Here's a little tube booster project for guitarists. It colors the sound with some tube distortion (although it's more an overdrive than a distortion pedal), a little compression, and it boosts the signal, too. It's a "dirty boost," with the flavor of tubes, and can really spice up an amp (and it does add punch.)

Now With More Gain!
Updated schematic added, see the last page...

Plus, it's low-voltage--no more than 13V, so it's perfectly safe for "tube neophytes" to build. No high-voltage dangers with this one. It can even be powered with a 9V battery (but read the step on "Powering Options.")

With only a few inexpensive parts and a simple circuit, this should be an easy first-time tube project!

I didn't use a video cam mic, so the "youtube" audio is halfway-decent quality. But the mp3 file (look below, beneath the pictures) is much better...it's same audio track.

Step 1: Background

Vacuum tubes have an interesting characteristic called "starved cathode" operation, which results in a good deal of distortion when the tubes are run at very low voltages. Matsumin's Valve Caster tube booster was my introduction to low-voltage tube projects. These voltages, in fact, are so low that many old-skewl electronic techs would tell you that the tubes shouldn't even work... But they do (some do, anyway.) Ignoring the normal plate voltages, if run at 9V the filament voltages are so low that the heater filaments shouldn't even function (but they do.)

Matsumin's project uses 12AU7 tubes, and is a very worthy build. This build, the ValveLiTzer, uses a slightly more oddball tube: the 12FQ8. Why use a weird tube? Because I have about 25 of 'em, and no guitar amps or stompboxes use them. So why not build something?

But the 12FQ8 isn't a typical audio tube. It's a twin-triode, but with 4 plates, and a single shared cathode. Would it even work as an audio amplifier? Only one way to find out...

Why the name ValveLiTzer? These tubes came from the tone generator in a defunct WurliTzer organ.

There are a few web comments (re: are 12FQ8's appropriate for guitar amp use?) but no one to my knowledge actually has to date. Certainly more complex applications are possible.

See they next page for info on procuring the tube (unless you find an old WurliTzer...)
<p>Would using a Voo Doo Labs ISO5 9V power supply work in this circuit?</p>
<p>It should be OK. (sorry for the delay)</p>
<p>First, nice little project this. I made one, v0.4. But I have some issues. When the Valvelitzer is on, the pots on my guitar gets skratchy (only) when I turn them. Second, the gain pot does not work at all. Bias pot - very (very) slightly. But the volume pot works, and I get a darkish gain-boost. Would like the boost to get a little brighter, though.</p><p>The tube is a NOS GE, and the fillaments light up a little. I have tried three of these tubes, but the gain pot does not work. Tried both with HB and SC guitars. Triple checked the wiring, and everything seems ok. Have you experienced some of my 'symptoms' before?</p><p>As the sound of the pedal: </p><p>It does not give a huge boost in sound, but it works very well stacked with a cleaner brighter pedal after it. A clean-boost of some sort. I have a Lovepedal Englishman in clean boost setting that vorks well. The Englishman is a bright pedal, and the Valvelitzer ads warmth and grit to the sound, but still cleanish on full volume.</p><p>I also have a Tube Driver from Tube Works on my board. The valvelitzer before that pedal brings the Tube Driver (with low gain on the TD) into fuzzy/warmish/broken-speaker - kind of sound, but all controllable. Sounds very cool on brighter/lighter-sounding single coils.</p><p>With medium gain on pedals after the Valvelitzer, the noise level is on the higher side, as when I stack the Valvelitzer with the Tube Driver. Noise level with the Englishman in clean boost setting is exeptable. Defenetly sounds moore 'tubey'.</p><p>As power voltage concerns, it sounds better with 9v. 12v makes the Valvelitzer moore 'farty', and the basic caracter of the pedal is lower. As the constructor aimed for; it outputs warm tube sound. I was supprised. The pedal is a little noisy, but it is well worth the effort. Cred to gmoon.</p><p>If I only could get that gain pot to work..</p><br>
<p>Cool, thanks for the feedback! </p><p>One thing about the gain pot -- it doesn't do much at one extreme of the bias setting. I'd expect it to be as the bias POT nears zero resistance, 'cause on the low end of bias the gain POT would do...well, nothing (cathode would already be grounded).</p><p>I've had the thought of revisiting the circuit, maybe picking a fixed value for the bias so the results would be more predictable.</p><p>I don't know about scratchy POTs on the guitar, other than adding a coupling capacitor in front of the effect. In case some DC is leaking from somewhere (shouldn't really happen straight from the guitar, tho).</p>
<p>hey,</p><p>another way for a gain POT is connecting pin 3 to the tube's pin 9, POT pin 1 to ground and a 100uf cap between POT pins 1 and 2 (see image, srry for the use of MS Paint), this works verry good for me, u used it in a transistor/tube hybrid pedal, but i used a trim pot, and another pot for changeable gain</p>
<p>i got 12ba6,12 be6 and 12av6 tubes .would those be good for that build???</p>
<p>One of those is a pentode, one a heptode and the third is a triode / diode. None will work with this circuit, but all are worth experimenting with...</p>
<p>use the pentode and the triode for the two gain stages, the pentode will sound heavy, since the pentode has a far higher mu (gain) factor than the triodes in this schematic</p>
<p>OK, this project is too cool. I love your film can upcycle, love it! I just picked up a Wurlitzer for $17 and now have a ton of 12fq8s. </p>
<p>Awesome, thanks. Make something cool!</p>
Been looking into univibes.
<p>what would be the wiring if i use a 3pdt swith and a green led ligth&Eacute;&Eacute;&Eacute;</p>
<p>Just wire it like any standard &quot;true bypass&quot; pedal. Make sure you have the correct resistor for the LED, as this one is 12 to 13VDC.</p>
Such a cool project! I've been looking for a small 12vdc unit to run in front of a class-D amp for a while and this one looks like it'll work wonderfully! I would probably opt for the low gain mod as I am just trying to add a little tube coloration to a small boombox. Therefore, opting out of the volume pot since the chip amp will handle that. The bias pot seems like a nice feature to retain however. <br><br>What would you recommend to use this with a stereo input signal? Is the 12FQ8 capable of that or do I need to use another tube?<br><br>Thanks!!
<p>Thanks! I'd probably recommend you go ahead and have an adjustable gain and a volume control, but via trim pots that you can set internally and then leave as-is. Or set via fixed resistive dividers (breadboard it for the correct values). This approach will give you the best signal-to-noise.</p><p>To retain a stereo output, one of these tube preamps per channel (two separate preamps) will be needed.</p><p>If the Ible doesn't make it clear, definitely use a regulated supply... Good luck!</p>
<p>Sorry if this is a silly question, but would this pedal work well with my solid state amp? Or does it need to run through a tube amp, like a tube screamer?</p>
<p>YMMV. It will <em>work</em> with a solid state amp. As to whether you <em>like</em> how it sounds with a particular amp or not, that's subjective. </p><p>I'd guess that it wouldn't add much hair to the sound of SS amps. A little, maybe. A boost over unity, yes. Some <em>tubeishness</em> (whatever that is), yeah. But the Tube Screamer analogy is a good one, probably. </p>
<p>Ok, not what I thought you were gonna say hahaha, I thought you were gonna say that the pedal is meant for SS amps, to be like a tube amp emulator if you will.<br><br>If I were going to make one of these It would be for loads of fuzzy fuzz. Check out a band called Conan on youtube, that sort of super fuzz. I guess it would prob work for that more so than for the hard driven bluesy sort of sound.</p>
<p>This probably isn't the pedal for metal. I listened to Conan for a bit, and that's a more modern &quot;scooped&quot; metal sound, more common for post thrash and speed metal. </p><p>I'm not even sure what pedal would get that with a SS amp. You'll have to experiment. Distortion is a strange beast. Often times what sounds good at bedroom levels solo, sounds like crap at high volume with bass and drums.</p><p>My own taste in metal runs toward doom, and back to early Sabbath, etc., records... </p>
On step 4, you refer to an SPDT switch as an &quot;ON/ON SPST switch&quot;. By definition, that is not an SPST switch. I feel like that could trip up some less experienced makers.
<p>That's probably correct, although SPDT doesn't describe the switch either, as there isn't a &quot;dual&quot; position for the actuator--it's a footswitch, and you can't know the current state of the switch visually. </p><p>Maybe &quot;Latching double throw&quot; would be best...</p>
Why would those characteristics make it not count as a Single-Pole, Double-Throw switch? Great instructable btw; I'm building one now.
<p>It does describe it electrically, but still doesn't adequately describe the switch used, 'cause it's latching, not double-throw. </p><p>Thanks! I think I need to revisit this one and play with the circuit a little for fun...</p>
Hello! Just built the 0.4 version, this is my first stompbox project and it was a lot of fun! :) I got about half of it working, I need some help getting the rest of it to work as im really new to electronics. My switch is dead on the off position and on the on position (or maybe its the bipass?) Only the 500K audio pot works. Even when I touch the leads on the bias and gain pots I get nothing (no noise). Id really appreciate any help.<br>Thanks!<br>Bryan.
<p>Hmmm. The gain pot shouldn't work in bypass mode at all, but if the signal is going through the tube (your tests suggest is isn't) something is wired wrong.</p><p>You worked off the wiring diagram? First off, does the filament glow? Check and recheck the wiring...</p>
<p>I think I shall try this. I have Red and Orange metal project box, it should go nicely in it. </p>
<p>Hey everyone, hope all is well!! Just built this bad boy (2pot version).. It seems to work fine, but the bias pot doesn't do anything but stopping the sound when i turn it all the way up (the valve looks brighter too). It also takes a few seconds for the sound to disappear, few seconds for it to appear again when I turn it back down... Any suggestions? I'm clueless.. Thanks a lot</p>
<p>Not sure what's going on here...</p><p>The bias pot won't appear to do much if the gain is low--which you can of course hard-wire so it's low gain all the time. I'd suggest looking at the wiring of both pots to be sure it's correct.</p>
after lisening to this verry verry carfully <br>it sound like the base is a little bit to much distorted <br>it sounds nice <br>heck it even sounds like a old style amp <br>but a little distorted
Hi ! I've built this according to the V.04, and it works great..But :-) in a chain, I have a true bypass pedal after it, and unless it is on, or unless I have another buffered pedal after it in the chain, I lose a lot of clarity and output with the valvelitzer engaged. Do you know the input impedance ? (I saw that the output impedance is around 30-60K, any way to lower that? ) I am running a tillman preamp first in the chain, then 2 more true bypass pedals and a buffered one. Somehow the impedance chain seems to be messed up this way.
Hey, cmpmuller.<br> <br> Yeah, I'd guess the output impedance is something like 60K, based on similar values for triode stages (even though this is an oddball tube). But a typical triode gain stage in a fender has something like 40K output impedance. So it's a tube thing--unless there's a cathode follower after the gain stage to drop the impedance, it's gonna need a high input impedance after to maintain the high end.<br> <br> If you're OK with buffering, you could add an emitter follower (transistor) or an opamp after the tube to drop the output impedance.<br> <br> Another thing to try would be a &quot;brighness switch&quot;, which would add a small cap from C2 to the wiper of the volume pot (connected by a switch so it could be switched out). Actually from the top leg of the volume POT to the wiper. Something in the 100 to 250 pF range. That would boost the highs without lowering the output impedance, at least when the volume control isn't at the max.
January 1st 2012. For some reason it won't let me copy any links right now. <br> <br>The only difference is I deleted the jack (including the resistor on the input) and p1. I also grounded everything to one place on pin 5. The sound works when the circuit is off but when it's on I get no sound output
Did it work before you deleted the volume control? Or were you still trying to get it functional? But you were trying to build something similar to this, right? But with a different tube I think...<br> <br> As far as the Valvecaster, you should probably <a href="http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=63479.0" rel="nofollow">go to one of the forums posts</a> where it's covered in depth. Lots of examples and pics there. They can offer more help than me. Remember, I've never even built one...<br>
I was really wanting to get this to work with just one tube but It looks like if I'm going to build the valve caster I'm going to have to order a new set of components.
I never had a volume control for several reasons but mostly just tto simplify it. I want to build a circuit similar to yours with a different tube yes. <br> <br>I'll go there but I'm far from tube savvy I just know how to solder a circuit together
If you could tell me the values for all of the components for the pcb- less 1 tube design on bevis audio then I could build that one instead
Would it be possible to build this exact circuit useing the &quot;Valve Casters&quot; 12UA7 tube?<br>if not what is the differance between the 2 circuits that make the the tube not interchangeable?
You could make something very similar for the 12AU7, but not exactly. And there's no way to guarantee the results because the 12FQ8 is a different tube, with different internal geometry.<br> <br> There are some similarities--both tubes can use pins 4 &amp; 5 for 12V heaters. No changes there.<br> <br> Both tubes contain two valves; the 12AU7 contains two normal triodes, the 12FQ8 is <em>something</em> else (but I'm still <em>using</em> it as two triodes). Still, each tube's <em>pinouts</em> are different enough to require changes:<br> <br> 12FQ8<br> --Dual plates for each valve (four total).<br> --A single, shared cathode for both valves (one total).<br> <br> 12AU7<br> --One plate per valve (two total).<br> --One cathode per valve (two total).<br> <br> To convert a 12AU7 to something similar:<br> <br> Since the<em> 'litzer</em> simply ties both plates together on each valve, then the single plates of 12AU7 should substitute for the dual-plates wired together. It will simply require one plate per valve rather than two. One pin, rather than two.<br> <br> Likewise, tie the two cathodes of the 12AU7 directly together. This will simulate the single, shared cathode. So the single cathode pin becomes two pins.<br> <br> None of this will necessarily give you the same sound, though. Consider it an experiment (much like the ValveLiTzer was). Frankly, if you compare the two projects, they aren't that different (low voltage, dual triode amplifiers). Once you convert this project to use a standard triode tube, the schematic probably won't look that different from the ValveCaster...<br> <br> (I'm not going to look up and compare the pin numbers of each tube; you can figure that out yourself from the datasheets...)
I notice the Valve Caster project calls for 2 tube in what looks like a sereis circuit, however VallveLitizer calls for 1. so in order to combine the 2 plates I would need something like this?<br>I have basicly no experiance with any sort of tube system so i am probably wrong with this diagram but i do want to try it but unfortunatly i wasnt able to get a hold of any 12FQ8's
Both the tubes are &quot;dual&quot;--two valves in one glass envelope. Both projects use two stages of amplification--as you say, in series.<br> <br> How you draw a tube in a schematic is up to the designer. Often the two valves inside a single tube are drawn far apart on the schematic. It's tougher to do that with the 12FQ8, because of the single cathode--hey, it's a strange tube! So it might be harder to see there are two stages in the ValveLiTzer, but they are there...<br> <br> Here's a <a href="http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/127/1/12AU7.pdf" rel="nofollow">datasheet for the 12au7</a>. Compare the drawing with the 12FQ8. Your schematic--and your wiring diagram (the image you edited is a wiring diagram, not a schematic), MUST use the pinouts of the 12AU7, 'cause that's the tube you're using. So start from scratch, the pins aren't ordered quite like the 12FQ8. There is some overlap of the pins between the two, though.<br> <br> On the 12au7 datasheet, you can see the two cathodes are pins 3 and 8. Those need to be wired together.<br> <br> So--can you find the two plates on the 12au7 drawing? Their (2) pins will replace the four pins on the 12FQ8.<br> <br> (I want you to figure some of this out yourself. ;-)
can you send the link for that. for some reason my computer wont open it properly
It's a PDF. Try a &quot;right button&quot; / &quot;Save Link As&quot;.<br> <br> The link itself:<br> http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/127/1/12AU7.pdf<br> <br> Here's a scrn capture of the pinout. And the other tubes in that family (12ax7, 12at7, etc) share the same pinout.
ok let me try to decode this<br><br>1- annode pate 1guitar input? {hot})<br>2- no idea<br>3- cathode of plate 1 which should go to pin 6?<br>4- VDC +<br>5- Common cathode (ground)<br>6- annode of plate 2 <br>7- no idea<br>8- cathode of plate 2 (output to guitar jack {hot})<br>9- no idea<br><br>so im not entirely sure about this but i might be somewhat getting the hang of it. let me know what you think about it?<br>
It's a start. The &quot;codes&quot; on each pin are a help. The tube is split internally in to the 1st and 2nd valves.<br> <br> 12au7<br> <br> 1) 2P -- 2nd Plate<br> 2) 2G -- 2nd Grid<br> 3) 2K -- 2nd Cathode<br> 4) H -- Heater<br> 5) H -- Heater<br> 6) 1P -- 1st Plate<br> 7) 1G -- 1st Grid<br> 8) 1K -- 1st Cathode<br> 9) HT -- Heater Tap (center of heater filament, for 6V operation)<br> <br> The grids in a tube are the &quot;control&quot;--voltage change here varies the amount of electrons that fly from the cathode to the plate. The grid is like the base of a BJ transistor, or the gate of a mosfet. So a grid would generally be the &quot;input&quot; of a circuit.<br> <br> 12FQ8<br> (numbering &quot;sides&quot; (1st &amp; 2nd) in the same order as the 12au7)<br> <br> 1) 2nd Plate A<br> 2) 2nd Grid<br> 3) 2nd Plate B<br> 4) Heater<br> 5) Heater<br> 6) 1st Plate B<br> 7) 1st Grid<br> 8) 1st Plate A<br> 9) Cathode<br> <br> There's no HT (heater tap) on the 12FQ8. That's OK, we don't need it.<br> <br> So keep the heater wiring, as-is. Substitute the single plates for the dual plates (use one instead of two pins per stage). Connect the cathodes together.<br> <br> Notice that the grids are the same pins on each. And that at least one of the plates on each side of the 12FQ8 coincides with a plate on the 12AU7.<br> <br> The cathode pins are completely different.<br>
so if my understanding is correct the the wireing diagram for the 12AU7 tube should look something like this?
Getting close.<br> <br> R1 and R2 are swapped. 47K to the grid, 1M to the GND.<br> <br> You're missing a plate load resistor on stage two (R4 on the original schematic, 1Meg). So there should be a 1M resistor between the plate and V+, pins 6 and 4.<br> <br> Pin 9 (HT) shouldn't be connected. Don't use it at all.<br> <br> Beyond that, I don't see problems (doesn't mean they aren't there, I just don't see any ;-). Good luck--there are no guarantees here, but in theory you should get output...

About This Instructable




Bio: Go sit in the Faraday cage and think about what you've done...
More by gmoon:Isolation transformer upgrade for old guitar amps The ValveLiTzer: Low-voltage Tube Booster Guitar Tube Amp 
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