farinx

I play a JCM 900 MKIII through a 1960 4x12 cab and have always been way happy with the sounds i've been able to get from it. the only thing that has bothered me is that the amp is only has 1 channel. I rarely needed a clean sound and when i did i just turned the volume knob on my guitar down, which produced a great clean sound. I recently joined a band where switching from clean to dirty is a lot more common so i wondered what my options were. i was thinking about getting some sort of combo amp that i could use for my clean sound and switching back and fourth but i don't know if it's worth it. I talked to a guy and he said i should look into getting an ibanez tube screamer overdrive pedal. ever since i got a tube amp i've kind of strayed away from overdrive/distortion pedals because i've always been happy with the distortion i've had. i also thought having a distortion pedal kind of defeated the purpose of using a tube amp. I don't really know much about it...but will this allow me to create the same sort of sound i'd been getting directly from the marshall? I've read a little about the tube screamer online and people have made it sound like it pushes the tubes and uses them to create an overdrive? is that right or am i interpreting it incorrectly? any suggestions or insight would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Drew

cjar66

Hi Drew,
I bought a tubescreamer a couple of yours ago when I had a fender amp and it sounded fine through it but it doesnt have buckets of distortion and I never really loved that amp.
I finally bought a jtm 45 about 6 months ago (and love the thing) and hooked up the tube screamer to it and although it sounded ok I wasnt blown away with the tone, it seamed to be killing the lovely natural tone of the amp. However recently I thought about it and decided to give it a go again but this time like a volume pedal. I back the drive off to 0 or just on, put the tone where I like it and the level to be enough to give the head a boost and it sounds great, its a lot more organic sounding this way and you can tweak the pedal for differnt volumes. having said that its not as good as the amp fully dialed but prety damn nice and you cant play the amp fully dialled all the time.
Of course there is only one way to find out if its for you. Take your rig to a shop that stocks one and have a play. Also there are so many different pedals now you may even stumble across a different pedal that gives you a sound that you love
Rob

AndyHighTides

I prefer a Digitech Bad Monkey to the Tubescreamer because it has high and low controls as opposed to just a tone.
But yeah, they both give you an extra "channel", be it as an overdrive, or as a clean boost.

ZoomZilla

I bought an Ibanez TS808 to go with my Dual Rec. I think it's great. However I use it as a boost. The overdrive is off or on 1. I just use it to bring out the amps distortion. I am taking it back though and getting a BBE Green Screamer instead. The Bad Monkey is worth a try because it's cheap.

serolF

I bought it, tried it once, and then never used it again and sold it on Ebay. It was terrible and didn't do anything for my sound.


Nothing compares to the natural sound of a Marshall. No pedal comes even close. Try getting a BBE, they work wonders. It'll make your distortion punchier. It's like adding a channel to your amp, which sounds like what you are looking for.

If you decide to get a second amp for clean, you can hook up an A/B footswitch to switch between the amps. I was going to do it when I had a Randall head but decided against it and got rid of the Randall (I go through a ton of equipment-I'm never satisfied )

st.bede

just to throw in my two cents...(do not hate me I am mostly a fender amp user)...I have both a orig. tube screamer and a keeley moded one and I find them to be a great pedal with certain fender amps....

but when I play an amp with el84s (winfield thomas) I tend to use a analogman dod mod (extremly excellent IMHO), or a keeley ratt mod (which is no longer offered)...

another thougt I had is to try a boost...I have an analogeman beano boost which is awesome...it has both a clean boost and a old germianum type boost (I can not remeber the name of the pedal it was based on)...I can not rember if I have played it through my el84 type amp...

just my thoughts

__________________
Peace: is not the lack of dischord but an active process that transforms the present dischord into harmony through reverence

"to criticize without vision is to be complicitious with dominance" Carolyn Casey

"Go easy and, if you can't go easy, go as easy as you can" Jennifer Stone....(from KPFA Cover to Cover)

farinx

awesome. thanks for the advice. i just found this pedal online that i ended up trying and loving. its called the 'descend' by heavy electronics. its essentially a 'clean channel in a box'. they're kind of hard to get ahold of but its definitely worth it if that's what you're looking for.

omikl

Another Fender amp user here. I have a stack of Tubescreamers and their ilk. Stock TS-9 RI, stock TS-808 RI, Keeley modded TS-9's (Mod+ & baked mod), Fulltone Full-Drive II FM, Reverend Drivetrain II, Vox Valve-Tone... Yeah, I'm sick.

Anyhow, they are all voiced more or less with a very boosted mid-range, which goes well with Fender amps because they have a natually scooped mid-range, especially the 65-67 "Blackface" models and their reissues.

Just last night though I was using our keyboard player's JCM 2000 TSL 602 combo at practise with my "baby board" (Boss BCB-30 with a Boss DS-1, TS-808 RI & TS-9 RI in it) and I didn't like the sounds I was getting at all. Marshalls tend to be a bit middy, add a Tubescreamer to the equation and the results are pretty dry & nasal. That was on the clean channel though. Using the TS-808 with the gain low as a lead boost works great on the other 2 channels.

st.bede

you are a sick puppy....I love it...are you going to get the kelley ts9 with all the mods in one pedal....I know I do not need it but I want it.....

do you have an fulltone OCD? I think of it as a clearer ts9...kinda like the keeley mod plus but smoother...you? (that is when the swich is LP)

I know he says it is brittish but I just hear it as smooth...

__________________
Peace: is not the lack of dischord but an active process that transforms the present dischord into harmony through reverence

"to criticize without vision is to be complicitious with dominance" Carolyn Casey

"Go easy and, if you can't go easy, go as easy as you can" Jennifer Stone....(from KPFA Cover to Cover)

omikl

I already have a Keeley TS-9 Mod+ and a Keeley TS-9 Baked Mod on one of my boards. You can see the degree of my sickness in the "What's in your pedalboard" thread

The TS-9 DX with all the mods would be very tempting, but I like to be able to run 2 or 3 different overdrives & distortion sounds and have the option of stacking them.

Webslinger

Most tube players dont need OD pedals, but some find a way to enhance the tubes like you've read. I know a guy who uses TS9 with a Boss compressor, with a 65w Marshall 1x12. I dont know the knob settings, but he actually makes the amp sound better.

Other than a few guys here & there, it's mosly soild state users who have Tube Screamers. Well thats what that pedal was designed for, right?

I have one, I wasnt crazy about it at first, untill I learned how to apply it's use. People have to remember that it's NOT a distortion pedal. You just need to dial-in just a bit of OD and get your distortion either from an on-board channel or another pedal.
If you place the TS9 in front of a dist pedal, you get dual-circit heavy-metal sound. If you use it after a dist pedal, with just a bit of OD, then you can emulate a tube tone...to a certain degree

PINKBITS

Barber Tone Pump is also another option for you to consider.

steelhorse

A real economical and versatile pedal is to get a modded DS-1. Not just any old mod either. I liked Keeley's mod but the one I have just sounds more versatile to me and more organic. PM for info and I'll hook any of you up with my tech. He's solid and he's been doing pedals for years.

Here a pic of a TS9 he collaborated with Keeley on:



It's sick no?

ko112

Hi,

Ive been using Mesa's for years, but I needed to get an amp with a more classic tone for punk/classic rock. I just picked up a Tsl 100.

Now, placing my ts-9 in front of the amp, I seem to get a tremendous amount of feedback and hum on the lead channel. Is there anyway around this? I need to get an early metallica tone for 1 song in our set, and was told that my ts-9 in front of the lead channel would do the trick, but it seems unuseable, even after dialing back the gain, and having the ts9 set at 12 oclock on all 3 dials.

Any suggesstions?

steelhorse

I pm'd you ko112.

baviaan69

I used to own a Tubescreamer. The Bad Monkey sounds way better imnsho and is more versatile. Besides, people ask crazy money for old TS while the monkey is new available for a fair price.