MichaelW
Well-known member
- Build Rating
Another board that I didn't notice until recently browsing the website with the coupon code in my hot little hands.
The name "Cattle Driver" just didn't conjure up the notion of killer overdrive tones. But a little research at the University of Google and I found
out that this is a clone of a clone of a Butler Tube Driver. That got me interested, and some of the video demos I watched sealed the deal and I ordered it.
I've only every played through a Tube Driver once and that was MANY decades ago. I was pretty much floored how good it sounded.
I remember as a little kid seeing ads for the Tube Driver in the back of Guitar Player Magazine.
I'd never heard of Buffalo FX or the TD-X and was a little skeptical at how it would be able to capture that Butler sound.
Well my skepticism was unfounded, this thing REALLY sounds good! Very tube-like. In fact it's reminiscent of the sounds I was getting out of my Space Heater build right before it went up in smoke hah!
I admit there might be some confirmation bias going on here, but I'm really astounded at how this pedal sounds. I'm not exactly sure how it works, I need to spend some time looking over the schematic, but I'm intrigued now.
I messed around with a couple of my P90 guitars and it really sounds fantastic being pushed by the Closed Circuit Limiter and for a little different flavor being pushed by the Modus Operandi boost. Tomorrow, I'll try the Strat and maybe one of the humbucker PRS guitars. Really BIG sounding pedal. The Lo and Hi knobs are a little confusing, it doesn't sound like a conventional passive tone stack, but that might be in how the gain is generated, I dunno.
There's a tight association with this sound and David Gilmour's sound and I can definitely see that. As I understand it, Gilmour is still using a Butler as his main drive pedal.
I've got another "Gilmour-esque" pedal in queue, the Grover Drive, will be interesting to compare the two. Super smooth build as far as the board itself.
I substituted a TL071 for the LM301AN because I couldn't find one. Don't suspect I'm missing anything. A mix of low profile electrolytic caps and tantalums to get it to fit in a 1590B without much drama. I had to move one of the 150n film caps to back of the board due to the size of the cap, it's one of the larger format ones but it's all I had.
The only real issue that I ran into was the enclosure itself. I recently grabbed a couple of the $3.75 powder coated enclosures from SmallBear, I'll usually throw a couple in my order when I place a Small Bear order. Well these were different from the ones I got before. Very thin walled. The powder coating wasn't bad but they seem a bit like a tin can. And the dimensions were just off enough to throw off some of my fairly tight top jack measurements. I did get it all to work but the jacks are pretty tight against the pot condoms. Not sure if that's going to be a problem after a few times plugging and unplugging. We'll see.
Highly recommend this build for a warm, fuzzy, soulful overdrive/distortion. And as typical for me and my tastes, it sounds best with the gain dialed low. It can also function as a semi-clean boost with the gain turned all the way off and the level cranked up a bit. Very cool pedal!
The name "Cattle Driver" just didn't conjure up the notion of killer overdrive tones. But a little research at the University of Google and I found
out that this is a clone of a clone of a Butler Tube Driver. That got me interested, and some of the video demos I watched sealed the deal and I ordered it.
I've only every played through a Tube Driver once and that was MANY decades ago. I was pretty much floored how good it sounded.
I remember as a little kid seeing ads for the Tube Driver in the back of Guitar Player Magazine.
I'd never heard of Buffalo FX or the TD-X and was a little skeptical at how it would be able to capture that Butler sound.
Well my skepticism was unfounded, this thing REALLY sounds good! Very tube-like. In fact it's reminiscent of the sounds I was getting out of my Space Heater build right before it went up in smoke hah!
I admit there might be some confirmation bias going on here, but I'm really astounded at how this pedal sounds. I'm not exactly sure how it works, I need to spend some time looking over the schematic, but I'm intrigued now.
I messed around with a couple of my P90 guitars and it really sounds fantastic being pushed by the Closed Circuit Limiter and for a little different flavor being pushed by the Modus Operandi boost. Tomorrow, I'll try the Strat and maybe one of the humbucker PRS guitars. Really BIG sounding pedal. The Lo and Hi knobs are a little confusing, it doesn't sound like a conventional passive tone stack, but that might be in how the gain is generated, I dunno.
There's a tight association with this sound and David Gilmour's sound and I can definitely see that. As I understand it, Gilmour is still using a Butler as his main drive pedal.
I've got another "Gilmour-esque" pedal in queue, the Grover Drive, will be interesting to compare the two. Super smooth build as far as the board itself.
I substituted a TL071 for the LM301AN because I couldn't find one. Don't suspect I'm missing anything. A mix of low profile electrolytic caps and tantalums to get it to fit in a 1590B without much drama. I had to move one of the 150n film caps to back of the board due to the size of the cap, it's one of the larger format ones but it's all I had.
The only real issue that I ran into was the enclosure itself. I recently grabbed a couple of the $3.75 powder coated enclosures from SmallBear, I'll usually throw a couple in my order when I place a Small Bear order. Well these were different from the ones I got before. Very thin walled. The powder coating wasn't bad but they seem a bit like a tin can. And the dimensions were just off enough to throw off some of my fairly tight top jack measurements. I did get it all to work but the jacks are pretty tight against the pot condoms. Not sure if that's going to be a problem after a few times plugging and unplugging. We'll see.
Highly recommend this build for a warm, fuzzy, soulful overdrive/distortion. And as typical for me and my tastes, it sounds best with the gain dialed low. It can also function as a semi-clean boost with the gain turned all the way off and the level cranked up a bit. Very cool pedal!
I'm really digging it, sweet sounding pedal for those certain types of sounds. But yah, I'm sure my wandering heart will fall in love with the next overdrive I build hahah
