Tube screammer

[justincody243]

im thinkin about buying a tubescreamer and i just want to know some details and your oppinions about it. what likes or dislikes you have. how it compares to the other versions and similar pedals like visual sounds, maxons, etc. any info would help, thanks

[tinkercity]

I'd skip most and go for the Analogman Silver Mod either TS9 or OD9. It's fat, smooth, gritty and clear. Most importantly clear... every TS style I've played always suffers from some sort of "Muffle"...

[KevinFinn]

The basic "Tube Screamer" circuit is at the heart of more pedals than any other design ever... so there is no shortage of brands, boutique and mainline alike, which you could go with. It's a quintessential sound that many find indispensable.

It has a low to moderate amount of gain, so it's an "overdrive" and not really a full-on "distortion" or "fuzz." Beyond adding grit/dirt, it also has a pronounced effect on the EQ of your sound. It both drops bass frequencies which existed in your clean sound, and adds mid frequencies which were more subdued. This is commonly referred to as a "mid hump" in the sound. The result is a dirt that really "cuts through" in a live scenario, killing the bass "bloom" of your sound and intensifying the crucial mid frequencies when you kick on your overdrive.

The Tube Screamer, and all of the copies of it, however "boutique," are fundamentally NOT "transparent"... Though this is precisely what so many of them claim in the marketing. The Tube Screamer did not set out to add grit to your clean signal as discreetly as possible, and it does not achieve that. It's designed to sound awesome live and bring you through to the front of the mix.

And it does.

Some variations have a bass boost, such as Visual Sound's Route 808. This is particularly useful if you do a lot of chord work and/or tend to play on your bridge pickup.

Other variations have a "blend" feature which can re-introduce a portion of your clean signal BACK into the mix along with the Tube Screamer sound. The result is nifty in that it adds some clarity and depth to the basic overdrive - you're effectively bringing some lows and highs back up into the mix.

[justincody243]

Cool which is better between the ts9 and the od9?

[KevinFinn]

Cool which is better between the ts9 and the od9?
You should do some demoing if possible. Also use You Tube and compare different models... find people who use gear like yours (guitar and amp wise) and see how the pedals in question relate to their playing and tone.

IMO, you're paying too much for either of the previous units suggested. There's plenty out there made wonderfully and with no need of mods.

[justincody243]

Thanks i will

[Rabidclam]

This thread is destined for infinity

[ezcletus]

The basic "Tube Screamer" circuit is at the heart of more pedals than any other design ever... so there is no shortage of brands, boutique and mainline alike, which you could go with. It's a quintessential sound that many find indispensable.

It has a low to moderate amount of gain, so it's an "overdrive" and not really a full-on "distortion" or "fuzz." Beyond adding grit/dirt, it also has a pronounced effect on the EQ of your sound. It both drops bass frequencies which existed in your clean sound, and adds mid frequencies which were more subdued. This is commonly referred to as a "mid hump" in the sound. The result is a dirt that really "cuts through" in a live scenario, killing the bass "bloom" of your sound and intensifying the crucial mid frequencies when you kick on your overdrive.

The Tube Screamer, and all of the copies of it, however "boutique," are fundamentally NOT "transparent"... Though this is precisely what so many of them claim in the marketing. The Tube Screamer did not set out to add grit to your clean signal as discreetly as possible, and it does not achieve that. It's designed to sound awesome live and bring you through to the front of the mix.

And it does.

Some variations have a bass boost, such as Visual Sound's Route 808. This is particularly useful if you do a lot of chord work and/or tend to play on your bridge pickup.

Other variations have a "blend" feature which can re-introduce a portion of your clean signal BACK into the mix along with the Tube Screamer sound. The result is nifty in that it adds some clarity and depth to the basic overdrive - you're effectively bringing some lows and highs back up into the mix.

This description of the Tube Screamer needs to be stickied. Best I've ever read.

[tinkercity]

This thread is destined for infinity

lol... I'm pretty sure Analogman's Silver Mod is pretty similar in tone regardless of OD9/TS9... I think the OD9 is better built etc... Out of ALL the TS style and clones I've played, I'd pick up the Silver Mod again. Unless, you're looking for that "blanket over the amp" tone... then I'd look for a more traditional TS. I ended up ditching entirely and going with a Timmy and some nice Fuzz Faces ;)

[TwoTubMan]

They ALL sound the same. We confirmed that 3 years ago. Originals, new, modified, we had them all. We even took a break to give our ears a rest.

They are all the same.

Period.

[cram]

I recently got one after reading and trying a lot of pedals.
I like it...

Some helpful things you should read up on -
History of the Tubescreamer - The Gear Page (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?p=8769116)


Something I put together with helpful links - TGP Research - TubeScreamers (http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=701726)

This is a very helpful link from analogman -
Geneology and or General info
External Link from Analogman: Ibanez Tube Screamer History (http://www.analogman.com/tshist.htm)

Oh, and my usage or history with it is more on the simple end of things. I just got a stock TS9 and I'm happy for the time being. My observation while comparing other pedals on my board -
the ts9 seems to have an upper mid range drive boost or focus. I like it for the sound with my amp.
compared to the bd2 I have on the board, the bd2 puts more focus on the low and high ends which sounds cool too.
I use them to compliment each other.

cram be happy!

[chrisr0712]

I would suggest getting a straight up TS (stock) like TS9, 808ri, OD9 and get to know it first...then send to analogman for mod if you want to get a different sound out of it.

[ES330]

The best I've heard so far is the Pedalworx Tour Pro
Note: I do have the handwired version compared to the standard PCB.

[Blues Power]

ive been using a sparkle drive for the last 4 yrs. its basically a TS clone with a clean blend. so you can get nice and punchy blues tone with it as it dials out the grit.

its very transparent true by pass and i forget its on most of the time

[Gargloic]

First of all:


Tubescreamer.


Do you use a tube amp?

If not, buy something else

If yes, try the Maxon OD808 (Maxon were making the tubescreamer for Ibanez from 1974 to 2002)

Play with you amp eq and guitar tone and welcome the the marvelous world of overdrives

Gargloic

[Moe45673]

When I say Tubescreamer (TS) below, I don't necessarily mean the Ibanez TS. I mean any clone. As someone mentioned, they're all very similar.

Tubescreamers also add compression. The Boss SD-1 is a cheapo tubescreamer-like pedal that sounds great but adds less compression.

TS's are primarily used into slightly pushed amps, adding more dirt on top of existing dirt. They're also stacked with other dirt pedals, whether TS variants or something completely different (Proco Rat, Fuzz's, etc) in order to give them that mid hump which is so invaluable in band settings. They sound good into sparkling clean amps but great as a complement to a dirty amp.

Anyhow, buy a cheap TS-variant. Digitech Bad Monkey comes immediately to mind. It looks like a cheesy toy and is priced to match, but the sound coming out of there is tubescreamer through and through. If you love it, great, if not, buy something a little more pricey. With tubescreamers, you RARELY get what you pay for. The Ibanez TS-7 and TS-10 are very close-sounding to a 250 dollar TS-808RI but at a fraction of the price. I haven't experienced this directly, but apparently you only really start to notice a much more refined difference in quality when you pay upwards of 400 bucks for a pedal (BJF, Klon, and such).

Hope I didn't confuse you too much. All I'm saying is, you'd have to look really hard to find a crappy sounding tubescreamer. Most of them sound about as good as any other.

[Scott Auld]

The Tubescreamer is a good gateway drug.

[gatordoc]

The Tubescreamer is a good gateway drug.

Relatively inexpensive too. The only problem is that I keep coming back to it!:D

[Moe45673]

cokeheads aren't necessarily known for disregarding weed, friend.

[shawnshack]

Check into a Luther Drive. A guy who does YouTube video's of pedal demos with the screen name Gearmanndude makes them. They are a great TS type pedal. It's true bypass, hand wired, and only $107 shipped new. Or be patient and pick one up in the emporium even cheaper.

[spentron]

The Tube Screamer, and all of the copies of it, however "boutique," are fundamentally NOT "transparent"... Though this is precisely what so many of them claim in the marketing. The Tube Screamer did not set out to add grit to your clean signal as discreetly as possible, and it does not achieve that.

I wouldn't describe it that way. The distortion within the resulting sound is absolutely as discreet as possible, even though the result isn't much like what you started with.

It's designed to sound awesome live and bring you through to the front of the mix.

My impression is more like the designer had read about tube amp sound, but never actually heard one (or at least didn't do comparisons often). The result has the playability, the function, of a tube amp while sounding little like one.

It both drops bass frequencies which existed in your clean sound, and adds mid frequencies which were more subdued.

Which I often point out is in your clean sound until it hits the amp. The perfect jangley fat clean sound is mid scooped and treble boosted at the amp ... with all knobs in the middle. The TS is partially just flattening it back out, not always a good thing.