably a u7 or T7 would be better than a 12AX7. it's fizzy, buzzy preamp style distortion. On it's own through a clean amp, yuck. Through a cranked tube amp, it's still pretty fizzy, and sounds like...................................

a 12ax7 pre-amp tube... :laugh2:

I've never understood the allure- back in the mid 80s, yeah. people wanted more gain, and Tube must be better than a chip/diode, right? Thats why I bought one, as I had a SS amp at the time, and it should sound better. Nope. Any # of Distortion/OD pedals sounded much more like a real amp, and provided better tone.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

gibson175 said:
i dont mean to offend in any way...you just said Biyang makes a decent unit that is not very expensive. Its not really a glowing recommendation. Decent in my understanding means useable and servicable, not excellent or superior in any way -especially when added to terms such as not expensive. I have a heap of decent pedals. If perhaps you can give me a detailed description of the qualities of the pedal you mentioned versus the industry standards such as a tube screamer or fulldrive etc then id be keen to read it.
I think i outlined the kind of sonic qualities im after in my original post.
Click to expand...
The clips on youtube of the OTD-100 sound pretty good and the controls sound like they cover a fairly wide range. One thing that I though was interesting is it had good dynamics and sensitivity. It wasn't monolithic or stiff sounding.
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

Okay ill look into it.
All the vids of the chandler ive seen seem to make it like all it does is a violin like howl a.la eric johnson. Which is nice, but not really what i after.
Perhaps a good way to describe what im after is a pedal that can switch from the lovely clean of my twin into the not clean of a tweed bassman or a jtm 45 marshall. Im thinking of a tube pedal cos ive tried just about every regular pedal under the sun.
There reall is no substitiute to plugging into the right amp, but for gigs, a pedal is necessary if yo dont want to carry two or more amps! (especially if one of them is a twin!)
 
Re: Butler Tube Driver?

BOR/Distortron will do the JTM45 thing like nothing else. But granted it will always sound more authentic through a british voiced amp to begin with.

If you want real tube tone to emulate both, buy a Rivera Chubster- does nice blackface, tweed and Marshally like tones from JTM45 through hot rod 800.
 
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