Today’s guest review comes to us from Christian E. – you can find him on Instagram (@chriespiritu) or on his band’s Facebook page (Story Of April).
The Tube Screamer is probably the most famous pedal of all time and it has its spot on pedalboards of players from all over the world.
The pedal itself is built like a tank. The all metal construction makes a very solid stompbox and you’ll feel like you could gig with it without needing a backup. You’ll get used to this pedal in no time. There are three knobs (drive, level and tone) that don’t need an explanation as they are exactly what they are. The switch is metal constructed as well. You can either power the pedal with a 9V a battery or a standard AC adaptor (I obviously recommend powering the TS9 with a power supply so you won’t ever end up with a dead battery in the middle of your gig).
Let’s get on what really matters. How does the effect sound like? Well, if you know anything about overdrives you’ll surely know that there are a few ways to utilize a Tube Screamer. I play in a metalcore band and for my rhythm tone I use my TS9 in front of my amp on the distortion channel. Usually I keep the drive on zero, I push the level all the way up and tone pretty much at 12 o’ clock and by doing this I get a tight, super aggressive rhythm tone. Long story short I use my TS9 as a boost rather than a traditional overdrive.
One thing that I noticed while using the Ibanez TS9 is that it gives a slight “hump” in the mid range of my tone and it also cuts some frequencies in the bass range. I actually like that but others could find this not suitable for their tone. At the end of the day it all comes down to preferences: just play with different settings on the pedal until you find that sweet little spot on the knobs.
The only major flaw that I find about this pedal is that the little LED light isn’t very bright: many times i’ve found myself on stage unsure if the effect was engaged or not.
Another thing that I should point out is that the Tube Screamer is not true bypass: i’m not one of those “purists” (pass me the term). I don’t really care if a pedal is true bypass or not. My pedalboard isn’t racist!
A new TS9 costs around €150 (which in dollars should be close to a figure like that). At one point or another every guitar player will feel the need of getting an overdrive. To me the TS9 is a perfect starting point in the world of overdrives. It is super versatile (I only described my use but you can also use it for pretty much every other genre of music), super easy to use and reliable.
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