Effects Bay

Yesterday I posted Jerry Cantrell’s pedal set up, and noticed he had the Ibanez TS808HW limited hand wired edition tube screamer. I’ve seen this before, but realized I hadn’t talked about it on the site.

Ibanez thought they would do something special and create a hand wired (no circuit board) edition of the tube screamer using JRC4558D chips found in the original TS808. They also made the pedal with true bypass and different enclosure.

Here is the official description:

The Ibanez Tube Screamer, in its many versions and forms, can be found on pedal boards across the globe. Its warm overdrive is a sound many players, from advanced to beginner, can’t be without. The hand-wired deluxe TS808HW Tube Screamer offers even more capability and was built with the pro musician in mind.

Encased in a special, heavy-duty metal box, the TS808HW pedal is hand-wired with select JRC4558D IC chips (same as the revered and often-imitated TS808) and uses Japanese high-end MOGAMI OEC cable (AWG21). Equipped with true bypass, this Tube Screamer sends pure guitar excitement to your amplifier with no tonal loss whatsoever. This is, by far, the most evolved Tube Screamer pedal Ibanez has ever created.

I definitely like the Tube screamer. Used a Tube screamer TS9 for a long time. Very effective for bumping the leads up. I like the mid bump it gives, etc. I was surprised by the low amount of video reviews for this pedal.. and the ones available.. were not the greatest. ProGuitarShopDemos had the best.. by far.

I checked out ProGuitarShop.com, but it’s sold out. Musician’s Friend still has the Ibanez TS808HW in stock for $349.98

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Today I was reading a blog post by Fat Tone Guitars where Phil goes into Distortion and Overdrives and mentions the MJM Phantom Overdrive. I remember looking at this 808 overdrive based overdrive a bit ago, but sort of forgot about it until reading the post. I thought I would feature it today.

Here is the official description by Fat Tone:

If you’re in love with the classic 808 overdrive tone but sick of sorting through all the clones and mods on the market, stop! The MJM Phantom Overdrive Pedal is here. The Phantom gives you the warm, sweet 808 tone that you crave with some improvements. The selector switch lets you go from a traditional screamer tone to a higher gain overdrive with some added low end. Now everything that you didn’t like about the screamer has been taken care of and there is clearly no other choice than the MJM Phantom Overdrive.

I found this video by rasomaso which shows what this pedal is all about:

You can pick up the MJM Phantom Overdrive for $165.00 at Fat Tone Guitars.

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

Popularity: 3%

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Today while drinking my cup of joe (and boy it was a tasty cup) and zoning out on Twitter, I saw @VisualSoundUSA in my home feed talking about their Double Trouble Dual Overdrive pedal. Had a link to a video, so wanted to take a look.  Basically it’s too overdrives modeled after the TS808 overdrive. So you can have two separate settings or cascade them into each other.

Here is the official description:

The V2DT Double Trouble Dual Overdrive is Visual Sound’s interpretation of the TS-808 with bass boost and lots more volume, times 2! Use either overdrive by itself or combine them. For each overdrive, Double Trouble includes level knobs for Drive, Tone and Volume; plus wide and sturdy stomp switches. Bass boost can be switched on or off separately for each overdrive. 1/4″ jacks in and out.

Everyone loves the overdrive channel in Visual Sound’s Jekyll & Hyde and Route 66 pedals. Over the years, Visual Sound has had many requests to put two of these overdrives into one pedal, allowing for two different settings and the ability to use them together. Now you can have that great sound and all the advantages of V2 Series construction, plus the addition of an innovative noise reduction system, in the Double Trouble…only from Visual Sound!

The Visual Sound V2 Series V2DT Double Trouble Dual Overdrive Guitar Effects Pedal features a die-cast aluminum housing, ultra-reliable 10-million cycle switching, easy battery access and circuit protection from AC adapters.

Here is the video by VisualSoundUSA:

You can pick up the Visual Sound V2 Series V2DT Double Trouble Dual Overdrive for $149.95 at Musician’s Friend

Remember, if you like reading about these pedals and seeing videos reviews from others, please subscribe to the RSS feed and get notified via email when there are new postings!

Popularity: 4%

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“The Green Screamer is an overdrive pedal that produces a dynamic range of smooth and warm overdrive tones associated with vintage tube amps. Robust build quality and rugged engineering ensure that the Green Screamer will stand up to the abuse of life on the road. Other features include hardwire bypass, LED operation indicator, non-slip rubber bottom, easy-access 9v battery compartment and included external power supply.”

Once again, another awesome deal on a BBE pedal at Amazon. Normally lists at $149.00, but it’s selling for $66.23 and includes FREE Super Saver Shipping! This pedal is NOT currently available at Musician’s Friend.

Here is the official promotional and tutorial video on the BBE Green Screamer Vintage 808 Overdrive Peal

Popularity: 3%

So on Twitter and over various emails from the site, I’ve been asked what a good pedal is for boosting leads and cutting through the mix. I’ve personally struggled with this over the years, and I have to say the Ibanez Tubescreamer TS9 is really a fantastic pedal for this. This could be a major reason why you see this little green pedal on SO many pedal boards out there. The TS9 does somethings besides adding gain. There is a clear mid-bump there, which to me, is the primary reason why the leads stand out. The mids are very important to be heard! Along with the mid bump, and how you configure the settings, you can get some unbelievable sustain out of this pedal. It tightens up the low-end a bit for some additional punch with the mid bump.

I know there are plenty of musicians out there that use this as a ‘distortion’ pedal which is fine, but I only use my TS9 for leads. The Tubescream TS9 is also great with other overdrive pedals. I personally like to use other overdrives or fuzz pedals too ‘wool’ up the lead tone prior to the TS9. When I say ‘wool’, I’m saying to give it a fatter/wider/nastier signal before the TS9 and then the TS9 tightens that up a bit. I feel like it creates a thicker ‘bigger’ lead tone. Of course this depends on the lead or the song or the style of music I’m playing.

The Tubescreamer Ts9 has pretty substantial gain, so you get some sick overdrive. Depending on your amp settings (clean channel vs. gain channel), you can get some massive volume boost. Gain channels with the headroom already floored won’t have that drastic of a change, but the ‘perceived’ volume boost due to the frequency change (mid boost) is more than enough to stand out.

You can pickup a Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9 for around $99 at Musician’s Friend, but you can find some sweet deals on eBay.

There are different types of Tubescreamers (TS7, TS9, TS9DS and the TS808 just to name a few) and there are buckets of ‘mods’ that are out there.. as well as clones. Personally, I only use the ‘standard’ TS9, but while poking around I started to read and watch reviews about mods. I think some of these mods.. are pretty amazing.

I found this particular ‘shoot out’ on YouTube, which shows a Keeley Mod’d 808 (808 Mod), Analog Man Mod, Keeley Plus Mod, Factory Maxon OD-9. All of these modified pedals can be picked up at TunnelVision Music.

Popularity: 4%

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