A superb driver that combines elements of overdrive, fuzz, and distortion using vacuum tubes in the circuit! Venus is a true tube overdrive inspired by all pedal and rack versions of the BK Butler/Chandler Tube Driver, producing everything from smooth, light overdrive tones to high-gain, nasty distortion. Various versions of the original BK Butler Tube Driver have been used by guitarists such as Eric Johnson (on albums such as "Ah Via Musicom" and "Venus Isle"), David Gilmour (on Pink Floyd's "Division Bell" and "Pulse" and subsequent solo albums), Joe Satriani ("Surfing With The Alien"), J Mascis, Billy Gibbons, and Joe Bonamassa. With ultimate versatility and tone sculpting in mind, we set out to recreate one of the Pedal Museum's greatest masterpieces with modern improvements. Without sacrificing tone, we packed the circuitry into the smallest possible enclosure, less than half the size of the original pedal unit. The Tube Driver is a unique overdrive design that uses vacuum tubes, operating in a "starved plate" setup. The original power supply design used an internal step-down transformer to step down the line voltage to +/-15V DC, which typically resulted in a lot of background noise and hum. To minimize such issues, we chose to power the Venus from a standard 9V DC power supply. The pedal can be operated from an isolated 9V DC center-negative power output capable of supplying 500mA of current. A properly designed internal boost/inverter circuit then provides the correct voltage conditions (±15V DC) for vacuum tube operation. ■ Control Drive: Controls the amount of tube drive/saturation and sustain. Bias: Sets the cathode bias of the vacuum tube depending on the type of vacuum tube and the texture of the overdrive/distortion. Volume: Sets the output level of the effect. 3-band EQ (Hi, Mid, Lo) Fat/Tight Push Switch Line Driver/Buffer + Booster Push Switch
