OVERDRIVE- Tube Screamer ...My best of!

TUBE SCREAMERS 1978 & BEYOND

The Tube Screamer is so popular that is almost a rule that if you have, or even are just starting a pedal brand you HAVE TO have one. If it is even half good you get credibility as being a serious brand. HEY ...I could never make this sh@t up!

The BOSS DS-1 in 1976 was the second OpAmp dirt pedal ever made the first being the ProCo Rat by only 3 months. Maxon wanted to join the fray. They were handicapped by a patent on the Boss that they had to get around. They tried using symmetrical distortion instead of asymmetrical tube like distortion. In layman's terms just the sweet overtones. In a sense it came across as a mildly distorted booster ...but it worked! In the early days it was virtually only used as a booster to overload the front end of a tube amp. It still is in Modern Metal.

Now the guy that designed the pedal for Maxon is Susumu Tamura. It was called the Maxon OD-808.

Ibanez originally started by having their name put on some Guyatone guitars to get into the electric guitar biz. So it seemed natural to licence Maxon pedals to get into the pedal biz. There thing was a great skill at marketing and distribution. Hence the Ibanez TS808 was born.

By the time the TS808 was ready both used the Boss style casing.

First OD808

IBANEZ TS9

This was the new improved TS808. It has a nice bite and it is quieter. But they both sound good but a little different so which one is best is totally up to you. 

 MY BEST OF 

These are simply a very few of perhaps 200 or even more different brands that make a Tube Screamer. I do not exaggerate how many there are. The only thing in common is they are OpAmp based OD's with clipping diodes that create symmetrical distortion based OD's. 

Some have high pass filters that are made for Metal players to tighten the sound while other are aimed at guys using a dead clean sound and just want a whisper of dirt to warm up and fatten their clean sound ...others are between the two. Many hide the fact of what they are. They want you to think they have recreated the wheel. It is sold as some unique pedal. It makes choosing one a nightmare. In the beginning I hated pedals labeled Tube Screamer only to find later I already owned two. One is a high gain pedal. Another is a Modern Metal pedal . I just bought the Cusack ...but I at least new what I was really getting.    :-)

MAXON APEX 808 

Susumu Tamura was told many times over the years that there was an ultimate TS808. Even a few famous guitarist that owned several thought so.

It was unlikely but he finally decided to check for himself. He found that after collecting over 200 to reference that there was indeed one. Although all the OpAmps used in the original were the same make and model OpAmp there was a 4 month period where they came in a different color which turned out to have a small variation. He went to the chip maker that still had some of those left over and and records of suppliers and some had more. So this pedal will have a limited run as it is all NOS.

The big deal is they sound the same but are mud free.

CUSACK MUSIC SCREAMER

Jon Cusack started the company after years of designing for others. Go figure. It all started with doing a very nice TS808 but making it cleaner. It did OK as 11 years ago there wasn't an Apex version. But ol' Jon C. had an idea or two. He put in a very high headroom booster ...and then he decided to add an asymmetrical stage to get the ts to sound more amp like. Much to even his surprise you could put the pedal through even a clean amp and you got an instant SRV sound. WTF!!! Version 2 was born.

I have one and all three sounds are incredibly useful! Especially the SRV sound on my Strat.

CALINE CP-75 EMERALD NIGHT OD

Well I can not leave a bargain alone and this TS9 is $35.00 USD. There are a lot of passable budget ts pedals so why this one? Because with my back back turned I can not pick out The Ibanez TS9 from the Caline. Thanx Caline!!!

IBANEZ TUBE SCREAMER MINI

In another blindfold test all 3 of the current ts pedals were compared. The TS9 came last the TS808 came second and Mini came first. lol

It does sound good ...it is $100.00 USD so ???

JHS BONSAI OD

It is 9 Tube Screamers in a box.They all sound pretty good so you are bound to like one.

TL PEDALS TL808

Every year or so there is hot new one. This one sounds damn good. It has lot more gain if you need it and unlike the Ibanez it has some lows ...what is even better it sounds really solid, fat and tight. 

BUFFALO CARRERA OVERDRIVE

The Strat sound does get thru beautifully. I miss not

having that extra chime in the highs. It does however have 

the fattest sound of any ts. If I only played a Strat I would

have to have it as a second sound.

DIRT PEDALS

THE NEED TO KNOW

There are 7 basic Dirt pedals. Two we call Fuzz which are either Germanium or Silicon transistors. Two that use OpAmps and to create either a hard or soft clipper pedal and FET transistors to mimic tubes. Then we get two opposites. One are real tube preamps. Finally there are modeled dirt pedals that literally make an audio photograph of all and any of the previous choices.

Add to that there are hybrids that use 2 or more of the above. All have advantages and disadvantages.

 The only ones I do not personally favor are modeled dirt pedals as they lack feel and fine detail in the tone. Great for money gigs & commercial recording. I find them too limited in allowing for transferring expression in your playing that best communicates the emotion that is critical to create art.

A great overview of  a Tube Screamer and how to use one.

Near the end you are shown the sound of it with a Fender Twin

 on 10. Too much spring reverb trashes the sound but if you look 

past it you will hear the sound that the Cusack Screamer will give 

you with a bedroom practise amp and not the  obscene amount 

of gear used in the demo. My point is that Cusack at 

$185.00 USD is a total steal!!!

A NON TUBE SCREAMER?

TL PEDALS THE HONKER

Ol' Tim had an idea. What if one started with a Tube Screamer and made it do everything from a mild ts sound great for Country but if you needed to you had a killer Hard Rock early Metal sound. It would have to still have to do all this without sounding second place to another pedal that only did just one of these styles. The chances of pulling it off are zero. but WTF ...he did it!!! Add to that you get a quality roadworthy pedal. Did I say at $130.00 USD the price is scary cheap!