Ibanez Tube Screamers History

An Ibanez Tube Screamer is an overdrive/distortion pedal that is mild compared to many, but allows the true sound of the guitar and player's technique to come through. The most popular use of a tube screamer is to push a tube amp to make it overdrive more, but they sound good through almost anything.

TS-808

The first Tube Screamer was the green TS-808 overdrive pro in the late '70s. It was preceded by the Orange "Overdrive" and green "Overdrive-II" which came in narrower boxes without the battery cover, and the reddish "Overdrive-II" which had a box very similar to the TS-808. The lighter green OD-855 Overdrive-II is also in the TS-808 style box and has a circuit which is similar to the 808 - the board part numbers only differ by one digit. The overdrive and OD-II had a different, much more distorted, fuzzy circuit. The TS-808 and its generation have small square chrome on/off touch-buttons. Almost all TS-808's sound great. There were some TS-808s made in the 1979 period, mostly for other than USA markets, that came in a narrower box. These have a bottom plate that unscrews to change the battery like an MXR pedal, no plastic battery cover. This narrow TS-808 had a different circuit with more distortion. It uses two 1458 chips which are the 1st version of the low-tech dual op-amp. Also the LEVEL knob on these is labeled BALANCE and the external 9V power jack is next to the input jack. It used the same case as the earlier OVERDRIVE and OVERDRIVE-II pedals which used stomp switches. Ibanez probably had many left over and remade them as "TS-808" pedals to sell off the remaining cases.



Early TS-808's have the Ibanez (R) "trademark" logo which some people seek. There is really no difference, although some of these have a Malaysian Texas Instruments RC4558P chip instead of the normal Japanese JRC4558 chip. I can use this chip in the mod if you would like, or can send both the JRC4558D and the RC4558P chips. A rare chip used was the TL4558P chip, as used in the early Boss OD-1 pedals. This is also Jim Weider's favorite chip in the King Of Tone pedal. Some of the early TS-808s also have a nut holding the power adaptor jack on, while later ones have no nut and a flush adaptor jack. It is not unusual for a TS-808 to have an undercoat of a different color (which can be seen in the ever-present corner chips).

TS9
Around 1982 until 1985 the Ibanez pedals were repackaged and the 9-series of effects were made. The most popular is the TS-9 tube screamer, which is almost the same as the TS-808 internally. Externally the on/off switch grew to fill about 1/3 of the effect. The main change in the TS-9 circuit is in the output section. This caused the tube screamer to be a bit brighter and less "smooth". The Edge from U2 uses a TS9 for most of his overdrive tones, as do countless other famous rock and blues players. In later years the TS-9s were put together with seemingly random op-amp chips, instead of the JRC-4558 which is called for in the schematics. Some of these sound BAD, especially the JRC 2043DD chips. If you have an original TS9 with the 2043 chip, our 808 mods will make a huge difference in tone.



Tube Screamer Questions and Answers

Can you make my Tube Screamer true bypass??

In order to make an Ibanez, Boss or other electronically- switched pedal true bypass, we need to drill a hole on top and mount a standard round metal stomp switch. On the TS9 there is already a small hole under the plaque on top, and there is just enough room inside the pedal for a switch. We also need to hot-wire the circuit so it is always ON. We do offer true bypass mods on the TS9 and TS808. If you already have a TS9 or TS808, and have too many buffered pedals on your board, then the true bypass mod could be a good idea. If you don't already have a tube screamer, and want true bypass, the Maxon OD9 is the obvious choice and will work out cheaper too with our 808 classic or silver mods.

Another solution would be to use a TRUE BYPASS box, which is a small box with IN, OUT, SEND, and RETURN jacks, and a switch. When OFF, the signal goes direct from the IN to the OUT jack. When ON, the signal goes through the SEND/RETURN effects loop (and the pedal that you have in that loop). These are handy for having around, you can even use it as an AB box in a bind. It is even possible to build multiple true bypass boxes with multiple loops/switches. See our switchbox page for many examples. I tested a TS9 in my TRUE BYPASS BOX to see if the TS9 was effecting the tone when it was OFF. There was a small loss in very high frequencies, but the sound was excellent and actually can be better when using very bright amps like my Deluxe Reverb.

Using a Tube Screamer for CLEAN BOOST mode

Another use, which works best with a TS-808 or my TS-808 mod is a clean boost. Turn the gain (top left) knob almost all the way down (maybe on 1) and turn the tone (middle) knob down almost all the way too, and crank up the output volume (top right) to the desired boost level. This can boost a tube amp with nice smooth tone and very little pedal distortion (makes more tube distortion).

By analogman.com
More on http://www.analogman.com/tshist.htm (Best thing about guitar effects ever)