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Old 11-28-2017, 01:57 AM
maxtheaxe maxtheaxe is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: N. Oregon Coast
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When I saw this, I was actually kinda hoping it was regarding the BK Butler TubeDriver amps, which have the same circuit in them as the pedal (except lacking the external bias adjust), used as a preamp. I have a couple of these and they're real sleepers and one can still find them for well under $300.00 (for a long time they were widely available for about $100 bucks). I found one pic I have showing the amp with some other stuff...the other amp is the earlier, black-face/yellow lettering version...this one is the white with black lettering version (lower left-hand corner of the pic)...



These are the TD 752 version, with a 100 watt mosfet power amp. Butler's genius with these is that he sort of reverse-engineered the response characteristics of tube amps and came up with a mosfet design tailored for guitar...something he called 'Mosvalve'...very tube-like, and one of the first hybrid amps out there.

With that great distortion circuit in front of the mosfet power amp, they get a surprisingly tube-like warmth and they absolutely love pedals. Without the Tubedriver circuit switched in, they get a very respectable, big clean tone that is perfect for manipulating with pedals, or in my case, an old Line 6 POD. I tend to use the TD circuit as a mildly distorted boost, which works very well if you swap out the 12ax7 tube for something with a bit more clean headroom and/or attenuated mids (very easy to do). It's great for punching out in a live mix for solos. That's another great thing about the design of both the pedal and the amp...it is very little trouble to customize the type of overdrive, insane shred, soft bluesy burr, or a beeatch of an old Marshall, with a simple, single tube swap.

I finally wore out the custom Eminence (Legend-ish) speakers that came in those amps and replaced them, one with a Celestion V30 and the other with one of the newer Celestion 'V-series'; in both cases the tone is much improved. For live use I also use an Avatar 1x12 closed back extension cab with a V30. For some gigs I use both amps, driven off the stereo outputs of the POD for a big, spacious feel.

I've never found a more practical amp...versatile, consistent, rugged, LOUD as hell, musical sounding and lightweight (about 26lbs). I've taken my Supro Titan to a few gigs; the Supro is a great sounding little amp, usually, but in some rooms it just isn't as easy to dial in the tone I need. I have NEVER had that problem with the TD-752s.
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Last edited by maxtheaxe; 11-30-2017 at 12:04 AM.
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