OD Pedals? (TS & others)

D

doveman

New member
I've been playing for almost 40 years without pedals (except a Boss tuner). For almost 30 years, it's been on a Mesa Boogie (before that Fenders & Marshalls). So I have nice pre-amp tube tone control ... 60/100 watt switch gives me a good mix on power tube breakup. The speaker is an EVM12L which is so strong it has almost no break up within the speaker ... that has not been an issue for me. I play blues, rock, jazz and like the sound of a guitar coming through but just breaking up with sustain.

Recently, I've been toying with the idea of trying a TS808 (or TS9 or TS Turbo) through the Mesa's 2nd circuit which skips the 1st pre-amp tube. I've tried a Boss metal zone (my son had one of those too). I'm not really interested in that much signal manipulation. Something warm to hot ... but not blistering, heavy distortion or serious metal.

My questions are these:

Is the TS series anything like the Boss blues driver (which my son has)?

Where's a good site that explains the differences? fuzz vs overdrive vs distortion pedals? Boss vs Ibanez vs others ... that sort of thing.

Again, in the early years I never found a pedal that helped me ... but technology should have improved things by now ...

I can't imagine me with a pedal board ... but just curious :)
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

I'm gonna recommend that you go to the local Guitar Center, and plug into as many pedals as you can.

No explanation will touch actually trying them.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

YUP.....or if there is no convenient store, order one from Musicians Friend, try it out & if you don't like it, they have a GREAT return policy :D
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

JB_From_Hell said:
I'm gonna recommend that you go to the local Guitar Center, and plug into as many pedals as you can.

No explanation will touch actually trying them.
Click to expand...

That's a good recommendation ... just wanted to educate myself a bit first.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

i dont really like the blues driver all that much, i prefer the sd1 which is more tube screamer-y.

a cool pedal to look at might be the rt66 by visual sound
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

doveman said:
That's a good recommendation ... just wanted to educate myself a bit first.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Whatever you do, do NOT listen to the jackholes who work at GC.

Oh, I meant to mention that the Arion Tubulator can be had from Musicians Friend for $10 (on sale periodically), and then modded to TS808 spec.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

sd-1 is OKAY, but it doesn't really give enough volume boost for my taste

and a blues driver is... totally different from a ts

i think a ts-9 would be right up your alley, i know i love mine
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

drew_half_empty said:
sd-1 is OKAY, but it doesn't really give enough volume boost for my taste

and a blues driver is... totally different from a ts

i think a ts-9 would be right up your alley, i know i love mine
Click to expand...

I may drive over to GC and test out one of the TS9s. I think it might be more towards the style I play. Might get one if it sounds interesting and return it if it doesn't work with my amp.

Can't seem to even find the Boss Blues Driver ... it appears we've lost it and the Boss Metal Pedal since my son doesn't use them anymore either. The Blues Driver didn't do anything for me when I tried it. That's the reason I asked about it ... since they seemed to be designed to do similar things.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

yeah they were kind of designed to do similar things, but the blues driver was designed by a computer, and the ts was designed by a guy who wanted a pedal that sounded like that

plus the BD has an upper mid spike that just sounds like crap, and the drive control sounds really fake & stale

the TS has a smooth midrange, a 30db volume boost, and a drive control that blends with your amps natural distortion

the only complaint people seem to have with them is that they cut some lows & highs, but unless you're diming your bass & treble on a daily basis that isn't really an issue
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

JB_From_Hell said:
Gotcha. Whatever you do, do NOT listen to the jackholes who work at GC.

Oh, I meant to mention that the Arion Tubulator can be had from Musicians Friend for $10 (on sale periodically), and then modded to TS808 spec.
Click to expand...

About the Arion pedal ... your right $10 ... who mods them or is the mod info available on intranet? How much is the mod?

In fact, are any of these mods available on the intranet? I'm pretty comfortable doing mods.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

I am about the same age as you and I know what you are going thru. Over the years here are some of the pedals I used.

Pro Co Rat. The original. I felt this pedal was more fuzzy than OD, but I used it with another OD pedal to get a nice creamy tone.


Boss Super OD. This is still available and its cheap at $40. Its a really good OD pedal for the money. I used this with a Rat thru a Jazz Chorus amp back in the mid 80's. I eventually upgraded to a Super Reverb and this was the OD pedal I used. I set the amps volume at about 4 to 5 at the most. I used that setting for most of my Rythum and kicked in the SOD when I soloed. All I really did was add a little sustain and a little more bite.

ABout 8 or 10 years ago I added a TS9 and this was much more natural sounding IMHO. It made all the OD stuff sound like the amp turned up which is really what we are all looking for (at leat I am). This pedal works really well with my Super Reverb. A couple years ago I bought a second TS9 and I sent it StratDeluxer to mod it for me. This tubescreamer really rocks. The modded TS9 has more gain and is more throaty sounding. More balls to it. I like the way it sounds with my Bogner Shiva. I use it mostly with the gain turned all the way down and I use it with the clean channel mostly like a volume boost. It works really well for this. In my Fender Amps I use it very differently more like a channel switch.

I also have a Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal. I use this with a Marshall 900 in both the clean and drive channels. It works real well with a Marshall, but I found it uninspiring with the Bogner and the Fender.

As many of the other guys already suggested go to GC and find something similar to your amp and play with as many pedals as you feel you need to to find the one that works best for you.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

I think you are understanding what I'm thinking about ... the early Mesa's were basically 12ax7>12ax7>12at7>6L6 souped up Fender Princetons. I've always been really satisfied with the tone I get going through input #1 (all of the preamp cascades) but have never used the #2 input (skipping the 1st preamp station). I don't use this "clean" option because of the volume drop plus I can get clean by just backing off the guitar volume. See the original Mesa's could be footswitched between #1 and #2 input.

So recently I've been thinking ...

Input 1: What I've been doing for 28 years ... and love it.

Input 2: TS9 in the loop ... beefing up the clean channel.

I haven't thought through the switching needs yet ... I think it's just an A/B switcher. But that setup might give me some more options that are "in the same neighborhood but different" tones.

So what is the TS9 mod? Can I find details on the intranet?
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

My favourite OD pedal (which I have tried at least) is the Maxon OD808 Tubescreamer. A bit expensive as pedals go, but sounds warmer and smoother than the others.. plus true bypass doesn't hurt.
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

TimmyPage said:
My favourite OD pedal (which I have tried at least) is the Maxon OD808 Tubescreamer. A bit expensive as pedals go, but sounds warmer and smoother than the others.. plus true bypass doesn't hurt.
Click to expand...

I've readabout this one ... I think I may have even read that Maxon might build Ibanez pedals in their factory ... I'm not sure but that's popping out of some of my brain cells for some reason. :13:
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

You sound like you want an overdrive pedal. My top 2 recommendations:
DOD-250
Boss SD-1
 
Re: OD Pedals? (TS & others)

Update: I purchased the TS9 and brought it home today to try out on my rig.

Results:
- It worked on the 2nd channel (skipping the 1st preamp tube)
- Sound wasn't all that good though ... nice distortion but tone was not good
- Then I tried on the 1st preamp channel ... worked better BUT
- It really doesn't help the Boogie ... tone is nowhere close to the quality
- I think I'll just stick with the tried and true Boogie pre-amp

Taking back the pedal tomorrow. Worth a try though :)
 
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