Ruokangas unveils Valvebucker® Mk2 - the second generation of the audiophile pickup for electric guitar and bass
The 1st gen Valvebucker was launched in 2019. It gained a lot of publicity at the time, being the first and only vacuum tube powered active pickup system ever for electric guitars.
The key Mk2 upgrads are:
- Available now for 4- and 5-stringed Ruokangas basses
- Available now for 7-stringed Ruokangas guitars
- Completely new visual design
- The redesigned floor unit features now a balanced output (works as a DI box) as well
- The floor unit is now always matched in colour with the instrument
And a quick recap of the Valvebucker key features:
- A sensitive magnetic pickup capsule, capturing the instrument sound in high fidelity
- Tube powered proprietary preamp circuit
- One pickup - but a wide variety of sounds
- Military grade triode and pentode NOS tubes with lifetime warranty
- A floor unit included, to connect the
- Valvebucker® -equipped included to the rest of your signal chain
- A 12VAC power supply included
- A 10-foot XLR cable included
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, Junnu Vuorela and Juha Ruokangas.
The Valvebucker® Mk2 is available as a custom option for Ruokangas guitars and basses, adding 2000€ / US$2,200.00 to the basic cost of an ordered instrument. The Valvebucker is not available as an aftermarket/retrofit product.
This is what Sonny Landreth says about his Valvebucker guitar:
More information: https://ruokangas.com/
