Ibanez Tube Screamer

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Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is a guitar overdrive pedal, made by Ibanez. The pedal has a characteristic mid-boosted tone popular with blues players. The "legendary" Tube Screamer has been used by guitarists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan to create their signature sound, and is one of the most popular and most copied overdrive pedals.[1]

Description

The pedal has a drive knob, a tone knob, and a level knob. The drive knob adjusts gain, the tone knob adjusts treble and the level knob adjusts the output volume of the pedal. The pedal is used to try to mimic the sound of a vintage tube amplifier. The classic Tube Screamer sound includes a "mid-hump," which means that the circuit accentuates frequencies between the bass and treble ranges (mid-frequencies). Some guitarists prefer this sort of equalization, as it helps to keep their sound from getting lost in the overall mix of the band.[citation needed]

Variations

The pedal was produced with many variants:

The tube screamer pedal was preceded by the orange "Overdrive" and green "Overdrive-II." These came in narrower boxes without battery covers. There was also a reddish "Overdrive-II" which had a housing very similar to the TS-808. The green OD-II had a circuit similar to the TS808; however, the OD and OD-II had a more distorted circuit.

  • TS808-The first Tube Screamer, the TS-808, was released in the late 1970s. It was equipped with the Japanese JRC-4558 chip. Some units however had the Malaysian Texas Instruments RC4558P chip.
  • TS9- From 1982 to 1985, Ibanez produced the "9-series" of effects pedals. The TS9 tube screamer is almost the same internally as the TS-808. The significant change in the TS9 circuit was the output. This caused the tube screamer to sound brighter and not as smooth. In later years, TS-9s were assembled with seemingly random operational amplifier chips, instead of the called-for JRC-4558.

After the 9 series was discontinued, the "Master" or "L" series was produced. This series was only made in 1985, and did not have a tube screamer in the lineup. A rare and valuable version of the tube screamer was the ST-9 Super Tube Screamer, which was sold only in Europe.

  • TS10- In 1986, Ibanez began production of the "Power Series," which included the TS-10 tube screamer. The TS-10 had about 3 times more changes to the circuit than the TS-9 had. Some TS-10 pedals were made in Taiwan, using a MC4558 chip. All TS-10s (as well as other L and 10 series pedals) used cheap jacks and pots which were mounted to the boards instead of the cases. This gave them the tendency to break or fall apart.
  • TS5- The plastic TS-5 "Soundtank" followed the TS-10 and was available until 1999. The TS-5 circuit is very similar to the TS9; however, it was made in Taiwan by Daphon with cheaper, smaller components. In addition, the box was plastic which resulted in more noise than a shielded metal TS-808/TS9 box.
  • TS7- The TS7 "Tone-Lok" pedal was released in 1999. It was made in Taiwan like the TS5, but in a metal case that was more durable. The circuit inside had a "hot" mode switch for extra distortion and volume. Most TS7 pedals came with the JRC4558D chip, like the TS808 and TS9. However, the TS7 was much cheaper than the TS9.

The TS9 and TS-808 pedals have been reissued, and according to the company, feature the same circuitry, electronics and design components that helped shape the famous Tube Screamer sound. Some musicians have a technician perform modifications to the unit to change the sound to their liking. Also, Maxon, who produced the original Tube Screamer pedals for the Ibanez brand in the 1970s and 1980s, produce their own version of the Tube Screamer.

Design

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Mr. S.Tamura, the designer of the Tube Screamer, used a subtle clipping circuit to create the pedal's sound. He mixed the input signal with the output signal of the clipping circuit, to "preserve the original dynamics of the input signal which otherwise would get lost at the threshold of clipping." In this fashion, it preserves the "original dynamics of the input signal [and] avoids muddiness and vastly improves clarity and responsiveness." As well, Tamura added a post-clipping equalization circuit with a first-order high-pass shelving filter that "is linearly dependent on its gain," an approach called "progressivity."[2] Characteristic of its clipping is the symmetrical nature.[3]

The Tube Screamer uses electronic field-effect transistor (FET) bypass switching. The circuit uses transistor buffers at both the input and the output. The overdrive is produced using a variable gain operational amplifier ("op-amp") circuit with matched diodes in the feedback circuit to produce soft, symmetrical clipping of the input waveform. The overdrive stage is followed by a simple low-pass filter and active tone control circuit and volume control. The TS7 allows switching between a "TS9" mode, in which the circuit and all relevant component values are identical to the vintage model, and a "Hot" mode, which introduces an additional gain stage.

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Much has been made of the operational amplifier chips used in the various versions of the Tube Screamer pedal, and several articles have been written on the subject.[4][5] The JRC4558D chip is particularly well regarded.[1] In fact, the JRC4558D is used in Analog Man's "Silver" modification. Other popular chips included the TL072, RC4558P, and OPA2134.[citation needed] The TA75558, standard in the TS10 alongside the 4558, is regarded as the "ugly duckling of TS opamps."[1]

Yet another variant is the Ibanez ST9 Super Tube that features a fourth knob ("Mid Boost"), which provides a harder attack.

Notable users

The pedal was popularized by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio implements two TS9 Tube Screamers in his rig. It is widely used in genres as diverse as country, blues and metal. The Tube Screamer has since spawned many clones and modified versions.[6] It is also used by the majority of metal guitarists before the lead channel of the high gain amps to make distortion more focused and to cut the low end. Notable modifiers of the pedal include Robert Keeley of Keeley Electronics and Steve McKinley of Tube Screamer Mods.com.[7]

Notable Users:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/22363-rig-rundown-joan-jett-and-the-blackhearts

External links

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