Ruokangas unveils the Valvebucker® – the first and only tube driven electric guitar pickup in the world

The Valvebucker® is “just one pickup” – and yet, it offers a whole array of different sounds. The Valvebucker® functions in a different way than other pickups, and thus a guitar equipped with a Valvebucker® doesn’t quite fit any old school genre of guitars – its wide tonal spectrum and organic dynamics are simply different from other guitars.

The design architecture of the Valvebucker® circuit is noteworthy, making use of sweet spots found from outside the typical operational points of vacuum tubes, by using relatively low voltages. The power consumption of the Valvebucker® remains within the given values also during startup – an important feature when using commercially available pedal power units. Every Valvebucker® unit is handmade and finetuned individually in Finland. The Valvebucker® design team is: Lassi Ukkonen (the designer of Simble Overdrive, etc), Jorma Kostamo, Jyrki Kostamo and Juha Ruokangas.

The Valvebucker® will be introduced at The NAMM Show 2019. The Valvebucker® is available as a custom option for Ruokangas guitars from January 2019 on, adding EUR 1200 to the cost of an ordered instrument.

The Valvebucker® features include:
Tube amplified active preamp circuit
Military grade triode and pentode NOS tubes with lifetime warranty
Volume and Tone controls
3-way switch for a variety of sounds
2-way boost switch
A floor unit included, to connect the Valvebucker® -equipped guitar with the rest of your signal chain
A 12VAC power supply included
A 10-foot XLR cable included

This is how the Valvebucker® works

Your Valvebucker -equipped guitar comes with a floor unit in the size of a standard guitar FX pedal. You connect the Valvebucker guitar to the floor unit with a standard XLR microphone cable.

The Valvebucker is powered through the floor unit, that connects to a 12VAC power source. Use either your regular pedal power (12VAC, min. 250mA) or the power supply provided with the guitar.

The floor unit has two inputs and a true bypass A/B switch to easily alternate between the Valvebucker -equipped guitar and the rest of your guitars. The signal chain continues through the floor unit normally to your pedalboard and/or amplifier.

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