SECRET INGREDIANT IN THE ORIGINAL TUBE SCREAMER ???

THE|SECRET SAUCE

People pay thousands for the first Tube Screamer TS 808 or $400
instead of $40 for a clone with the pricey one having the new but magic OpAmp.

These two video's let you compare many OpAmps. If you can pickout the very best. You are indeed right. if you can hear at best a very small difference you are right. If you can hear F-all you are right.

I can hear very small but very slight difference in some but not all. I am right, LOL

Would I pay an extravagant amount more for such pedals. highly, highly improbable. Some Op Amp pedals have dozens of other parts for voicing and EQ the pedal. If as well the OpAmp was pricy I would not care. If the pedal sounds much better it is. BUT many Tube Screamers real or hot rodded do not sound even a shade better than my $35.00 USD Caline Emerald Night

The big secret to picking one is . Use your ears not your eyes.

IRONY

The purpose of the OpAmp is to be a nano pre-amp in a chip. The dead clean one is the most pricey. BUT! The rare one in a the first Rat pedal was dead cheap when new and available but very dirty. Our ears liked the dirt so the few that have survived hiding in decades old boxes buried behind newer stock in old warehouses are much coveted, LOL.