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Why use Tube Screamers?

Gus_3218Gus_3218 Posts: 59
edited December 2003 in Musicians and Gearheads
Whats the go with Mike and Stone using Ibanez tube screamers? I'm reasonably new into all this gear stuff, sorry guys, but I can't understand why if ur using something like a 1968 Marshall plexi head to drive ur cabinet or some other piece of kickass gear u would'nt use the amp distortion? Especially with a reasonably ballsy brand like Marshall, I've always found u get a good sound out of most of their shit, though I haven't actually heard a tube Screamer myself so that might answer my question...
‘‘If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football I would have said fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees.’’

Noel Gallagher
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • goto_lgoto_l Posts: 1,189
    It's kinda like controlled chaos. If you open the gain up all the way on your amp, your kinda stuck. Plus you can lose tone that way also. More gain usually overloads high end tones.
    You men eat your dinner
    Eat your pork and beans
    I eat more chicken
    Than any man ever seen




  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Bumfuq, MT Posts: 6,395
    Ah...

    Because Tubescreamers are the single-most important pedal effect ever manufactured.

    Overdrive and transparent boost... it's truly a beautiful thing.

    Plus, a Plexi Marshall overdrives naturally at like 100 dB or something unGodly like that... with a Tubescreamer, you can get drive at much more reasonable volumes.

    Use it to push the power tubes more, drive the tubes harder, make the most of the true tube tone.

    Oh, and no member of Pearl Jam has had a Marshall amp on stage in at least six years.
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • Gus_3218Gus_3218 Posts: 59
    Thanx man

    Bout the Marshall, I would'nt know, the info I got about that marshall being used is from 97, so, yeh, Im wrong, but I was using it as an example.

    Out of intrest, and if you've got the time to repeat whats probably been asked a 100 times, what have Stone and Mike been using? and Eddie too I guess. I would have thought a ballsy, bluesy brand like Marshall would've been a mainstay, but thats my extremely limited knowledge talking. Can u fill me in?
    ‘‘If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football I would have said fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees.’’

    Noel Gallagher
  • Gus_3218Gus_3218 Posts: 59
    Shit man, Im stupid. Sorry, just saw Kat's post. I'll go there. :P
    ‘‘If somebody said to me, in twelve years you’ll be in a band with your brother and two carrot munching geezers who don’t like football I would have said fuck off, I’m not joining the Bee Gees.’’

    Noel Gallagher
  • evenflowrocksevenflowrocks Posts: 96
    'cause they scream!
    www.myspace.com/evenflowrocks

    heathen frog psycho number ONE!
  • mccreadyisgodmccreadyisgod Bumfuq, MT Posts: 6,395
    Like so many folks out there, I got a Tubescreamer because Mike and Stone were using them. So I went down to the music shop and picked up a TS-9 Ibanez Tubescreamer. And I hated it! It had hardly any distortion at all, it was just sort of edgy and I wanted balls-to-the-wall distortion! I wanted that Mesa Boogie tone (although this was before Nu Metal made M/B a household name). I was playing a Strat into a solid-state Fender amp and I couldn't get any sound I liked.

    It was about two years later, I was jamming on my buddy's Fender Twin Reverb, and I needed an overdrive. I was using a '57 Les Paul reissue. I got the old TS-9 out of my box and plugged it in, and it was heaven! I thought, maybe the Strat was wrong, so I got out a Mexi Strat and plugged in, it still sounded great! It was the stupid piece of crap solid-state Fender amp that was the problem.

    I've used my Tubescreamer on my Marshall combo (all-tube, two-channel) and I've been less impressed there. But on my Vibro Champ, on Fender Blues DeVilles, on Music Mans, and on just about any single-channel tube amp out there, a Tubescreamer gets amazing, lightly driven tone that still lets the notes come through clearly.

    That isn't to say that I don't appreciate naturally overdriven tubes... but I love my ears too much to do that every night!
    ...and if you don't like it, you can suck on an egg.
  • low_lightlow_light Posts: 251
    TS gives you clarity to be much more tight. and also if you put it on top of your amp's overdrive it can make a nice mix.

    i like tight distortion... the messy stuff has its place in some songs but not many for me.

    i like subtle rock.

    im still learning as are you. :) have fun. TS is a good pedal in the end
    www.myspace.com/eotoband
  • dannyschmannydannyschmanny Posts: 72
    Originally posted by Gus_3218
    Whats the go with Mike and Stone using Ibanez tube screamers? I'm reasonably new into all this gear stuff, sorry guys, but I can't understand why if ur using something like a 1968 Marshall plexi head to drive ur cabinet or some other piece of kickass gear u would'nt use the amp distortion? Especially with a reasonably ballsy brand like Marshall, I've always found u get a good sound out of most of their shit, though I haven't actually heard a tube Screamer myself so that might answer my question...

    68 marshall's plexi heads were single channel...and the only way to distort it was to crank it and lay into it...and they still didnt give you quite as much gain as pearl jam tends to use. the tubescreamer was an overdrive pedal that was designed to really work hand in hand with tube amps and give you a nice clear...rich overdrive...which is why it was THE overdrive pedal of the late 70's and why band's like pearl jam have used them for so long. and if you have heard any of pearl jam...you have heard the tubescreamer.
    i remember you...i was gonna vote for you one time...but voting isn't cool so i stayed home and got trashed on listerine.
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