Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer

This pedal's been around for decades and has been used by almost every professional guitarist at one point or another. Used either as a slight overdrive or as a boost to push a tube amp harder this pedal is very versatile.

UTILIZATION

My only real complaint about this pedal is the LED is very dim. Unless you're on a dark stage and in direct vision it's very hard to see if it's on or off. There are mods to replace it with a brighter one, but stock it's not ideal. Other than that it's great, haven't ever had any problems and I've owned a few. Switch has never gone bad, knobs never get static-y, and jacks have never cut out. Pretty solid pedal.

SOUND QUALITY

This pedal has a pretty natural tone, sounds pretty similar to a real overdriven tube amp. There's a slight mid boost to it which helps cut through other instruments as well as filling out the tone a bit. With the gain high and volume around half it gives a natural overdriven tone, similar to Steve Ray sounds. With the gain at minimum to half and the volume maxed it works as a boost. Put in front of a tube amp it'll push the amp harder resulting in even more overdrive than just either by themselves. Most modern metal bands prefer to use one as a boost into a high gain amp. The mid boost again fills out the tone a little along with helping cut through the mix. It also helps tighten the low end which is crucial for faster music along with low tuned guitars.

OVERALL OPINION

I've owned a few of these over the years and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to buy another if anything happened to this one. It's very solid built, looks and sounds great, and is a pedal that always stays in my chain regardless of what kind of music I'm playing. I'd recommend it to anyone playing jazz, blues, all the way to rock and metal.

Picked this one up at Guitar Center in Boston a year ago (2002) for about $100.

Easy to use (only three knobs). Definitely a mellow overdrive and nothing more, however it is great at what it does. Throw it on while on your clean channel and it's sort of a fuzz, or overdrive your leads with some added sustain and attitude. It's nice at getting a sort of Slash-like tone on lead. Don't forget SRV though also.

The only thing i don't like is that it adds a little extra noise, especially when your on your distortion channel. It's hardly noticeable while playing, but if you have to pause for any reason i prefer to curl my volume control down a couple levels to avoid listening to the thing bitch at me.

The construction is perfectly good I'd say, but then again no guitar gear of mine has ever shit the bed so I don't have much to compare it to.

Bottom Line is try it out. See what you think. I personally think this pedal could be an asset on anyone's rig.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Purchased at music store in Dallas, TX. I don't remember the store, but the cost was just under $100 (hey, these pedals are a must for BLUESMEN!!!!!!!!!!)

Simple. Direct. Pure.
This pedal gives the extra ooomph to my Fender rig when playing da Blues. It is the ultimate boost (except maybe a TS-808).

Could use a bit more gain, but that's why Ibanez made the TS-9DX.

Puh-leeeeeze. This thing is a tank. I gigged straight for over a year without a backup and it NEVER failed. Just make sure to use a pedal board or external power source. Replacing batteries for each gig is a bummer.

This pedal is a must for any blues freak. GO BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased the TS9 Tube Screamer at Midwest Drum and Percussion in Wichita, KS. I shelled out $99 US dollar for the TS9, the best deal I've seen at any store. Most of the time the TS9 is being sold for around $150. You can get it on the net for $99 but this was the first time I'd seen it in a store so cheap. The fact that an issue of Musicians Friend.com was sitting on the counter probably influenced the pricing. I wanted to play one to see what all the fuss was about before I bought it. (I was intending to order it online; until they were able to match the online price) So,I plugged it into a Fender Amp to give it a 'test drive.'

I love to play old rock and blues guitar, so I instantly fell in love with the pedal. It drives the amp really nicely, but doesn't distort it too much. I have other overdrive pedals (I'd been trying to resist the TS9 since lots of people rave about it; I guess I always have to be different) but the other overdrives I own tend to be more distortion than overdrive. SRV was supposedly really into the TS, and I can see why. The tone comes through really nicely. I play a US strat (white blonde) through a Tube 30 (cheap amp that is an excellent buy) and the TS9 sounds great through it. The pedal is really simple to use. It consists of 3 knobs: Overdrive, Tone, and Level. The overdrive adjust the amount of distortion, the tone knob adds the amount of desired bite, and the level knob controls the level of the distorted sound. All in all it's a great little pedal. I admit it, I'm a Stevie Ray Vaughabe, so the tone is great for me. It has that nice "Texas Flood" sound.

As far as dislikes go, I really can't think of any. I love the pedal and now my wife is upset with me because I have several pedals, but really only use the TS9. I guess I should have purchased the Tube Sreamer first.

The pedal is built to last. It's made of Zinc die cast construction, which means it's built like a brick $%@#house. It's green, which I'm not sure is good or bad, but the construction of the pedal is good quality.

The pedal is very nice. It's not quite the same sound as the old TS808, but it's really close. You can always modify it, or have it modified to 808 specs if you desire. For $99 dollars it's a great deal. If you like SRV and Clapton style of music, you really can't be without one of these pedals.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com