# Cattle Driver (Buffalo FX TD-X)



## MichaelW (Aug 25, 2022)

Another board that I didn't notice until recently browsing the website with the coupon code in my hot little hands.

The name "Cattle Driver" just didn't conjure up the notion of killer overdrive tones. But a little research at the University of Google and I found
out that this is a clone of a clone of a Butler Tube Driver. That got me interested, and some of the video demos I watched sealed the deal and I ordered it.

I've only every played through a Tube Driver once and that was MANY decades ago. I was pretty much floored how good it sounded.
I remember as a little kid seeing ads for the Tube Driver in the back of Guitar Player Magazine.

I'd never heard of Buffalo FX or the TD-X and was a little skeptical at how it would be able to capture that Butler sound.

Well my skepticism was unfounded, this thing REALLY sounds good! Very tube-like. In fact it's reminiscent of the sounds I was getting out of my Space Heater build right before it went up in smoke hah!

I admit there might be some confirmation bias going on here, but I'm really astounded at how this pedal sounds. I'm not exactly sure how it works, I need to spend some time looking over the schematic, but I'm intrigued now. 

I messed around with a couple of my P90 guitars and it really sounds fantastic being pushed by the Closed Circuit Limiter and for a little different flavor being pushed by the Modus Operandi boost. Tomorrow, I'll try the Strat and maybe one of the humbucker PRS guitars. Really BIG sounding pedal. The Lo and Hi knobs are a little confusing, it doesn't sound like a conventional passive tone stack, but that might be in how the gain is generated, I dunno.

There's a tight association with this sound and David Gilmour's sound and I can definitely see that. As I understand it, Gilmour is still using a Butler as his main drive pedal. 

I've got another "Gilmour-esque" pedal in queue, the Grover Drive, will be interesting to compare the two. Super smooth build as far as the board itself.
I substituted a TL071 for the LM301AN because I couldn't find one. Don't suspect I'm missing anything. A mix of low profile electrolytic caps and tantalums to get it to fit in a 1590B without much drama. I had to move one of the 150n film caps to back of the board due to the size of the cap, it's one of the larger format ones but it's all I had.

The only real issue that I ran into was the enclosure itself. I recently grabbed a couple of the $3.75 powder coated enclosures from SmallBear, I'll usually throw a couple in my order when I place a Small Bear order. Well these were different from the ones I got before. Very thin walled. The powder coating wasn't bad but they seem a bit like a tin can. And the dimensions were just off enough to throw off some of my fairly tight top jack measurements. I did get it all to work but the jacks are pretty tight against the pot condoms. Not sure if that's going to be a problem after a few times plugging and unplugging. We'll see.

Highly recommend this build for a warm, fuzzy, soulful overdrive/distortion. And as typical for me and my tastes, it sounds best with the gain dialed low. It can also function as a semi-clean boost with the gain turned all the way off and the level cranked up a bit. Very cool pedal!


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## MattG (Aug 26, 2022)

The Cattle Driver was the very first PedalPCB board I ever put together. Managed to embarrass myself too, I accidentally used 150n instead of 150p for C3, which is a good way to learn about high pass filters in an opamp feedback loop. 😉

During debugging, I pulled a trace that I fixed with some extra wire lead. Worked fine, but wasn’t pretty! I built a second so I could have a nice one. I sold the botched one on Reverb. I included pics of my crude fix, and explicitly explained the situation in the listing. I figured no one would want it, so I set a really low price - I didn’t care about the money, I was just trying to keep it out of the landfill. It sold within a matter of hours! I messaged the buyer and re-iterated that, although it worked fine, it was pretty messy work. He replied and said that’s exactly why he bought it, he deliberately looks for unusual things. He received it and messaged me saying he loved it!

Anyway, it’s definitely a great pedal. I ran it on my board for a while, only swapping out because I’m a compulsive overdrive swapper.

It’s based on the BuffaloFX TD-X. Buffalo is now defunct. But an Australian company, PastFX, has started building and selling clones of many (all?) of the Buffalo pedals, including the TD-X. They call it the TD-Y.

And the Buffalo td-x was originally intended to emulate the Butler Tube Driver, but in a more convenient format (I.e. solid state circuitry vs all the baggage that comes with tubes). I’ve never actually played a real Tube Driver, but most internet hearsay seems to say the td-x gets pretty close. My take: even ignoring the td-x legacy, it’s a great sounding dive in its own right. 

You’ve re-ignited my interest in the Cattle Driver, I might have to put it back on the board!

As always, thanks for posting! Love you build reports!


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## Big Monk (Aug 26, 2022)

Great build Michael. This one is on my list.


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## MichaelW (Aug 26, 2022)

MattG said:


> The Cattle Driver was the very first PedalPCB board I ever put together. Managed to embarrass myself too, I accidentally used 150n instead of 150p for C3, which is a good way to learn about high pass filters in an opamp feedback loop. 😉
> 
> During debugging, I pulled a trace that I fixed with some extra wire lead. Worked fine, but wasn’t pretty! I built a second so I could have a nice one. I sold the botched one on Reverb. I included pics of my crude fix, and explicitly explained the situation in the listing. I figured no one would want it, so I set a really low price - I didn’t care about the money, I was just trying to keep it out of the landfill. It sold within a matter of hours! I messaged the buyer and re-iterated that, although it worked fine, it was pretty messy work. He replied and said that’s exactly why he bought it, he deliberately looks for unusual things. He received it and messaged me saying he loved it!
> 
> ...


So PastFX is building a clone of a clone of a clone? Wait, clone of a clone?  😄 I'm really digging it, sweet sounding pedal for those certain types of sounds. But yah, I'm sure my wandering heart will fall in love with the next overdrive I build hahah


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## Robert (Aug 26, 2022)

My understanding is that (like many boutique builders) Buffalo FX went off the radar unannounced with quite a few preorders / deposits stuck in limbo.   There were many excuses and delays, and finally paying customers were told to "take it up with your credit card company" ...


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## Big Monk (Aug 26, 2022)

Past FX somehow gets a pass for lifting the entire Buffalo FX line not long after they imploded. 

They are very nice and friendly to deal with but that wouldn’t fly with many other builders. I think this was helped along by the bad taste Buffalo FX left in peoples mouths.


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## MichaelW (Aug 26, 2022)

Well now I’m interesting in building the MOSFET Drive, which is an emulation of the Butler right?

Different topologies but would be interesting to compare. Also waiting for a couple of parts from Tayda to take another stab at the Space Heater. 

But honestly this Cattle Driver sounds so good, even with the gain off as a tone conditioner to give a little “tube warmth”. Pretty amazing it’s just a couple of opamps doing it all.


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## spi (Aug 26, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Well now I’m interesting in building the MOSFET Drive, which is an emulation of the Butler right?


I'm guessing we'll see your build report before the end of the weekend?


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## MichaelW (Aug 26, 2022)

spi said:


> I'm guessing we'll see your build report before the end of the weekend?


Out of stock.....otherwise you're probably right hahah


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## Feral Feline (Aug 26, 2022)

Great build and report as always.

Somehow I've overlooked this PPCB offering... I mean, there's only 385 dirt pedals offered in the shop, how could I have missed it?
I've always wanted a Butler w/o the tube hassle (in addition to wanting one _with_ the tubes), so I've added this to my wish list.
I'll need every waking spare minute to catch up on the "to-do" list. 

Anyway, you continue to shame inspire me. I'm going to go populate at least the resistors on a PCB right now. I mean _right now_.


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## MattG (Aug 27, 2022)

Most Gilmour gear nerds have probably seen these, but for the three people who haven't:
 Gilmourish Buffalo FX TD-X review - a pretty comprehensive review of the TD-X, complete with some demos
 Kit Rae's Tube Driver page - a tremendous amount of information on the Tube Driver, and in particular, David Gilmour's use of it.  Also mentions some Tube Driver alternatives, including the TD-X.


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## music6000 (Aug 27, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> I'd never heard of Buffalo FX or the TD-X and was a little skeptical at how it would be able to capture that Butler sound.


You better check this Guy out then!!! :


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## spi (Aug 27, 2022)

I had seen this pcb but didn't really spark much interest at first glance, but now I'm getting interested.  Maybe I'll wait for your Mosfet Driver review and then decide which to build.


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## MichaelW (Aug 27, 2022)

music6000 said:


> You better check this Guy out then!!! :


Yah, this was one of the demo's that sealed the deal for me. I don't sound like Gilmour when I play it though.......heh.
Also Brett Kingman did a great demo of it too.


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## Feral Feline (Aug 27, 2022)

@MattG That's where I must've come across the Buffalo, at both Gilmourish and the Kit Rae sites, at some point in my previous perusals there, thanks for the reminder links.

I'll be part of the stampede Michael has 'caused to get one of these Cattle Driver boards.


@MichaelW — Well sir, I did pop a board with resistors, as promised, then I went back and did all the caps, diodes and sockets for the transistors ... I was up 'til 4am testing each component before installing it.
Since I checked my PPCB inventory and sadly confirmed that the Cattle Driver is one of the few I don't have, so I had chosen a circuit based on a Dunwich design. Seems like there's always one part missing, and this time it's a 1P12T; I have some, but none fit the PCB. 

I'll try and come up with some artwork for the new build while I wait for the 12T-switch — Thanks for the boot to the head! 🥾🤩


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## Chuck D. Bones (Aug 27, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Well now I’m interesting in building the MOSFET Drive, which is an emulation of the Butler right?
> 
> Different topologies but would be interesting to compare.



You might want to check out my version of the MOSFET drive. It does everything the MOSFET drive does and then some.


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## MichaelW (Aug 27, 2022)

Chuck D. Bones said:


> You might want to check out my version of the MOSFET drive. It does everything the MOSFET drive does and then some.


Ooooo, that looks cool! I wonder if there are any of @cooder's boards of this floating around. @fig?


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## music6000 (Aug 27, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Yah, this was one of the demo's that sealed the deal for me. I don't sound like Gilmour when I play it though.......heh.
> Also Brett Kingman did a great demo of it too.


Built this 4 years ago, Already owned the Buffalo TD-X!





						MOSFET Driver
					

Built this nearly 1 year ago. A cool Solid State version! I Like It !!! Mods : Battery Clip & Stereo Input Jack.




					forum.pedalpcb.com


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## cdwillis (Oct 15, 2022)

Looks good. Where did you find those flatter pyramid looking LED bezels? Most of the ones I've come across have been more like a cup shape.


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## MichaelW (Oct 15, 2022)

Amazon

They go on sale from time to time. I really like them except for the fact that the little plastic leg holder thing doesn't like to sit very tight in the barrel. I usually have to pinch the barrel with a pair of pliers so the led stays put.


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## Nic (Oct 15, 2022)

MichaelW said:


> Amazon
> 
> They go on sale from time to time. I really like them except for the fact that the little plastic leg holder thing doesn't like to sit very tight in the barrel. I usually have to pinch the barrel with a pair of pliers so the led stays put.


Had the same problem with tayda's. Same type of bezel.


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