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Fireguy8402 « Not reliable, though decent tones. »
Published on 11/19/11 at 13:33The Ibanez TS-7 Tubescreamer is a basic overdrive pedal with a few extra touches. A metal pedal housing covers plastic jacks for the input and output. Three knobs are used for drive, tone, and level that are the “Tonelock” signature knobs. The user pushes the knob and it pops out, you dial in your setting and then push the button back into the pedal to lock the setting in place, which is a nice feature. This model also features a “Hot” switch that adds more saturation to the signal.
UTILIZATION
This pedal’s selling feature is that it gets the sound of TS-9 and then some while having the Tonelock set and lock knobs. This is great for someone who moves their pedals around a lot as it keeps your sounds locked in place and since the knobs move into the pedal housing they are less likely to get damaged if the pedal gets thrown around on the way to a gig. The plastic input and output jacks are useable but metal jacks that lock to the housing would make this pedal a lot sturdier. The platform used to engage the pedal is solid but the actual switching mechanism used is the weakest part of the pedal. After a few months of use this pedal starts missing when you go to engage it and it takes an extra stomp to get it on or off. After awhile this cheap switch just wears out and it takes more and more stomps to get it to turn on.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the pedal is actually pretty decent. It doesn’t do warm breakup excellent, but just ok. Using it as a boost for solos is adequate or as a round saturated lead tone with the “hot” switch engaged is this pedals best uses. I wouldn’t use this as a basic distortion for rhythm guitar because it is just too smooth and compressed. Trey from Phish is known for using a Tubescreamer into a Tubescreamer and that’s what the hot mode of this pedal sounds like. Compressed and saturated. The normal mode of this pedals sounds like your basic TS-9 Tubescreamer, just light overdrive with a bump in the mid section of the EQ.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall I would get this pedal if I needed a temporary light overdrive or heavy overdriven sound, but it’s not suited for a distortion sound. The pedal has a strong housing, but lacks strength in the input/output jacks and the bypass switch (which is sure to fail over time). The pedal has a decent sound, but due to the switching issues I would not purchase this pedal again. I would save up and get a nicer built and sounding pedal like the Fulltone OCD. If I were to choose another pedal in this price range I’d go for the Transparent Overdrive by Danelectro (better sounding and more versatile all together) or the Bad Monkey Overdrive by Digitech (very similar sounding with a much better build quality and two band EQ, but maybe a little less gain on tap).
UTILIZATION
This pedal’s selling feature is that it gets the sound of TS-9 and then some while having the Tonelock set and lock knobs. This is great for someone who moves their pedals around a lot as it keeps your sounds locked in place and since the knobs move into the pedal housing they are less likely to get damaged if the pedal gets thrown around on the way to a gig. The plastic input and output jacks are useable but metal jacks that lock to the housing would make this pedal a lot sturdier. The platform used to engage the pedal is solid but the actual switching mechanism used is the weakest part of the pedal. After a few months of use this pedal starts missing when you go to engage it and it takes an extra stomp to get it on or off. After awhile this cheap switch just wears out and it takes more and more stomps to get it to turn on.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the pedal is actually pretty decent. It doesn’t do warm breakup excellent, but just ok. Using it as a boost for solos is adequate or as a round saturated lead tone with the “hot” switch engaged is this pedals best uses. I wouldn’t use this as a basic distortion for rhythm guitar because it is just too smooth and compressed. Trey from Phish is known for using a Tubescreamer into a Tubescreamer and that’s what the hot mode of this pedal sounds like. Compressed and saturated. The normal mode of this pedals sounds like your basic TS-9 Tubescreamer, just light overdrive with a bump in the mid section of the EQ.
OVERALL OPINION
Overall I would get this pedal if I needed a temporary light overdrive or heavy overdriven sound, but it’s not suited for a distortion sound. The pedal has a strong housing, but lacks strength in the input/output jacks and the bypass switch (which is sure to fail over time). The pedal has a decent sound, but due to the switching issues I would not purchase this pedal again. I would save up and get a nicer built and sounding pedal like the Fulltone OCD. If I were to choose another pedal in this price range I’d go for the Transparent Overdrive by Danelectro (better sounding and more versatile all together) or the Bad Monkey Overdrive by Digitech (very similar sounding with a much better build quality and two band EQ, but maybe a little less gain on tap).