Chandler Tube Driver

4 knobs- how hard can it be?

My set-up are as follows; '54 strat R.I./Gibson LP>Crybaby wah>Tubedriver>Soulbender>Experience pedal>Vibe unit> Choralflange.
It puts an original Ts-808 to shame. I know 'cause I had a few. Comparing the two, the TD has much more gain and you can dial in the right amount of Hi or Lo end to suit your taste. It is much more rich sounding than that overated TS-808, which is thin sounding and overpriced ridiculously.

Built like an M-1 tank. Don't see a need for a back-up.

They aren't made anymore, but mine hasn't given up. I still have the original 12Ax7 on it and it still kicks ass.

Great for everything except death metal. Think Led Zeppelin playing Heartbreaker and Eric Johnson doing Camel's night out. An awesome pedal.

It's extremely easy to use. I have the rack version of the Chandler Tube Driver. Front panel has Drive, Contour, Bias, Master, Hi, Mid and Low. Just a few knobs, not rocket science. In the back there's also two inputs and outputs (line and instrument level for each) and footswitch inputs for bypass and boost.

I use it with either a ADA MP-1 Classic + Marshall EL34 100/100 rig or a JCM800. This unit does two things very well, in my opinion. One is getting some dirt to a clean amp (you know, the kind of dirt you can't get by turning the gain up a bit) and the other is giving a nice, smooth, great sounding lead boost. Used on a clean amp with a strat, it's SRV all over the place, nice cleanish warm tone with a little dirt. Sounds great on the neck/middle pickups. Boosting an already distorted tone, it gives a very nice round, smooth tone, with a lot of sustain. The boost feature is nice if you want both a lead boost and dirt on the clean amp, but I prefer to keep it in boost mode for both situations (using the volume pot on my guitars), because it sounds warmer to me (for whatever reason).

I've had it for a couple of years and I haven't had any problems. I know the previous owner, and the unit has been working fine for the last twenty years or so.

Never had contact with Chandler.

I hate to give all 10s (and I mean that, I usually don't give much credit to all 10 reviews), but this little box helps me get some serious tone (to my ears, at least) and it's very cheap for what it does. I don't play any type of music in particular, I go from classical to metal, to blues, to jazz, to some pop now and then, and pretty much everything in between (or so I like to think). I just try to get a wide range of good tones, and the Tube Driver allows me to get some tones otherwise impossible with my gear. The thing I love about it is that it's so smooth and warm. Just a great tube overdrive.

EASY TO USE, SPIN 'EM & DIAL 'EM IN, NO MANUAL NEED (OR SUPPLIED)

MINE IS THE OLD "MADE IN SAN FRANSISCO" RACK MOUNT VERSION. A LITTLE NOISY AS IT IS NOT TRUE BYPASS, I USE A TRUE BYPASS LOOP ON IN WITH A LIMITER/GATE AFTER IT IN THE CHAIN. I USE IT WITH GIBSON LES PAUL AND FENDER STRATS. ADDS A NICE WARM BLUESEY TONE AND JUMPS THE SIGNAL UP WITH THE BOOST SWITCH ON.

BUILY WELL, NEVER LET ME DOWN IN MANY YEARS, (HELL, I HAVE NEVER EVEN CHANGED THE TUBE!!!)

HA HA!!!

I PLAY EVERY TYPE OF MUSIC AND THIS GEAR IS SUITED FOR BLUES AND CLASSIC ROCK TUNES. BEEN PLAYING MANY MOONS AND IF IT WAS LOST, BROKEN OR STOLEN, I'D JUST OFF IT ON EBAY BECAUSE I HAVE SO MUCH GEAR AND SO MANY DIFFERNT WAYS TO PRODUCE EQUAL OR BETTER DISTORTION, FUZZ OR BOOST THE SIGNAL. TO BE HONEST WITH YA'ALL...RIGHT NOW I AM USING THIS UNIT IN FRONT OF AN OLD HARMONIZER/DELAY TO BOOST THE HARMONIZER AND RUNNING A THERIMIN THROUGH IT. IT DOES VERY WELL AT BOOSTING THE HARMONIZER @ 10 CENTS OFF FOR A NICE DOUBLE TRACK SOUND.

IF your serious about putting some hair on the ass of your tube amp this thing is a monster,I recently bought a rack mount tube driver after having a floor stomp box unit that i flushed due to too much noise.This unit{rack mount}is all i need for either HENDRIXIAN distortion or beleive it or not RANDY RHODES LIVE TRIBUTE SOUND.

Full range dynamics from low to mid to high,EXCELLENT overall performance.REAL TUBE SOUND ALTHOUGH A 12AU7 TUBE WORKS BEST FOR SMOOTH NO GRAIN BREAKUP.

sOLID AS A ROCK.

m ETAL,BLUES,CLASSICAL

This unit is very easy to use, it has six or seven knobs and you can tweak them to your personal touch

The sound quality is very good when you finally get the right guitar and amp/effect setup. I find that my `82 Ibanez artist or any Gibson type guitar works best with this. When I bought this used about 5 years ago, I was playing U.S. strats exclusively and I was hard pressed to get the tone I desired.

This is very reliable. I`ve dropped it many times and it still works excellently. Ive used it on many gigs without a problem, however I would use various different pedals to get the sounds I want.

This is good for getting any classic overdrive sound however I would recommend using this in a mixer because the bypass sound is really brutal. I bought this from Moze Guitars in 1998 for 20 bucks probably for the reason that the front is painted black. Another cool thing is that you can plug the output into a 4x12 and get a killer sound at low at-home practice levels especially with a tech 21 sansamp and wha
pedal.

Very easy.

The tone is better than any other tube pedal I ever heared. David Gilmour uses two of these and it is a major part of his sound.

I bought mine used on Ebay and it came with a GE 12AU7B. I knew that they shiped with the 12AX7. So I popped a EH 12AX7 from my EH Hot Tubes (another amazing pedal). The 12AX7 sucked ass! You need the 12AU7 or the like. It will give you super warm tone with a gorgous overdrive that doesn't break up.

The PROBLEM with this pedal is that even on bypass it makes a lot of noise. Does anyone know how to fix this? If so contact me.

From the look and weight of it you could beat on it with a crowbar and it wouldn't matter.

Aren't they out of buisiness?

I think I said it all.

Takes some time twiddling knobs for a good sound

It has a tube, and to my ear still sounds better than 95% of the transistor pedals out there. The strong point on this one is putting the gain on 10 -- Hendrix-time!!! Totally flips my Twin Reverb and makes it totally unpredictable, absolutely perfect for out-of control Hendrix!! For a mild, controllable sound for R&B it was always a little too fuzzy/harsh for my taste. When it died I replaced it with an Ibanez Tube King which I use to this day.

HAHA!! I'm like the second person ever to have a problem.

First of all- about the tube- you don't have to baby this pedal, the thing's built like a tank!! Carry an extra 12AX7 and a screwdriver and you're set.

Mine died on me after like the third beer spilled on it. SOmehow, the Tube King has been soaked with beer 6 times and a few with rain and it lived -- Just a couple of beers made something fail in the Chandler. It still functions but has a real loud static that makes it unusable, I'm replacing parts to try to find the culprit, anyone out there have any ideas?

I'm sure if you don't play live around beer, rain, and falling cabinets this thing is perfectly reliable, it just happened to fail on me....

Yea, uhh, where are Paul Chandler and BK Butler now? If you know how to get ahold of either of them, ask them to PLEASE help me determine the failed component!! HAHA, right.

Blues/SRV/R&B/Funk

Not really a very good match for my style, the Ibanez Tube King is closer....

Been gigging for 10 years with my 79 strat and 72 twin

I wouldn't replace it, but I am TRYING to fix it :)

I love the totally whacked-out sound with the gain all the way up, never know what you're going to get :)

I chose this initially because it has a tube, and like I said I think even with the drawbacks it sounds better that most of the transistors... Not as smooth and controllable as the Ibanez Tube King

I wish it had all new components so that it worked!! haha

Good pedal, but to me not worth the crazy $ these things seem to go for these days.

Then again, this was a new concept when it was introduced, tube in a pedal.....

This is the old mid-80s four-knob Tube Driver, not to be confused with the Tube Works reissue of the mid 90s. The reissue is not nearly as good. The oldie says "Chandler Industries, San Francisco" on it whereas the reissue doesn't. Easy to use, drive, level, and hi and lo eq. This one has the Attached AC cord, not the transformer adapter. I give it a 9 for ease of use, because you do have to experiment with the two eq knobs to get the best sound out of your guitar and amp.

The unit doesn't seem to handle low end notes very well. Power fifths, low note runs, and especially drop-D stuff just make it sound constipated. Where this thing shines is as a lead pedal. For solos into an old Marshall it's hard to beat. It's more aggressive and gainier than a Fulldrive, but less so than a Rat. Don't automatically assume that it will make you into Instant Eric Johnson.

Hard to rate. For solos it's great, bluesy with a strat, very powerful Texas Tone with a Les Paul. More dynamic than the Tubescreamer based pedals. I give it a 9 for solo tone, and only a 2 for rhythm tone. Better get a Fulldrive or Maxon 808 reissue and use that for crunch and the Tube Driver for leads.

This pedal is better suited for blues, and the Ibanez Tube King is a better hard-rock or metal pedal.

It's almost 20 years old and still works. In fact, mine has the original Chandler Industries tube in it! It gets a 9 for exterior construction, but only a 5 for interior: The circuit board is not positively mounted to the chassis; it just hangs on the leads of the controls. Not hi-quality construction.

Don't know; they haven't made this one for years.

This pedal is no good for rhythm. But through an old Marshall or similar quality tube amp, it makes great solo tone. With a Les Paul it's no problem at all to get great early-ZZ Top solo tone, or really any kind of classic-70s rock solo sounds.

simple to operate but takes a bit of tweeking to get rid of the "bee-in-a-bottle" preamp overdrive sound. the contour and bias controls have little effect, as far as i can tell. leave these dimed. eq is effective but a little tedious.

well, it's not an overdriven marshall. not bad for 85 bucks. fulltone this is not, but until the fulldrive comes in a rack unit, this will have to do. how many rack overdrive units are there? not many. it contributes a small amount of noise, as can be expected. this won't provide high-gain sounds. it does moderately overdriven sounds. i don't crank it lest i lose all note definition. i leave the boost on. it does a nice cascade into the overdrive. i haven't tried replacing the old sovtek 12ax7 that's currently installed, but i plan on it...maybe a svetlana 12au7. as i mentioned, the eq section is effective but there's a very fine line between "huh, not bad at all" and "wow, that sure does suck" so just take your time and roll those highs off. i'm using it in between an alembic preamp and vht poweramp.

well, it's 12 years old (signed and dated 1990 b.k. butler) and still kicking. the guts look pretty basic, so if you're handy with a soldering iron, you could probably fix it yourself.

uh...nope. note around any longer. b.k. does car amps now. tube works is useless in regard to the chandler unit (even though they sold the same product with a different logo).

as i mentioned, not a bad unit. don't pay more than 100 bucks for it, though. this isn't the best and it isn't the worst. it sounds like preamp overdrive, which is patently different from poweramp overdrive. i don't think anybody would steal it. fulldrive beats the chandler hands-down, but there's no fulldrive rack unit.

Very easy to use, 4 controls Level,HI,LO,DRIVE .I have the BK Butler version with the built in AC.

I usually use either a PRS Custom 22 Semi-Hollow or 57 Reissue Strat .HIWATT Custom 50 1x12.WOW what a tone! You can get an excellent range of tone from overdive all the way to Heavy dirt.You can use this with an ECC83,ECC81,or ECC82 depending on what you want to do with it.I use a Mullard ECC82 and find that it's the very best tube when using this unit as an overdrive.I have tried all 3 different tubes. It sounds awesome when combined with another dirt box ala ProCo RAT 2 or Big Muff as long as you keep the drive low on the Chandler it won't squeal.I do highly recommed taking the extra time and $ to get the earlier BK Butler version , it is definitely superior to the versions that came later with the wall wart.I have had several of each and had the opportunity to A+B them.If you get one on EBAY you will more than likely pay alot more than you can get one on Harmony Central for. I would post a want ad and see if you can get lucky. This works well with any other pedal or pedalboard. I know that David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Eric Johnson use this pedal in the studio and live.I am sure there are many others though.Defintiely BLOWS AWAY THE Tubescreamer by leaps and bounds even the older ones.

This pedal is extremely reliable but I wouldn't gig without a backup because no pedal is perfect.Had it almost 2 years, no problems at all.The guy I bought it from had it in a closet since 85.

They are out of business,these pedals were only manufactured fo 1985-1988.

I always use this pedal as an overdrive unit with another dirt box. You can also use it by itself as dirt box but you are better of with an ECC81 or ECC83 for that. It works well for blues and classic rock. I'm sure it would fit in quite well with any style.The tube really adds a distinctly more responsive feel to your playing.If it went down I'd try to have it fixed, if that doesn't work then I'd get another in a heartbeat. There will never be another overdrive on my board.Buy one!!Used prices range from @$180-$360 , You can probably pick one up for $200 on average depending on the model and condition.