photoweborama
Friend of Leo's
there used to be a cult dedicated to the Tubeulator!
Tubescreamers: Not just another thread...
- Thread starter tele_pathic
- Start date
omahaaudio
Friend of Leo's
Sorry. Seems like just another thread about the Ibanez Tubescreamer to me.
omahaaudio
Friend of Leo's
NO OTHER PEDALS?
For a few years, I owned a Biyang Mad Driver, which is basically (or similar to...) this same TS, in the smaller MXR- size, Baby Boom series.
It was a very good, cheap Tube Screamer ( but sold it as really prefer other OD's)
( starting with the GFS Brownie Classic years ago now, I've been a Biyang fan; own a few others)
ljdellar
TDPRI Member
I have liked all the Biyang pedals I have tried, but they are a bit, erm, shiny and bulky...
I eventually bought a Mooer green mile, one of those mini-pedals with no battery, and reverse engineering that showed the circuit to be very nearly identical to the TS. It is on my board and ALWAYS on, as I like the extra poke into the amp's front end. Gain at about 1, level at 8.5.
G Stone496
Tele-Meister
I got 10 different OD/distortion/boost/crunch pedals. Sometimes I just reach for the closest one because it’s handy. And I can dial in similar sounds with different pedals.
I’m guessing a lot of the famous recordings are done in a similar way. The pedal was in the studio within arm’s reach at the time, or it was easier not to unplug a certain pedal and get another pedal and plug it in. Sometimes a player doesn’t want to interrupt the mood or mojo by plugging, unplugging and dialing in.
Famous recordings are already done. If you want to cover the song or create something similar, make it your own, put your own stamp on it.
I’m guessing a lot of the famous recordings are done in a similar way. The pedal was in the studio within arm’s reach at the time, or it was easier not to unplug a certain pedal and get another pedal and plug it in. Sometimes a player doesn’t want to interrupt the mood or mojo by plugging, unplugging and dialing in.
Famous recordings are already done. If you want to cover the song or create something similar, make it your own, put your own stamp on it.
Brent Hutto
Tele-Afflicted
I've been experimenting with pedals a lot the last couple months. It seems for me like once I find such-and-such pedal with the knobs so-and-so settings and it sounds good, the next time I'm playing something similar that's the sound I'm imagining. So why not go with whatever worked.
I started with some older ones (Distortion+, TS9, Dyna Comp, Fuzz Face) and figured I'd "upgrade" from them to more modern and supposedly better pedals. But now that I'm comfortable with a few good sounds from these, it'll take me a long time to run out of stuff to play with those sounds. The "upgrades" start seeming like more work than they're worth.
Today I wasted most of a rainy Saturday trying to learn my way around a fancy new fuzz pedal. It's probably a "upgrade" pedal from my Dunlop Fuzz Face Mini but I wish I'd spent that time just playing music and not obsessively trying every possible combination of the five knobs on the darned thing (six if you count my guitar volume pot). In the end after a lot of knob twiddling it sounds exactly like my FF Mini into a TS9. Well heck, I already had that!
BlueGillGreg
Tele-Meister
No. And yes.
Stevie Ray Vaughan probably used a TS-9 because its 3 knobs were simpler than all those sliders on a Boss GE-6.
What was the question?
ljdellar
TDPRI Member
Pretty much ANY circuit based on the below (with minor changes to certain capacitor/resistor values in the tone control area) will give you what a medium gain drive pedal is designed to give: some boost and distortion with a mid hump...
This is what I built myself on a piece of VeroBoard in 1982 and it still sounds indistinguishable from a TS8. I used OA47, OA81 or 1N34A germanium diodes, but back then I had literally hundreds in a cardboard box and used the first pair that came to hand. The only difference they make is the point that clipping starts on your gain/distortion knob.
This is what I built myself on a piece of VeroBoard in 1982 and it still sounds indistinguishable from a TS8. I used OA47, OA81 or 1N34A germanium diodes, but back then I had literally hundreds in a cardboard box and used the first pair that came to hand. The only difference they make is the point that clipping starts on your gain/distortion knob.
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wildschwein
Friend of Leo's
They work well with high wattage Fender amps and provide the perfect volume and voicing boost for leads.
ljdellar
TDPRI Member
I'd add that they also work well into lower priced low-wattage valve amps that are all headroom and no "grunt", though these are rare, and into class A amps like the Vox Ac 4, AC15 or AC30, but less well than a more "treble-booster" style pedal.
I love using mine into the front of my Bugera V22's clean channel. It gives a much better "edge of breakup" sound than the Gain channel.
My claim to shame is that I use FOUR booster pedals on my board, in this order:
PureSky transparent overdrive > Mooer Green Mile (TS8 circuit) > Tone City Blues Man > Tone City Golden Plexi 2.
I have never found a reason to have them all on at the same time, though. As I tend to play Blues, Blues Rock and Classic Rock I find it useful to cascade two (sometimes three) all set to relatively low gain and high level.
Total price of all four about £100-£110. I have thought about more expensive, dual-gain stage pedals, but that involves bending down and twiddling hard-to-read knobs on a dark stage when I need a different setting. And it is more expensive. Having four pre-set drive options available at the click of a toe makes changing my amp profile quick, simple and cheap.
Bob Womack
Friend of Leo's
Last year when I needed to get some gear out of the house I took a bunch of rack mount and other gear to Music-Go-Round and traded for trade dollars that I could use for other gear. I had been seeing the press on the JHS Bonsai, which replicates at the component level all most of the famous versions and then a couple more, so on a lark I picked one up. I worked with it and figured out which version I like.
Now, I have never been a pedal distortion guy. Instead, I've always used power amp distortion with medium and low power amps, but everyone said the TS was the stuff so for the first time in my fifty-two years of playing I decided to try one. It is great to put in front of an amp that doesn't break up nicely. It can actually smooth things out. But all pedal drives seem fizzy to me. I suppose that if I put in a semester worth of trial and error I could get somewhere near where i want to be, and I will hold on to it in case, but I'm still a power amp distortion sort of guy, you know?
More in my review, HERE.
Bob
Now, I have never been a pedal distortion guy. Instead, I've always used power amp distortion with medium and low power amps, but everyone said the TS was the stuff so for the first time in my fifty-two years of playing I decided to try one. It is great to put in front of an amp that doesn't break up nicely. It can actually smooth things out. But all pedal drives seem fizzy to me. I suppose that if I put in a semester worth of trial and error I could get somewhere near where i want to be, and I will hold on to it in case, but I'm still a power amp distortion sort of guy, you know?
More in my review, HERE.
Bob
