So, ten years after selling my Tube Driver, I ran into the guy who I sold it to at the grocery store the other day... he offered to sell it back to me for what I had originally sold it to him for...$60! Needless to say, I jumped on it. Upon getting home with it I opened it up and checked the tube inside and it had a piece floating around in it so I went to a local junk shop to look for a 12AX7 or similar tube to replace it. I found a couple of NOS 6BZ7's made by Hallicrafters... against my better judgement (because I know nothing about tubes or electronics) I replaced the bad tube with one of these 6BZ7's... it sounds fantastic!

My question is this... am I going to ruin my Tube Driver or burn my house down from using it? I only took the pedal for a short (an hour or so) test drive and it sounded out of this world, I didn't smell smoke and the pedal seems to be working great...not noisy or squealy.

Any recommendations on whether to just keep it in there or is it a bad idea?

Thanks

In case anybody was wondering...

I e-mailed BK Butler and received the following message.

Problem with the 6BZ7 tube is that it’s heater is 6 volts and loads down the 12 volt transformer of the Tube Driver. This will eventually overheat it and cause transformer failure. It may work for several days or even weeks but that’s the problem. The other pins of that tube would work OK. You can use most other 12volt dual triode tubes without any problem.
Best wishes,
BK Butler

Glad I asked!

Just ordered a EH 12AY7... tragedy averted!

there ya go. post up a pic of it.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Here it is...

beautiful indeed.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

nice score

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Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancin'

New EH 12AY7 tube just arrived...time to give it a test run!