Drunk Beaver's Pedal Drop #23 sees a second Tube Preamp - the Lutsk, based on the Fender 5E3 Deluxe Reverb preamp section

So we’ve already had a Tube Preamp from Drunk Beaver before - the Ternopil from Pedal Drop #20 - that one was more of a tone-enhancer - added warmth and sparkle kind of thing - using a fairly unique Ukrainian 6Ж45Б-В Pentode Tube.

The Lutsk Deluxe Preamp is more typical fare in many ways - based that classic 5E3 Tweed Generation of Fender Amps. At its basic level it’s a reproduction of the Tweed Deluxe preamp section (Single Channel), while of course with Vitalii’s usual tweaks in effect.

Controls - Master, Tone, Gain.

As for those original preamp types, the Lutsk controls are highly interactive - and each of them adds a degree of gain as you dial them up - obviously the labeled Gain more than others - while each has a fairly significant impact - and together they shape the character, tonality and range of the output. Which differs from the relatively mild Ternopil in being able to deliver a really decent Mid Gain Overdrive - up to a Crunch level of thereabouts.

As mentioned - of course Vitalli has engaged his usual engineering prowess in further elevating this circuit. The Lutsk uses a subminiature dual triode - 6N17B-V (6Н17Б-В, V suffix stands for military spec selection) instead of 12AY7 (first gain stage for both channels) and 12AX7 (second gain stage and phase splitter) as in the Fender amps. 

The 6N17B-V Tube has mu (gain) in between those 12xxx tubes - 70 (12AY7 - 40, 12AX7 -100). The circuit runs the tube at a high voltage (~160V) from the 9V power supply (it requires at least 500mA current, 440mA is needed for tube heaters). 160V is lower than 5E3 voltages (usually above 250V), but that makes it limited by mini tube ratings. 6n17b-V Tubes have a pretty long lifetime per the datasheet - 5000 hours (while 12AX7 might have 2-3k hours - depending on manufacturer). The circuit was biased especially for 6n17b-W, while Vitalii has worked hard to preserve the 5E3 character. It goes from a warn and bright clean to a raw overdrive, and can even hit crunch levels when playing through humbuckers.

As in the 5E3 Amps - Gain (volume) and Tone controls are highly interactive, more treble gives you more gain too, and at Max Gain the Tone control has minimal impact. The Lutsk Deluxe Preamp is essentially an implementation of the 5E3 Bright Channel.

After the 2 Gain stages of the preamp, there’s a Master volume control and output buffer - utilising a LND150 MOSFET for better signal integrity. The preamp is highly dynamic, and can easily be used as a classic Pedal Preamp or Overdrive, or plugged directly into a Power Amp or IR Loader.

As with all Pedal Drop releases #23 is a limited affair - restricted to just 30 pedals - where they go for a very reasonable $175 plus shipping & taxes on the Drunk Beaver Rocks Webstore. Vitalii is considering releasing them across two days - to give everyone a fair shake - and make it easier on the handling side of things - so likely 15 will be on sale when you see this article, and the second 15 will go on sale tomorrow!

Vitalii haș posted up a couple of sound samples on Instagram :

www.instagram.com/reel/C_f76GLs-BP/

www.instagram.com/reel/C_s_X-dsXJa/

Alas Apple doesn’t allow those to be embedded any more because they contain unauthorised trackers.

I’ve chosen a suitable sound sample video reference - where a number of different tubes are being tested within a 5E3 amp - it certainly communicates the typical brightness of those amp types.