He was a real gentleman about the situation, so I promptly changed the name to ‘Mini Matrix’ at his request. Sold a number of those in old Bud aluminum boxes, painted blue… Started Audio Matrix in Carvin’s old building in 1980 and first designed & sold the “Mini Boogee” honestly not realizing the TM problem with Randal Smith’s “Boogie”. It didn’t have any EQ controls, just Drive, Sustain (built in compressor) and Output level. I then simplified the circuit, shrunk it down, and built several similar “Tube Drivers” for friends back in ’75 or so… Around 1978 I went to work for Carvin and after learning a bit more about guitar amp design and prosound in general, I decided to make the first Tube Driver pedal for profit and advertised in Guitar Player in 1979. The guitarists in a local band tried it out and loved the sound. It sounded pretty good so I put it in a Radio Shack metal cabinet and called it Tube Driver. My Dad let me have an old tube-amped stereo record player, so I ripped out the innards and started playing around with overdriving the phono input with my Farfisa Mini Compact organ.

My dream was to have a B3 and a Leslie 147, but alas that was way over my budget. I began playing around with tube overdrives when I first heard Deep Purple’s raging Hammond organ sound on several of their live albums back in the 70’s.

What lead to the creation of your Tube Driver for music (guitar)? “…There is no Butler / chandler Tube Driver really …matter of fact it’s ALL Butler…” Questions are in bold from John Roscoe while answers from BK Butler follow each question in blue: As many of the visitors to this site are aware, David Gilmour has used the Tube Driver since the late 1980’s and it has remained a vital piece of his recording and touring arsenal. Butler has taken time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for The TONE FROM HEAVEN. With the movement of many musicians to have vintage effects and get away from the multiprocessors to some degree, the original Tube Driver developed by BK Butler has been one of the most recognized and most sought after effect. Known throughout the world as the favorite pedals of Eric Johnson, David Gilmour, Billy Gibbons and countless others, the Tube Driver has maintained a foothold in mainstream tones since the ‘80’s. Butler which started the modern trend of tube overdrive devices. Tube Driver is the original brain child of B.K. Butler and THE one and only TUBE DRIVERĪn interview by John Roscoe for the TONE FROM HEAVEN

Bk butler tube driver pots