Crazy Tube Circuits Venus Overdrive Pedal

Pre-Order Period: March 7 - 14, all orders will be fulfilled after that.

At NAMM 2025, Greek pedal brand Crazy Tube Circuits introduced the Venus overdrive, a real tube overdrive inspired by all the pedal and rack versions of the Butler Tube Driver.  With its three-way EQ section and Bias control, this is a pedal that can produce a wide range of tones.

Inspired by one of the greatest masterpieces of the pedal museum, Crazy Tube Circuits set out to recreate a classic tube tone sculpture with modern refinements. They concentrated all the different voicings of the classic tube-powered overdrive variations throughout the 80s and 90s, along with some mods and features of the rack mount variants, in a compact enclosure with less than half the size of the original pedal unit.

Instead of an internal power transformer we chose to power the device from a standard 9V DC power supply to reduce background noise and hum and designed a voltage multiplier circuit to provide the needed voltage range of +/- 15V DC. 

While the classic unit featured an ECC83 dual triode, many users preferred a lower gain/higher headroom alternative like ECC82/12AU7. For the rework of the masterpiece CTC opted for an ECC832 dual triode tube which is half an ECC83 and half an ECC82 for optimum performance and the best of both worlds. 

FULL FEATURE LIST:
- Real Tube Overdrive inspired by all pedal and rack versions of BK Butler Tube Driver.
- Small enclosure – less than half the size of the classic tube drive units.
- ECC832 tube included (consists of half an ECC83 and half an ECC82) for optimum performance. ECC83/12AX7, 5751, ECC81/12AT7, 6072/12AY7, ECC82/12AU7 can be used as well in place of the ECC832.

Controls: 

Drive: control the amount of tube drive/saturation and sustain. From light tube overdrive (counter-clockwise) to fuzzy distortion (clockwise). 

Bias (1): set the tube cathode bias/control the current passing through the tube cathodes. 

Adjust this knob to find the sweet spot for different tube types used and/or set the texture of the overdrive: from gnarly, nasty and gated (counter-clockwise) to smooth and creamy (clockwise). 

Volume (2): set the output level of the effect. 

Hi: adjust the amount of high frequencies, increasing as turned clockwise. 

Mid: adjust the amount of mid frequencies/sweep through the different voicings of the classic tube-powered overdrive varia- tions throughout the 80s and 90s. 

Lo: adjust the amount of low frequencies, increasing as turned clockwise. 

Tight push switch: pre-set the amount of low and low-mid frequencies that hit the tube gain stages, select between fat or tight sound (when pushed in) – inspired by the "contour" knob of the rack mount version. 

Line Driver Push Switch (3): select between the unbuffered instrument level output of the pedal version or the buffered line level output of the rack mount unit (when pushed in). 

FOOTSWITCH: engage or true bypass the effect via a high quality relay. 

POWER-UP BYPASS STATE PRESET: On power-up the LED will blink and then go in bypass mode by default. Hold the footswitch during power-up to change the default function to engaged (on state). Repeat the procedure above to restore the previous setting. This function comes in especially handy to people that use remote pedal switchers/loopers as they only set the state of the pedal once and then operate from the controller. 

Connections: 

↓↑: mono instrument jack input/output. 

Power supply (4): 9V DC center negative, regulated/stabilized. Isolated power supply is recommended for best performance. Max current consumption 400mA. 

They designed Venus with an ECC832 dual triode tube for optimum performance but you can replace it with any standard dual triode like ECC83/12AX7, 5751, ECC81/12AT7, 6072/12AY7, ECC82/12AU7  

Made in Greece.