Gr8Scott
Wookieologist
For my birthday, I asked the lovely miss Jayme to purchase me a challenger to the tubescreamer throne. She doesn't know much about music gear and had one heck of a time getting me what I asked for because noone seems to stock these little babies and she's not much on using anything other than brick and mortar stores. I wanted something cheap as can be because I didn't want to strain the lovely Jayme's resources unduly and she's been so good to me that I didn't want to be greedy. So I asked for something that costs a piddling $12.99 at musicians friend. That's right friends! I asked for the Arion MTE-1 Tubulator. It's a dirt cheap and tawdry copy of the tubescreamer circuit with flimsy construction and cheap knobs that will fly off if you aren't careful with them. (they aren't loose, but will pull off easily)
Don't be fooled by the exterior of this cheap pedal because it has the same heart (the JRC 4558 chip) as the tubescreamer. I don't know if the circuit is an identical match to the tubescreamer because I haven't taken it apart yet, but it does sound a little different to my ears. It sounds BETTER than my tubescreamer to me. I modded my tubescreamer back to TS-808 specs using the correct old style JRC 4558 chip and input/output resistor changes to make it identically match the original TS-808 circuit. For some reason, it still sounds a bit reedy to me. I guess that's how a tubescreamer is supposed to sound. While I haven't had the opportunity to compare my modded TS-5 with an original TS-808, it's supposed to sound like one now given the mods I've made. It doesn't sound bad to my ears. Not bad at all really. Sounds really nice and tubey up the neck and kind of changes the EQ to a much brighter and upper mids kind of sound. When you play up the neck on a strat, it quacks a bit, but doesn't get outrageous no matter what the setting. It's more reserved I guess. It is glassy but still smooth as silk.
Now for a breakdown of the $12.99 usurper. It's tone is much more balanced than the screamer. With the gain cranked, playing down the neck on bass notes, you get a much more balanced rockin distortion out of it than with the stock tubescreamer which has little distortion and is sort of brittle sounding down the neck. Not as much of an upper midrange hump like the tubescreamer has, but more of a balanced eq sound with even bass response. The distortion is very tubey. Equally tubey if not moreso when compared to the tubescreamer. When you venture up the neck, the tubey distortion translates into a severely pushed tube sound and strat pickups quack louder and harder through it than through the tubescreamer. Much better quack on the strat neck pickup to my ears from the tubulator. I a/b tested all this before posting. Also it doesn't seem to have nearly as much tone suck as an unmodded tubescreamer does when it's in the signal chain.
It's basically a hotrodded tubescreamer for $12.99 in a plastic case. The build quality isn't gonna win any awards, but it will hold up fine and most musicians here can afford several to keep as spares.
I give it two thumbs up. It's a must have pedal IMHO. For $12.99 what do you have to lose for trying one? At least use it as padding to get free shipping from Musician's friend on purchases under $100. You won't be sorry and if you prefer the tubescreamer to it, you can donate it to a kid who needs a decent pedal.
Don't be fooled by the exterior of this cheap pedal because it has the same heart (the JRC 4558 chip) as the tubescreamer. I don't know if the circuit is an identical match to the tubescreamer because I haven't taken it apart yet, but it does sound a little different to my ears. It sounds BETTER than my tubescreamer to me. I modded my tubescreamer back to TS-808 specs using the correct old style JRC 4558 chip and input/output resistor changes to make it identically match the original TS-808 circuit. For some reason, it still sounds a bit reedy to me. I guess that's how a tubescreamer is supposed to sound. While I haven't had the opportunity to compare my modded TS-5 with an original TS-808, it's supposed to sound like one now given the mods I've made. It doesn't sound bad to my ears. Not bad at all really. Sounds really nice and tubey up the neck and kind of changes the EQ to a much brighter and upper mids kind of sound. When you play up the neck on a strat, it quacks a bit, but doesn't get outrageous no matter what the setting. It's more reserved I guess. It is glassy but still smooth as silk.
Now for a breakdown of the $12.99 usurper. It's tone is much more balanced than the screamer. With the gain cranked, playing down the neck on bass notes, you get a much more balanced rockin distortion out of it than with the stock tubescreamer which has little distortion and is sort of brittle sounding down the neck. Not as much of an upper midrange hump like the tubescreamer has, but more of a balanced eq sound with even bass response. The distortion is very tubey. Equally tubey if not moreso when compared to the tubescreamer. When you venture up the neck, the tubey distortion translates into a severely pushed tube sound and strat pickups quack louder and harder through it than through the tubescreamer. Much better quack on the strat neck pickup to my ears from the tubulator. I a/b tested all this before posting. Also it doesn't seem to have nearly as much tone suck as an unmodded tubescreamer does when it's in the signal chain.
It's basically a hotrodded tubescreamer for $12.99 in a plastic case. The build quality isn't gonna win any awards, but it will hold up fine and most musicians here can afford several to keep as spares.
I give it two thumbs up. It's a must have pedal IMHO. For $12.99 what do you have to lose for trying one? At least use it as padding to get free shipping from Musician's friend on purchases under $100. You won't be sorry and if you prefer the tubescreamer to it, you can donate it to a kid who needs a decent pedal.
