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Once he switched to the TD it remained his primary overdrive pedal.
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David had previously used other boosters, such as the Colorsound Power Boost, Pete Cornish ST-2 Booster (a modified Power Boost), or Mesa Boogie head (used as an overdrive in his signal chain) in the 1980s.
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He even uses it to mimic the sound of the Selmer Bass & Treble amps that Syd Barrett and he used in the early Pink Floyd. It was the primary overdrive and distortion pedal for David's On an Island tour. You can hear it in songs like Coming Back to Life, Marooned, A Great Day for Freedom, and the live versions of Shine on You Crazy Diamond from Pulse, Remember that Night, and Live in Gdansk. For that Pulse or On an Island era light drive and heavy overdrive tone through a Hiwatt or Fender amp, this is your pedal. Those were the magical combinations heard in Gilmour's work from 1990 and onward. On this one (Rattle That Lock), it’s actually pretty much untreated." - David Gilmour from Guitarist Magazine 2015įor the Gilmour sound, I think the Tube Driver sounds best with Gilmourish amps like the Hiwatt Custom 50 (DR504), Custom 100 (DR103), Fender Bassman, or Fender Bandmaster. "The overdrive I tend to use is a (BK Butler) Tube Driver these days, often with a compressor feeding into it. He does not use any with the bias control fitted." - Phil Taylor, Guitar tech for David Gilmour - June 2018 issue of Tonequest
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We have tried all the variants - Chandler ones with in line PSU, 3 Knob version, rack mount, etc but the only one he likes are the original mains powered 4 knob with "designed by BK Butler" on the top. "David started using a Tube Driver during recording for the Division Bell album in 1993 and has used them ever since. His collection of Tube Drivers includes several 1980s originals, several 911 Tube Drivers, a gold Tube Works 911 Tube Driver, and the five knob Real Tube version from Tube Works. He used Tube Drivers extensively for his 2006 album On an Island and the subsequent tour, heard on the Remember That Night and Live in Gdansk concert releases, as well as his 2015 Rattle that Lock album and tour, and his 2017 album, Live at Pompeii.
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Those same sessions also resulted in the Division Bell companion album, Pink Floyd's The Endless River, which was not completed until 2015. He first used them in the recording sessions for Pink Floy's The Division Bell album. David Gilmour has been an avid Tube Driver user since around 1993.
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