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I've never tried one. Love my Rat, but apparently a Rat + TS can be quite nice. Anyone doing that and loving it? Seems like a TS would at least be useful as a boost, add a bit of "something" to my clean tone maybe? Useful utility pedal or a boring waste of space?

Sure, it's useful, but only when used properly. For goosing shit. (Not to be confused with goose shit.)

I wouldn't use it with a clean signal… or even unaltered. Needs some interesting EQ like and EQD Palisades or somethin'.

I used to use a way huge green rhino for my dirty boost needs. Its a tube screamer but with a knob to dial in more lows and more gain on tap i think. That pedal slamming into a muff or an amps front end sounded great. I sold it because I ended up prefering the ocd/demon for that kinda thing. I would say if you just want to try a tube screamer buy the $20 plastic soundtank version.

Booooring and boxy.

I had a SD1 and there was nothing it could do that my Rat couldn't do with way more grit n guts.

I like mine from the early 90s for classic rock but I generally don't use it with fuzz or really anything save reverb. I generally use it alone or with reverb after/loop and a gainy amp with the level cranked and the drive fairly low. A friend uses one for a mid boost with his muff to level out the eq and cut a little better. It's not a staple for no reason, like the muff, rat, or fuzzface it(or some variant) holds a useful spot in any collection.

Anecdotally, they have two main uses: always-on tone shaper, focusing the sound into that guitary midrange. Seems to be the way that heavy/metal/hardcore kind of guys use them, with a gainy af amp like a 5150. Studio dude we just recorded with loves TSes for this reason.

OR

lead boost to stand out in a live mix. What sounds congested and boxy translates - at combat volumes - to punch and cut.

MechaGodzilla wrote:What sounds congested and boxy translates - at combat volumes - to punch and cut.

There is much truth to this. I think in bedroom and recording situations they sound bad on their own and decent as boosts to other fuzz. Can't say as I have a need for one, I would think a rat covers you for od

I've got an old Soundtank TS-5 that I bought new back when and as a gift an MXR Badass Modified Overdrive, which is a kind of tricked out variant with asymmetric clipping. As between each other, either might win on a given day. But I use neither enough to have a systematic understanding of why. I rarely get either out.

I used to play Strats and similar into Fender tube amps or tube amps with a "Fender clean" channel. The TSs does fill in a bunch of that mid scoop and the congestion isn't as apparent as with more midrange-y gear. But still the sound can have that plastic coating quality to it--not very natural sounding and not artificial in an aesthetically pleasing way. Moderate use is better at not upping the fakeness of the sound, but may not give the big mid push that some people need. And, anyhow, I use a lot more mids in my base sounds than I used to, so an occasional sometime subtle sound sculpting pedal? Meh.

I have a general suspicion that I just don't like soft clippers in an opamp's feedback path, since I don't bond with TSs or Muffs. I love HM-2, but that's a stew of clipping methods. (Could also be TS and Muff eq doesn't work for me, but HM-2 eq does.). I still think the unholy alliance is worth trying if Muffs are your jam.

I really wanna try the nu tube screamer pushing my amp gain, not gonna lie.

I always liked running a Rat into a Tubescreamer with low gain. The TS works pretty well as a dirty/colored boost. In live contexts it really does help your guitar stand out.

Wish I had tried going with the Rat after the Tubescreamer too to try out goosing the Rat’s gain.

My ultimate recommendation is don’t spend much on a fancy Tubescreamer, treat it like a “spicy” boost, and play around with it’s position in your signal chain. It’s definitely a useful tool to have in certain situations.

I avoid putting Tubes Creamers in my coffee if I can help it.

As said above good for goosing shit but overall it doesn't bring THE RIFFS on its own so I never bother with em. The idea that JHS made a pedal that has nine or however many of them is hilarious to me.

If it's not a JHS, it won't have the tru tones.

Kind of a boring pedal to me. If all you're going to use it for is a mid boost, might as well get an EQ pedal

don't like 'em, never did. i don't use effects to push the amp input, i find an amp sound that i like that's relatively clean and then use effects for drive/distortion/fuzz. and as an effect on its own, it's thin and plasticky to me.