tube screamer

[trippin6strings]

Hey guys, I was hoping someone could give me a lil info on exactly what tube screamers do for the guitar n such. Im jammin on an epiphone dot, going through a ross compressor, blues driver, phaser, cry baby wah and into my marshall amp. right now im diggin my sound, i love trey's sound and i jam to phish cd's a lot (playing my discs through my amp, my guitar seems to mix well enough).

I like my sound right now, but somethings doesnt seem quite right about the distortioin from my amp. It sounds either too soft or too hard, no good inbetween. I got my blues driver and i really dig it but it seems to work better for slower and more bluesy songs, but when im getting out there and soloing n such it kinda doesnt mix to well with my compressor (mostly phish jams n such), it'll lose some sustain and i cant have that.

I remember someone mentioning to me awhile ago something about how i dont need "distortion" but i need "overdrive". I think they mentioned something about a how a TS will deliver but i dont really know what overdrive is or if its something i should go for or not.

so pretty much what do u guys think a TS would do for my sound? If a TS is something im really missing out on, anyone got one they can reccommend? i know trey use to use 2 and that helped him get that distinctive sound/tone, but i dont quite know how he's using it or what to listen for. I love jammin and my setup has been crucial to my sound so any help would be greatly appreciated!

[mangold]

its hard to give specific adviceon your sound without hearing it, i say goto a guitar center or samash and try one out.

[jeffro]

Well if you're listening for the TS-9 (type of tubescreamer that Trey uses) just listen to anything he plays. Everything from Chalkdust Torture the the slower and less distorted jams have Tubescreamer on it. Also John Frusciante of the RHCP uses a tubescreamer alot. I love the sound that they produce and can't wait until I have enough money to get one. I'd reccomend reading up on them, and listening to the soundclips at musiciansfriend.com. Also heres a tiny bit of what I've learned about them.

There are two main types of tubescreamer:

The TS-9: Developed for overdriving solid state amps. Will still sound great with any amp, but is best with Solid state

The TS-808: The mack daddy of all overdrive. Designed for overdriving tube amps, it's one of the most used effects around. Personally, I prefer this one.

Theres also the Holy Grail of overdrive, the vintage TS-808. When they first started making the TS-808, they were amazing, but didn't sell well, after a few years they stopped making them and a few of the major components were discontinued. Due to popular demand they're back, but the new ones don't sound exactly like the old ones because of the new components, and to get the original sound you have to buy the original, or get one modified by analogman or the like.

I can't believe you're not happy with the BD-2, I love mine and consider it second best blues overdrive on the market (just after the Tubescreamers), but I don't blame you for wanting a Tubescreamer. But definitely don't just look at tubescreamers, check out a ton of different distortion, and overdrive effects.