Yesterday I bought myself a new pedal to add to my collection, it's one that I've been wanting to buy for a long time, the pedal I bought is a brand new Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer pedal, yes I know that I've got an Ibanez TS-808 tube Screamer pedal and it does pretty much the same thing as the TS-9 does, however, to my ears the TS-9 seems to have a bit more bottom end as well as gain compared to the TS-808, it also sounds a bit thicker too.
Here's a pic of my new TS-9 pedal:
The TS-9 Tube Screamer is one of the classic overdrive pedals that Ibanez manufactured along with the TS808, both have been used by lots of famous guitarists in the past, it has three controls, Drive, Tone, and Level, personally I think it is one of the most useful pedals you can have on your pedal board because there are at least three ways you can use it, you can use it in one of the following three ways:
1, To warm up your clean sound by setting the Drive control low, setting the Level control to match the bypassed signal-level, and the tone control to taste.
2, To generate a light overdrive effect by setting the Drive control to produce the desired amount of overdrive, and the other two controls to taste.
3, To generate a clean-ish boost effect to push an already overdriven amp harder by setting the Drive control to about the 11 o clock position, the Level control to about the 1 o clock position and the Tone control to taste (I tend to set it to the 12 o clock position).
Tube Screamers tend to produce a tone that is a bit midrangey, I think that's actually a good thing since the midrangey tone will cut through in a live band mix, or a studio mix.
There's been lots of Tube Screamer clone boutique pedals available, most likely due to the popularity of Ibanez's TS series of pedals, you can even buy DIY Tube Screamer kits too, all in all, I reckon it's a handy one to have in your pedal collection.
I tried out my new TS-9 pedal with my Marshall amp and my Fender Strat and my LP Studio, and it works for me, so I'm happy with it.
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