tc electronic Tube Pilot Overdrive

This is NOT a copy of the Butler, only based on the design. With that said, it is an amazing sounding heavy overdrive. Just don't expect any clean sounds with soft "on the edge of breakup" from it. Starved plate, like most of the actually tube driven pedals, you can honestly find the same sound in most high gain diode clipping overdrives that don't need 400 mA power supply. I still love it for what it is. Put it in front of a dirty tube amp ;)

P.S.: don't forget to cut the power to it after use, or it's going to keep heating the tube (and the casing). The foot-switch only engages the bypass.

This is an incredible product: genuine valve drive in a portable pedal for a very reasonable price. But for best results, definitely upgrade the valve, and add EQ.

I have 2 of these, one with a JJ 5751 valve (~70% gain of a typical 12AX7) which I use for crunch/OD, and one with a Tung-Sol 12AX7 which works as OD2/full drive. I stack them on top of each other for a juicy, high-gain British lead sound.

The factory valves in my TC Tube Pilots were a Bugera 12AX7C (bought a few years ago) and a Bugera 12AX7D (bought last week). These are often the standard preamp valve used in small Bugera lunchbox amps, so... they are not bad, but they are not great. I thought they sounded quite dry and fizzy, especially without EQ.

The Tube Pilot has just 2 controls, volume and gain. This means out of the box, the unit can sound quite disappointing - a bit lifeless and flat. A solution is to add EQ, either from a pedal or maybe a multieffects unit, and the tone suddenly comes to life just like in a combo amp. There are 2 similar pedals to the Tube Pilot which have a preamp valve and EQ, the Behringer Vintage Tube Monster and the acclaimed Butler Tube Driver, but these are very large and the Butler is (for good reason) quite expensive.

The build quality is very good. The casing is a very solid tank, and the dials have a satisfying feel to them. That said, the kickswitch is odd – when off, it turns on when the switch is *released*; when on, it turns off when you *press* the switch. This might bother some but not others. I'm sidestepping the issue by using a loop controller. The current draw is 400mA which is quite a lot compared to most pedals.

Conclusion: Upgrade the valve and add EQ, and this is a cost-effective way of introducing awesome valve sound to your portable pedalboard setup.

I haven't had that much time with it so far but I already have to say I'm amazed.
considering how much this thing costs, it's a really good pedal.
I have a tubescreamer I use a lot and on their own, the tube pilot sounds much better to me.
definitely depends on the application however, I like using the tubescreamer to gun an already driven amp, but if you just want a simple overdrive in front of a clean amp, buy this and you'll be amazed. even with the gain at around 9 o'clock you get that "power sag" sound that occurs when you run a valve amp really loud

Great overdrive, but in my case I needed to replace tube. Mine has come with Bugera 12AX7C tube, wich has to much highs and brightnes for my taste and amp. In front of some amps this may be ok, but my tube amp has JJ ECC83S preamp tubes and the diference in coloring the sound is to much. I have replaced Bugera tube in pedal with JJ 12AY7 (for warmer sound and less gain), and adjusted trim pot (inside pedal) to minimum. For the same original amount of gain, I would chose JJ ECC83S or JJ E83CC (I'm thinking about buying one more:)). Now is almost perfect transparent overdrive, with only slight low end sound lose when it is ON. This gives me possibility to switch pedal ON when I need more natural tube overdrive without sound volume incrase. Perfect!