New Pedal Day!!

Hey Everyone,

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:

Attachment 23370


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.

nice, ibanez fan i am

Love the TS-9 Doc

It's a real easy to use pedal, I found that I didn't have to put a lot of effort into it to get a good tone with it and an amp, if you team it up with a simple amp, like the Pitbull Guitars 5 Watt amp, you're guaranteed to get some pretty good results, I'll have to hurry up and get a new speaker for my Peavey Backstage plus amp so I can try the TS-9 with it's overdrive effect.

@ Andy40 one of these should work great with your Blues Cube amp.


Here's a visual side-by-side comparison of the TS-808 with a TS-9, the TS-808 is the one on the right:

Attachment 23375


Notice how the TS-808 is coloured a different shade of green, the control knobs are different too, the internal circuitry is practically identical except for some minor component value differences, to my ears the TS-808 seems a bit less gainey than the TS-9, but the tonal differences are relatively minor, the TS-9 seems to have slightly more gain and bottom end, and sounds a bit thicker too, both pedals will get the job done, apparently Stevie Ray Vaughan used the TS-808 a lot in his onstage guitar rig, he's also been known to use the TS-10 too.


Here's an interesting technical article about the TS series of pedals, it also explains the component differences between the TS-808, TS-9 and TS-10:

http://www.geofex.com/article_folder...ch/tsxtech.htm


As it says in the article, you can easily modify a TS-10 pedal into a TS-9 or a TS-808 simply by changing the value of some components, I used to own a TS-10 and didn't think it was that great, so I modded it to TS-808 specs and liked how it sounded, I also experimented with different Op Amp ICs and found that I liked either TLO72CP ICs, or LF353 ICs, to my ears they made the pedal sound smoother.

Must be an Ibanez day...

I was rummaging around in my shed looking through old boxes of junk (and tossing half of it) and came across my OLD Ibanez Overdrive. It is vintage enough to not have a 9V plug so only runs on batteries. Internally it is a Maxon device from probably the early '70's.

In the same box I also found a ETI424 spring reverb device which should keep me out of mischief for a while...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marcel

Must be an Ibanez day...

I was rummaging around in my shed looking through old boxes of junk (and tossing half of it) and came across my OLD Ibanez Overdrive. It is vintage enough to not have a 9V plug so only runs on batteries. Internally it is a Maxon device from probably the early '70's.

In the same box I also found a ETI424 spring reverb device which should keep me out of mischief for a while...

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Geez, those two pedals should be worth a bit now if they're originals, was that ETI424 pre-built or was it built from a kit of parts?

Yes, the Ibanez is an original. As I said, it is a battery only model from before the days of 9VDC power supplies... so before I can try it I need to find a 9V battery...

The reverb unit is not a pedal. It's just a circuit board (from the magazine ETI) haphazardly loaded with parts and a 10" spring box attached via some 20cm lengths of wire... just the guts really. I remember getting it sometime in the early eighties and by the looks of it I doubt that I put the parts on the board as they are dressed/mounted differently to how I prefer. I need to find a circuit so I can re-identify the in's and out's and know what voltage should be feeding it. I'm guessing it is most likely 12VDC or 2x9V.... lots of odd tracks and wires to nowhere and nil pots attached makes me think this was ingloriously ripped out of an amp so it may take some work to get it going...

A couple of photos of the ETI424 reverb... Nothing to get too excited over just yet...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marcel

Yes, the Ibanez is an original. As I said, it is a battery only model from before the days of 9VDC power supplies... so before I can try it I need to find a 9V battery...

The reverb unit is not a pedal. It's just a circuit board (from the magazine ETI) haphazardly loaded with parts and a 10" spring box attached via some 20cm lengths of wire... just the guts really. I remember getting it sometime in the early eighties and by the looks of it I doubt that I put the parts on the board as they are dressed/mounted differently to how I prefer. I need to find a circuit so I can re-identify the in's and out's and know what voltage should be feeding it. I'm guessing it is most likely 12VDC or 2x9V.... lots of odd tracks and wires to nowhere and nil pots attached makes me think this was ingloriously ripped out of an amp so it may take some work to get it going...

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Sounds like an interesting project, I was doing some internet browsing and found a pdf of a build manual for building a Tube-driven Spring reverb into a 19 inch rack case, building one is on my "to do" projects list.

Just had a look at the pics you posted, I think there may be a circuit diagram for it floating around on the internet somewhere, I'll keep an eye out for it mate.

I've found a circuit... ETI-1977- projects book 1&2...page 34.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marcel

I've found a circuit... ETI-1977- projects book 1&2...page 34.

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No worries then, those two projects books wouldn't happen to have the schematic for the ETI 183 Valve Distortion Unit in it by any chance, would it?, it's a circuit that uses a single 12AX7 Valve which is powered by a 15V/1A transformer.

Nup!!, ETI183 is not in the 1977 compendium book... looked twice...

I did find an old Ibanez catalogue for the distortion pedal from 1976... http://www.ibanez.com/anniversary/ex...at_id=18&now=3

Pedals were so much cooler back in those days, weren't they?

Update:

Today, I'm going to be doing a very simple mod to both my TS-808 pedal and my TS-9 pedal, it basically involves swapping out the stock clear Red indicator Leds for blue ones, reason being is that the red ones are not bright enough, even when new 9V batteries are fitted in both pedals, or when the pedals are powered by a plugpack adaptor, you really have to take a good close look at the Leds to see if they light up, I've done a similar mod to my Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal and it definitely makes a difference, I swapped out the BD-2's stock Red 3mm Led for a blue 3mm Led, I reckon pedals look cooler with blue Leds anyway.

my Seymour Duncan delay has a bright blue led in one the pots and had a clear knob on it, it was SO bright, I had to put a black knob on it to dull it down LOL

Update:

Last night I went ahead and swapped-out the stock Red Leds in my two Tube Screamer pedals for Blue Leds, made a big difference in visibility, now I can easily tell when my Tube Screamers are bypassed or not without having to use my ears, here's a pic to show the difference in brightness between the stock Red Led and the new Blue Led:

Attachment 23644


Both of the pedals you see in the pic are un-bypassed, the one on the left is the TS-9 with it's stock Red Led, the one on the right is the TS-808 with the new Blue Led,you can hardly see the stock Red Led glowing whereas the new Blue Led is much easier to see, I have now done the mod to both my Tube Screamers.

The isolated output 9V power board I use for my pedals has a high brightness Blue LED beside each output jack which lights up when the ouyput has a plug in it.... Don't need stage lights or work lights any more ...the Blue glow from those buggers means I'm never in darkness....

Nice

I have a Robert Keeley modded TS-9 that is used as a boost for soloing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by churchie

Nice

I have a Robert Keeley modded TS-9 that is used as a boost for soloing.

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apart from it's new blue led, my TS-9 is all stock standard, and I reckon it sounds great too, maybe a bit better than my TS-808.