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I'd always shunned the TS until I stacked one into a muff, then I was like

Man, I saw more tube screamers at a show last night than I ever have before.
Five (maybe six?) tubescreamers split between 3 bands.
Only one guy, a bassist, didn't have one on his board.

Derelict78 wrote:Strats get a lot of grief around here but from the few I have played you can get a crazy amount of different tones out of them.
Never played around with a TS tho so I'm not much help there.

Yeah I like strats because of the 3 pickups, I think. I wired my Telecaster with 3 pickups cause I wanted that 5 way switching

ALLisNOISE wrote:I'd always shunned the TS until I stacked one into a muff, then I was like

I wanna try this!

I've still got a TS-5, and I've got an MXR Custom Badass Overdrive, which is a more flexible TS-ish pedal with lots of eq options and asymmetrical clipping instead of symmetrical. Barely use either. The TS sounds just like any TS-9 does, with the weird slimy, hazy thing on it. Sounds meh. The MXR is a bit more pleasing usually. But in some cases, and for some more stacking situations, the TS works out better. It's the low-cut, mid hump, and where you have to dial the tone knob for it not to sound like shit--all mids, basically.

If you have an FMV tone stack, a Strat, and/or a Muff, that can help. I imagine Corgan was using the MXR Distortion 2 with his IC Muff to similar effect, though that's speculation, since I never used one of those.

Hate the clean blend they have going however, there are SOME uses that I remember trying that really made them work for me. But it was just for stacking with sspecific pedals like black Sovtek muffs etc.

the clean blend is a dealbreaker for sure

When I was first getting into pedals I built the BYOC version and as I was not yet into stacking, didn't get it. it was ok, but nothing special on its own.
Now I typically run a Pharaoh set to low gain into a variety of other dirt and then into the EHX Potato salad or whatever it's called Klone. It was Ugly so I put stickers on it and I forget the name. Something sandwich? I dunno. Sounds good though. as others have said, tightens things up a bit, adds clarity, doesn't really change things, just makes them a bit better.
For $40, it was money well spent.

When I was first getting into pedals I built the BYOC version and as I was not yet into stacking, didn't get it. it was ok, but nothing special on its own.
Now I typically run a Pharaoh set to low gain into a variety of other dirt and then into the EHX Potato salad or whatever it's called Klone. It was Ugly so I put stickers on it and I forget the name. Something sandwich? I dunno. Sounds good though. as others have said, tightens things up a bit, adds clarity, doesn't really change things, just makes them a bit better.
For $40, it was money well spent.

I have to confess that I like TS tones on bass and that I recently decided to put one back on my board. I use a pbass and play with my fingers and have always found that I can play choppy or fastish riffs and have the Tubescreamer tone cut through fuzzed out guitars. That's handy for me so I set myself a budget of $85 last weekend and won a Cusack Bass. Screamer for $77 on eBay

I'm a massive fan of Billy Gould and he used a Fulltone Bassdrive for years. I gigged with a Bassdrive for a while but sold it to try other stuff. I didn't know it was a bass Tubescreamer circuit at the time and I always liked how it was kind of loud, grindy and clear. It might be different on bass because I've never developed the urge to play "Your body is a wonderland" when I look at my board...

AxAxSxS wrote:EHX Potato salad or whatever it's called Klone. It was Ugly so I put stickers on it and I forget the name. Something sandwich?

Hahahaha, Potato Salad is way better of a name than "Soul Food".

sheeeeeit, y'all makin me gas for a TS now.

Should check out the 30th anniversary tubescreamer, your typical ts9 with bling green finish, bright ass green led,and houses the jrc4558d chip that only the greatest of blues lawyers desire. Sounds great and can still be had on ebay for around a bill, id probably use it more if it didnt look like a set of 20's that belong on an old cutlass, that led will light a stage up though.

I like 'em too, I think that midrange hump and bass cut into a cooking amp is an awesome sound of rock'n'roll, works great with nearly any combo of guitar and amp too.

Evan, I think you should bread-board the classic TS-808 circuit, it's great sounding and you could do a lot of mods with it.

I think I might have to Ryan, for sure!!

I remember the singer in my old band would use a tube screamer into a rat out of a Marshall JCM something
And it sounded pretty mean

Casavettes wrote:I remember the singer in my old band would use a tube screamer into a rat out of a Marshall JCM something
And it sounded pretty mean

TS and Rat stack better, in either order, than really makes any sense. You'd figure all the mids would be too much, but it isn't anything like as overbearing as you might expect.