Tubescreamers: Not just another thread...

tele_pathic

tele_pathic

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Ok, this is not just another thread about the various iterations of the Ibanez Tubescreamer. It's a little more nuanced.

We all know that SRV was famous for using some version of a Tubescreamer. My question is this: Why a Tubescreamer? Why not some other overdrive pedal? Was there something specific about the TS? Beside the bump in the mids?

Was it either a TS or a Metalzone because there were no other pedals on the market in the late 1970s and 1980s?

I cut my teeth on SRV, but I haven't had a TS in 20 years. I just got a American Professional II Strat...and a couple days later a TS Mini. And man....wow! For years and years, I've been relying on a ZVEX Double Rock, which is fantastic, no complaints, I'm not getting rid of it. But it is a MIAB pedal, a JTM 45 specifically. So really, that's the only kind of overdrive/distortion I've heard for a long time. I put the TS on the board and A/B'ed the DR and TS, and there is a definitely difference in sound, a pleasant one.

Is it possible that a TS has been the missing ingredient in my tone?
 
Phrygian77

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The TS cuts a lot of low end, so it works really well with neck pickups. You can get that screaming neck pickup tone, without flub on the wound strings, into a cranked Fender. An SD-1 is similar enough that you can substitute it for a TS. Klon types let more low end through, but still work well for that tone, especially with vintage output pickups.
 
beyer160

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tele_pathic said:
Was it either a TS or a Metalzone because there were no other pedals on the market in the late 1970s and 1980s?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say no other pedals, but there wasn't 1/100 of the dizzying array of dirt boxes we have to choose from today. I imagine he tried a couple (he used an EHX Hot Tubes at least once), the TS9 worked, so he didn't fix what wasn't broke and stayed with it.
 
schmee

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"I cut my teeth on SRV, but I haven't had a TS in 20 years..."

I've had a TS on the board for probably 20 years now! But it's a TS9DX set to Turbo mode. It fills in the low end like a Marshall stack! Nothing has ever bumped it off the board, many have tried including custom boutique built OD's.

Why SRV and TS? The TS were super popular back in the day, and far fewer pedals were available also I suppose.

To a large extent the TS was a ground breaker. Not necessarily THE groundbreaker, but it became THE sound. There's a display at The Seattle Museum of Pop Culture (formerly the Experience Music Project) all about the Tube Screamer and you can even try playing through one. (or used to be any way, haven't been for 15 years)
 
String Tree

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tele_pathic said:
Ok, this is not just another thread about the various iterations of the Ibanez Tubescreamer. It's a little more nuanced.

We all know that SRV was famous for using some version of a Tubescreamer. My question is this: Why a Tubescreamer? Why not some other overdrive pedal? Was there something specific about the TS? Beside the bump in the mids?

Was it either a TS or a Metalzone because there were no other pedals on the market in the late 1970s and 1980s?

I cut my teeth on SRV, but I haven't had a TS in 20 years. I just got a American Professional II Strat...and a couple days later a TS Mini. And man....wow! For years and years, I've been relying on a ZVEX Double Rock, which is fantastic, no complaints, I'm not getting rid of it. But it is a MIAB pedal, a JTM 45 specifically. So really, that's the only kind of overdrive/distortion I've heard for a long time. I put the TS on the board and A/B'ed the DR and TS, and there is a definitely difference in sound, a pleasant one.

Is it possible that a TS has been the missing ingredient in my tone?
Click to expand...
At that time, Distortion boxes were coming off of the FUZZ box sound.
Call it Chemistry, call it Alchemy but, the Tube Screamer did some wonderful things to Tube Amps.
It still does.
~CHEERS
 
ChicknPickn

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I might have asked SRV his opinion of the EHX Big Muff Pi. To me, it's the high-octane version of the TS-9.
 
JustABluesGuy

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Phrygian77 said:
The TS cuts a lot of low end, so it works really well with neck pickups. You can get that screaming neck pickup tone, without flub on the wound strings, into a cranked Fender. An SD-1 is similar enough that you can substitute it for a TS. Klon types let more low end through, but still work well for that tone, especially with vintage output pickups.
Click to expand...
I prefer the SD-1 myself. I prefer it’s asymmetrical clipping to my TS9.
 
tele_pathic

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Gaylord Amsterdam said:
I read an interview once with Cesar Diaz and he said the Ts9 was replaced at one point with a Ts10 and no one ever noticed.
Click to expand...

I've heard the same thing, which is why I went with the TS Mini: fits my board better, and sounds so good that I doubt anyone would hear a difference. In fact, I watched the Anderton's TS shootout with the guy from Pedal Pawn who claims he has over 100 TS's and brought a bunch with him. They choose 6-7 to shootout and the Captain admits he can't tell them apart. IF that's the case, why not purchase one of the least expensive, smallest, best reviewed TS I can buy?

 
4pickupguy

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As lovely as the low end of Fender amps can be, you need only turn one up in to the ‘cavey inny’ zone to know why Tube Screamers exist. I recently got one to run my Fuzz Face into and it turns the FF from mush to punch. Tube Screamers need no apologies. They rock.
 
hemingway

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No matter how successful someone is, I suspect that most of them use certain gear for the same reason that all us losers do - i.e., one day he bought it because it seemed a good idea, and then it became his go-to.

If I'm right, obsessing over why someone used particular gear is probably pretty useless.

Right now I'm using a Soul Food OD. Why? Is there something out there that's better? Maybe. But I'm happy with it.
 
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Brent Hutto

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hemingway said:
No matter how successful someone is, I suspect that most of them use certain gear for the same reason that all us losers do - i.e., one day he bought it because it seemed a good idea, and then it became his go-to.

If I'm right, obsessing over why someone used particular gear is probably pretty useless.

Right now I'm using a Soul Food OD. Why? Is there something out there that's better? Maybe. But I'm happy with it.
Click to expand...
Quite right.

These forums engender an obsession with the idea that every famous guitar player's music was somehow dependent on the exact details of every single piece of gear he used on the day he recorded it.
 
takauya

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Brent Hutto said:
Quite right.

These forums engender an obsession with the idea that every famous guitar player's music was somehow dependent on the exact details of every single piece of gear he used on the day he recorded it.
Click to expand...
I often wonder if those guys actually play.
 
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