Valvecaster

 Ah, the good old Valvecaster.

While I think it is a bad design, it is undeniable that it produces results for people who want to build with tubes, but are either afraid or ill-equipped to deal with all of the associated hazards and potential costs that come with them. I suspect that the majority of people who have built a Valvecaster have never built anything else that uses a tube, and that is totally fine.

There are plenty of forum posts that dissect and dismantle the hows, whys, and why-nots of the Valvecaster. I will not repeat all of those points here.

I did make a layout and a build of my own version, though. It uses the 12SN7 instead of the 12AX7/12AU17/12AT7 9-pin tube that is usually used. It also runs off of a 12-35 VDC power source and provides the proper voltage to the heaters. I have posted it here for anyone who wants to play with it.

Credit for this version of the design goes to the individual with the handle 'turkey101' on the DIYstompboxes forum, in his now-15-year-old post: here