Have you considered a Tube Tamer?

You'll get more from the tonebone if you sold it in good working order, so you may as well fix it, try it again and if it doesn't work for your tone get rid of it.

Mike, I've considered attenuation, but that shortens tube-life unless you re-bias the amp, and then I lose having the "pristine clean" provided by a 100w amp

Does anyone have experience with poor/good Tonebones (do I just buy another...?) or with the mysterious Butler Tube Driver

I have a BK Butler Tube Driver ...though I'm a mere mortal ?. Can't compare it to the Tonebone, never used one but I can highly recommend the Tube Driver. It's one very, very sweet overdrive pedal. Order the one with the voltage attenuation knob, that way you can fine tune it a bit more. It's said that the Tube Driver is meant more to drive big valve amps and yours certainly qualify! If it's good enough for Eric Johnson and David Gilmour, it's probably good enough for the rest of us!

Sebastian wrote: Mike, I've considered attenuation, but that shortens tube-life unless you re-bias the amp, and then I lose having the "pristine clean" provided by a 100w amp

You are mistaken. An attenuator (Exclude variable voltage or power scaling of some kind) does not add to the wear of tubes. Running the amp cranked for a good tone decreases tube life. It's a bit of a weigh off, but if you want tube tone, deal with buying tubes once every few years, or get a solid state.

Also the tube tamer is variable. So you can drop the volume by about 30% to 50% to get somewhere between 10 and 50 watts of power, which is more than reasonable for loud cleans.

Another thing to consider is the cab you are using. 2 speakers are 60% louder than 1, and 4 speakers are another 60% louder than that.

probably depends on how much you like the sound when it wrks. Im very happy with mine.

A valve is maybe R150, maybe an easy DIY job, why not check it out?

I also use a clean amp (Twin) with drive up front. To be honest the only valve overdrive I've ever liked was the Vox Big Ben - very warm and natural, it felt like a valve amp and worked well with a solidstate drive up front. Having said that, I don't know the Butler, but they do come highly recommended.

But for the Dumble thing, there are a couple of solidstate pedals that do the job admirably: Hermida Zendrive, Ethos Overdrive (costs as much as a decent amp though), et. al..

I'm Running a tonebone trimode into a clean amp as well and I have been getting Brilliant results. I believe there have been issues with switches etc on the tonebones but I have had the hot british and the trimode with no issues ( both were bought 2nd hand ). I have a tube tamer as well and us it solely on my blackface fender to get that great tone at reasonable volumes. I was also considering the tube driver at $299 but after trying the tonebone trimode I am very happy indeed. Having 2 channels of drive and a bypass it gives plenty of options and it also has an effects loop for the 2nd drive channel which is very handy for that customized lead tone you might be after. +1 for fixing the tonebone. Looking at the layout and components inside it looks very repairable if ever anything decides to go wrong. My only gripe is the 15 volt wall wart. I need a cioks dc10!
Cheers
Andy

a)how much gain do you need? have you tried a simple boost pedal to push the amp harder? (not useful to buy or to use for gigs unless you want a boost in volume with your boost in gain) but it will tell you what sort of pedal will be ideal to replace the tonebone.

b)do you want it to sound like a light overdrive when you back down the volume?

c)must it be a natural sounding EQ or just not mid heavy or scooped?

i built a tube pedal that had alot of volume on tap but not much distortion. That pushing my amps into overdrive sounds alot better than any of the tonebones in comparrison with a valve amp cranked BUT the tonebone mic's up better. i used the real mctube schematic with a B+ 280V and added a high cut control (+ some other tweaks).

here is a bit of simple stuff about tube pedals:
http://amps.zugster.net/articles/tube-pedals/BKButlerTubeDriver.gif

here is the BK butler schem:
http://www.muzique.com/schem/tubedrvr.gif

here is the real mctube schem:
http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/graphics/mctube2l.gif

my tonebone hot britsh switch broke the level pot is intermittant and the contour pot is now a fixed resistor... i really dont rate them as reliable... i have fixed a plexitube (the loop made the whole 2nd channel faulty) and a classic (switch) too so go figure.

You are mistaken. An attenuator (Exclude variable voltage or power scaling of some kind) does not add to the wear of tubes. Running the amp cranked for a good tone decreases tube life. It's a bit of a weigh off, but if you want tube tone, deal with buying tubes once every few years, or get a solid state.

Also the tube tamer is variable. So you can drop the volume by about 30% to 50% to get somewhere between 10 and 50 watts of power, which is more than reasonable for loud cleans.

Another thing to consider is the cab you are using. 2 speakers are 60% louder than 1, and 4 speakers are another 60% louder than that.
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Mike, awunamanga umngane wami, you are DOUBLE mistaken! That's what i meant by attenuation shortens tubelife... putting strings on a guitar doesn't shorten string-life but playing the guitar does ?

Also the only reason I'd ever consider attenuation is to get its genuine crunch and then pair it with a clean amp, and pushing the amp only to still keep it clean doesn't solve any of my problems. Hence this topic.

wena mistaken...

But are you sure adding more speakers adds THAT MUCH volume?? with stereo-capable cabs wired in parallel (I hope I'm right ? )I'd always been under the impression that adding speakers only shared the amp load across more drivers, and so gave it a bigger, fatter sound, with a wee bit of extra volume only being a "result of"? Also what speakers you use must surely make a difference?

I get the feeling alot of you want me to drive this amp... it takes serious volume boost to drive this thing!!! driving it is simply out of the question, it would be unusable, except for Wembley Stadium etc.( ? ) Even at low volume, to kick the preamp into overdrive with clean boosts makes the amp too loud, because it has headroom to satisfy cathedral-builders. That is why I run a tube-overdrive almost as a preamp, and use my guitar's volume for control...

Riaan, how did you come by one?!?!? haha ? how much drive does it have? also to buy one of the volt-modded Butlers costs an extra $130... So I'm not terribly tempted into that. Johnson didn't seem to mind either ? You also forgot Satriani, by the way! also a famous user...

The Tonebone shall be fixed, I'll sell it on here, and one of you can have it ? (unless i can get it to work for a month or more, in which case it'll remain mine)

clearly I don't know how to use quotes... oh well

Why not get a little solid state if you don't like running tubes properly ? HEheheh.

Doubling speakers increases the sensitivity, 2 speakers = twice as sensitive, 3db incease, but each only gets half the wattage. You can do the math but it's somewhere around 60% extra or more.

There are even better options though. Get a VVR, it will increase tube life and give you a proper master volume.

Because solid-states are no more good amplifiers than if I plugged my guitar in to my car's exhaust. The point of a tube isn't necessarily to "push it until it drives" (which seems to be a common myth... One of the most popular "real" amplifiers of all time, the twin reverb, is designed not to break up for as long as possible) The point of tube amps, and why people say they are better without even knowing really if or why, is to maintain musical overtones which are created in good instruments, and don't survive in solid-state circuitry. These musical overtones are present and ARE the basis of positive feedback, regardless of whether the tubes are cranked or not. Cranking tubes creates more overtones (or else referred to as "hair" on overdrive) and so that is why I won't use solid-state, thank you sir. I'm quite happy without attenuation for now until I can afford for someone to carry two amps around for me, I merely need a good tube-driven (using a real tube properly) overdrive pedal.

And when you say "volume" do you mean apparent or meter volume? That'd make a big difference in explaining that science stuff to me

Seb, just be a real man and get a Tube King ?

.

Sebastian wrote: Because solid-states are no more good amplifiers than if I plugged my guitar in to my car's exhaust.

Nothing wrong with solid-state. Just different. Roland JC120, Pignose, the Riviera designed Yamahas, Lab, et.al. - all good amps.

Apparently the box to look for is the Tonebone Plexitube. Don't know whether they're available in SA but they're pricy, even on eBay. Around 300 Dollars.

If you go to the radial website you'll be amazed at the selection of artists using them, from Eric Johnson to Steve Lukather.

Anyone got an idea where we can get these locally?

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:

Sebastian wrote: Because solid-states are no more good amplifiers than if I plugged my guitar in to my car's exhaust.

Nothing wrong with solid-state. Just different. Roland JC120, Pignose, the Riviera designed Yamahas, Lab, et.al. - all good amps.

I owned a JC120 once. Great amp! As I remember there were two versions, one with more powerful pro speakers, which was the one that I had.