This was before Butler was actually marking pedals with his own name, so those first Tube Drivers were marked TUBE DRIVER™ and CHANDLER ELECTRONICS-PATENT PEND on the front, with LEDs placed above the the screen printed text. Note the inout/output jacks are on the sides, rather than the end as on later models.Ī rare 1985 Butler/Chandler Tube Driver (left) and 1987 Butler/Chandler Tube Driver (right)īutler had trusted Chandler Industries to distribute some of his first tube pedals, the Mini Boogie/Mini Matrix, so he again used them for his new Tube Driver distribution in 1985.

Butler/Chandler Tube Driver with TM after DRIVER and no B.K. Butler says he designed that version in 1983 and it was produced in 1985.Ī rare original 1986 B.K. Butler then reworked the design again, combining an op-amp (operational amplifier or integrated circuit chip) and a pre amp tube running on starved voltage to generate the distortion, which led to the popular 4 knob Tube Driver. The Mini Boogee/Mini Matrix circuit included two 12AX7 preamp tubes. He later changed the name to Mini Matrix after getting a cease and desist from Mesa Engineering, who owned the name Mesa Boogie.

He then made a 5-knob version called the Mini Boogee in 1980, sold through his Audio Matrix business that he ran out of Carvin's old building. They were housed in a blue metal box with 3 knobs and a 6AV6 or 12AV6 tube inside. He first marketed and sold them publicly in 1979, under the Butronics brand. The positive response led Butler to further reduce and simplify the circuit, making an early version of his Tube Driver pedal for friends around 1975.Īfter getting some practical work experience in electronics working for Carvin amplification, Butler refined the Tube Driver even more. He mounted the circuit in a Radio Shack enclosure and let a few local guitarists try it out. Butler wanted to overdrive his keyboard by modifying the tube amplification circuit of an old stereo record player. Inspired by the Hammond organ sound of the band Deep Purple in the 1970s, the genesis of the Tube Driver happened when Brent K.

It became a very popular pedal among guitarists for the next 35 years, and onwards. The Tube Driver was one of the first tube overdrives to enter the effects pedal market in the late 1970s. Last update August 2020įor the main Tube Driver article CLICK HEREįor the David Gilmour Tube Driver article CLICK HERE

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