TS-808 Tube Screamer

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Author Message Cooltouch (Cooltouch) Posted on Friday, December 12, 2003 - 7:50 pm:    Take a look, guys. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2579420161&category=41416 Personally, I'd rather use my Marshall. Wouldn't mind a few 808s to put on eBay, though Best, Michael Funkle (Funkle) Posted on Friday, December 12, 2003 - 7:58 pm:    Yikes! That's just silly. There was an article in the ToneQuest report that essentially said that The TS7 sounded just as good as the TS808. Haven't tried a real TS808, or a modded TS9, but I wonder how much truth there is to that? -Sven Tim_Gueguen (Tim_Gueguen) Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 4:16 pm:    Even if an '808 sounds better, which is subjective anyways, I certainly doubt it sounds 10 times the price better. And I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't be stepping on a single stompbox every night I spent a grand on and that couldn't be easily replaced. Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 4:21 pm:    Silly? No sillier than paying $10,000 for Strat a that originally cost about $175 !! If that was the last pedal you needed to complete the collection you'd spent years putting together, how much would you pay? There ARE tone differences between the various incarnations of Tube Screamers. However, most are so subtle that only a fanatic is gonna care. I don't think the high price paid for the one in question is about the tone. I think it's about the low serial number and excellent condition. BTW: A Screamer pushing the input of a Vox AC30 is mighty sweet... Cheers Steve Orval (Orval) Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 9:08 pm:    tim, if you use an ibanez epp400, you can put the pedals in a safe place and use the epp400 to switch them in and out :?) steve, i agree with you, that screamer looked to be in the best condition of any that i have seen. these were great pedals and most of them got well used. Craigjc (Craigjc) Posted on Saturday, December 13, 2003 - 11:51 pm:    Steve, you got an AC30 to push a Tube Screamer through? You lucky devil. Man, a hot little class A amp with a TS808 or TS9...must be heaven. Like the TS itself, I'm green (envy). Laaz (Laaz) Posted on Sunday, December 14, 2003 - 12:09 am:    For $1,000 + you could have bought a new TS-9, had it modified to souud as good if not better... But as you say if that is the last pedal you need to complete your collection... Personally that price is insane... Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Sunday, December 14, 2003 - 3:12 am:    Laaz, I'd be very much surprized if that pedal ever gets used again. Craig, No, unfortunately, I do not have an AC30 (or a Tube Screamer for that matter). I fell in love with the AC30 model in my POD. I have since test driven a couple real ones. One of them had an original TS-9 Screamer already set up. Un-fricking-believable. The only thing holding me back is $$$ FYI: Anyone looking for an affordable Class A amp needs to try a Crate VC2110 or VC2112. They go for $200 or less on eBay. The new V15 is supposed to be based on the same circuitry. Cheers Steve Craigjc (Craigjc) Posted on Sunday, December 14, 2003 - 10:01 pm:    Steve, you been devoted to Crate for some time? I remember the rough-cut wood Crates and a buddy of mine had one. He still likes Crate amps (funny how we make alliances to hardware). Seriously, I picked up the new Crate catalog at Guitar Center today and will consider a Crate when I decide to buy. Still, I find it hard to give up the urge to add a Fender to my rig. An AC30 would be awesome, too, but getting hard to find, and $$$$. Thinking about a Fender HotRod Deluxe. Any comments abot this amp...anyone? Cooltouch (Cooltouch) Posted on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 12:25 am:    I've heard references to "Class A" amps before, but I've forgotten what it signifies. Can somebody here please enlighten me? As for Crates, I played out of plenty of the genuine wood crates during the late 70s. Actually pretty decent amps, if you like a lot of mids and grind. For what they were, nobody else could touch 'em at the price they were selling for, which as memory dimly recalls was just a bit over $100. I own a Crate that doesn't get used much that I bought new in 1996. It is a GX-40C -- two channels at 20 watts each driving two 8" crate speakers at 4 ohms. Adequate for small clubs, etc., which is why I bought it. This model has like 20 channels or more of DSP effects -- echo, reverb, etc, plus chorus. It's a little noiser than I like, so I don't use it for recording. I have a little Marshall 8020 (20 watts, 1-8" speaker, tube preamp section) that I use for that -- line out from the 8020 to my workstation's mixer. Very quiet, great tone, works surprisingly well. You can hear it here (the guitar's a 50th Anniversary Strat I bought at the same time as the Crate): http://www.mcbrooms.com/music/michaelsblues.mp3 Best, Michael Sixvsix (Sixvsix) Posted on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 8:18 am:    Personally I prefer the AC15 (if you can find one). But believe me, a lot of the VOX sound is wrapped up in those old Alnico blue speakers. They can make any amp sound good. There's a guy over here in England who will build you a AC30/AC15 copy if you're interested? Celestion have also reissued the blue speaker but your "Tone Tubby's" are pretty close. I've compared old Alnico blues with the 'hemp' Tone Tubby's and there isn't that much in it. I would guess that the paper Tone Tubbys would be more of an equivalent. six Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Monday, December 15, 2003 - 12:52 pm:    The "class" of an amplifier refers to how the power tubes are biased. In a class "A", the tubes are "on" all the time regardless of the input signal. In class "AB", the tubes are partially biased by the input signal. They idle part of the time. The class affects the way the tube distorts the signal under heavy load. There are other classification for amplifiers, but I think those two are the common ones for guitar amps. Transistor amps can be biased in similar fashion, but the result is different. Cheers Steve Cooltouch (Cooltouch) Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 12:05 am:    A follow-up question: does power tube distortion make that big of a difference in sound? I ask because I've sort of been under the impression that it is the preamp section that is responsible for the tone. Oversimplification, I guess? Not only do I have the above Marshall 8020, but I also have a Marshall Valvestate VS102R, which uses the same basic design principle as the 8020 -- tube pre and solid state power sections. For me, the sounds I can get out of these two amps sound like the real deal, but I may not be as picky as other folks are -- probably not, I'll wager. Best, Michael Craigjc (Craigjc) Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 7:29 am:    Yes! Power tube distortion is often described as the most musical distortion a tube amp makes, rich in sustain and harmonics. Given the option to overdrive either pre-amp or power amp, most people would choose power amp distortion. The problem here is that to get power amp distortion you either need to crank your master volume (i.e. go deaf) or get a Power Soak type device that works like a volume control between your amp's output and your speaker. The whole idea of a master volume control was introduced to let you turn up the pre amp and get distortion at lower volume levels. This was the EASIEST way for amp manufacturers to give you control over distortion. the desire for power tube distortion is exactly why more amps are now featuring switchable output levels. Drop the output down and crank it. Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 2:44 pm:    Craig has it right. Power tube distortion is the "Classic" sound. If you're looking for Heavy Metal type distortion, it's mostly preamp. I like some of both. Hybrids, like the ValveState, give the benefit of tube preamp distortion without the cost and weight of a tube power section. The downside is the lack of power amp distortion. The bottom line is still a matter of personal taste. Hell, I don't own ANY tube amps or pedals right now. I'm getting everything I need from my POD. Cheers Steve Cooltouch (Cooltouch) Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 12:55 am:    So, yet another follow-up to this, then: I take it the reason why amps like the old tweed Tremoluxes, etc., have been so popular for so many years is because they can be cranked up to give the power tube grind without being insufferably loud, eh? Thinking back on this -- I owned a Peavy Deuce back in the late 70s/early 80s. It had a solid state pre-amp section and a tube power amp section, which I always thought was a bassackwards way of doing things. I never cared much for the pre-amp distortion that amp gave -- it was pretty lousy, in fact -- sounded way too artificial. But I do recall that the Deuce sounded pretty good once cranked. The only problem was, it delivered a relatively clean 100 watts of power, and in order to get it to the point where it was sounding decent, it was so loud it was painful. Steve -- about your Pod -- got a question. I've wondered about those things for a while now, but I've never had the opportunity to play through one. Are they really all they're hyped up to be? Have you done any recording with yours, and if so, how were the results? Best, Michael Funkle (Funkle) Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 4:59 pm:    Steve, I never thought of a POD as a way to test drive different amp sounds when amp shopping. This is a good idea. I'll have to borrow my friends POD and play with it. Who knows, maybe the POD is all I'll need! I'm using a Yamaha DG80 modeling amp now, and I'm very satisfied with it (so are Frank Gambale and Alan Holdsworth!) I'd like to work with some tube amps, simply because I don't have a lot of experience with tube amps, and the POD would be a good first step, before demoing specific amps. I've never been too psyched on the fact that you have to really crank them to maximize their potential. -Sven Mr_Roadstar (Mr_Roadstar) Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 6:12 pm:    WARNING: Long, off-topic post that may repeat parts other postings I have made on this site! ______________________________________________ You can find a butt-load of opinions on the POD and other digital modeling devices/amps all over the web. Pro and con seem to run about 50/50. I can only relate my personal experiences, YMMV! First, one must understand what POD does, and doesn't do. It does emulate the signal produced from a mic placed in front of an amp. It doesn't replace a true tube amp in all situations, and it doesn't work well as a preamp for a guitar amplifier. If you're interested, the Line6 website has some useful info. I plug my guitar into the POD, and the POD into the PA or recording mixer. Although there are 32 amp emulations, 16 speaker cabinet emulations, and a bunch of effects, you'll probably find only a handful of combinations that work for you. Out of the 36 available patches that can be programmed and stored, I only have 16 saved (8 VOX, 3 Marshall, 2 Fender, 2 Budda, 1 Soldano). I won't go into the details here, but I have a process I use for dialing in a patch that takes quite a bit of time. I think the results are well worth it. Where POD really shines is recording. Not surprizing since that's what it was primarily designed for. Since POD can emulate a cranked tube amp at low volume levels, it makes getting a good tone to tape much, much faster and easier. And, it does it without pissed off neighbors, ringing ears, or extensive sound proofing. My brother and I use our PODs almost exclusively when recording electric guitars. As for sampling different amps, it's a good place to start. After finding that I really liked the VOX AC30 and Soldano SLO settings on the POD, I took the opportunity to try out both those amps in person. Does POD sound exactly like those amps? Probably not. However, without having either of those amps available for extensive tweaking, tuning, mic experimentation, and direct comparison to the POD in a similar environment, I have to say that overall, it's very close. And, I found that I very much like those amps in the flesh! If your gonna play with a POD, READ THE MANUAL. Spend some time playing with the settings. Don't use the factory presets as an indicator of what it can do. You will also need either a FLAT responding set of headphones, or a FLAT responding amplifier. A keyboard amp works well. The idea is to not color the sound from the POD. To elaborate, running POD into a guitar or other non-linear amp, is like micing a guitar amp and them plugging the mic into another guitar amp. The second amp is gonna color the sound of the first amp. Although I have run the POD into an amp for live use, I only used the power section (solid state). Results were good. Now that we've drifted WAY off topic, lemme add an on-topic tidbit. POD has a "Gain Boost" function available. It is supposedly based on an Ibanez Tube Screamer placed in front of the selected amp's input! Cheers Steve

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