# TS Recommendations



## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

*TS Alternatives*

Hello fellow GC'ers. For as long as I can remember, I've had that little green pedal on my board in one form or another. For me, I like to use my Tubescreamers for very light overdrive flavours but lately I've been getting a bit bored with my Maxon OD-9 that I've modded to 808 specs. Rather than modifying it even further, I'm wondering if you have any TS recommendations out there that I should consider? I'm mainly looking for a TS variant that has more tone / mid control options and the only pedal that sounds like it could fit the bill for me right now is the VFE Pale Horse Overdrive. Any thoughts?


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Nobels ODR-1 or Rockett Pedals Chicken Soup OD?

http://www.rockettpedals.com/pro-series/chicken-soup-od/


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Visual Sound Open Road

Do you have any idea just how many TS clones-with-tweaks there are out there? Hundreds. I'm serious.


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

Barber Direct Drive is my favourite TS type pedal. Great pedal and great price, esp used.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

HAHA, I'm sure there's thousands to be honest with you but one with more than just your regular "tone" control?



mhammer said:


> Visual Sound Open Road
> 
> Do you have any idea just how many TS clones-with-tweaks there are out there? Hundreds. I'm serious.


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive. It's an 808 circuit w/ a separate clean boost that you can blend in as much or as little of as you like. Great if you want a little more of the character of your amp to shine through.

If you're bored, try a treble booster. Seen a few /13 Dyna Rangers on here for well less than 1/2 of what I paid for a new one.


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## Cary (May 11, 2011)

I've had the visual sound route 808 for about 2 years now and love it. Theres the usual gain, tone and volume knobs, as well as a bass boost switch (i use it on with the tele, off with the les paul). It's essentially an 808 with broader tone controlls, lots more gain on tap (with the gain dimed and bass switch on, borders on fuzzy,) and a lot more volume. Not really sure if this is what you're looking for, but as far as TS pedals go, this is my favorite, even my bandmates keeley modded 808 doesn't really sound as lively as this one, a really special pedal at a great price.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I was checking out videos of all the pedals mentioned last night and the Sparkle Drive looks very promising. I'll have to go find one to try out this weekend. I also came across the Lovepedal Kalamazoo. Although not a TS circuit, it seems like a very versatile and shapeable OD. Anyone have any experience with this pedal?


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## KujaSE (Jul 30, 2006)

Roryfan said:


> VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive. It's an 808 circuit w/ a separate clean boost that you can blend in as much or as little of as you like. Great if you want a little more of the character of your amp to shine through


 +1 for the Sparkle Drive, sounds great and is very tweakable. I've heard great things about the Montreux Coda and the Retro Sonic 808 -my next purchase- as well.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

dumb question....but is a tube screamer the same as an overdrive pedal?


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## Cups (Jan 5, 2010)

Yes it's the same thing (depending on who you talk to). Some people consider boosters overdrives too. It's all very vague and subject to opinion.

To the original question: they all sound a LOT alike. The maxon is well made and seeing as you already have your hands dirty by modding it I'd say learn more about the circuit and keep modding. If you're looking for something different try a different approach to overdrive, like a FET drive or something driving by transistors. Different flavour that's all.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

blam said:


> dumb question....but is a tube screamer the same as an overdrive pedal?


Technically speaking it's the name of an overdrive pedal manufactured by Ibanez.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I wholeheartedly agree; however, it's probably the one overdrive pedal that I'm used to using the most. Looks like I have a lot of recommendations to try out this weekend. We'll see what I pull the trigger on. 



hardasmum said:


> Technically speaking it's the name of an overdrive pedal manufactured by Ibanez.


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## fudb (Dec 8, 2010)

Me I've got an old Visual Sounds Route 66 (first batch, old bass switch) that I've been carrying around since I bought it waiting to like something better, hasn't happened yet. I have a Sparkle Drive too, I do really like it a lot, but still return to the Route 66, the compression's just so darned good, too...


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

TWRC said:


> I wholeheartedly agree; however, it's probably the one overdrive pedal that I'm used to using the most. Looks like I have a lot of recommendations to try out this weekend. We'll see what I pull the trigger on.


 I've tried the Fulltone Fulldrive, OCD and the Way Huge Green Rhino.

I did like the full drive, but after the honeymoon stage i went back to the OCD mostly because of the simplicity of it. with the full drive I was always flippin switches and tweaking stuff. I like the simple tone/vol/drive of the OCD. I currently have the Rhino on my board and it's quite nice.

if you want to give either a try you're more than welcome to.


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## georgemg (Jul 17, 2011)

TWRC said:


> I wholeheartedly agree; however, it's probably the one overdrive pedal that I'm used to using the most. Looks like I have a lot of recommendations to try out this weekend. We'll see what I pull the trigger on.


If you're trying a Sparkle Drive, you might want to check out the Sparkle Drive Mod as well. It has the original sound plus a couple of extra options. The price isn't much more either.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

I have a Digitech DF-7 that I picked up for forty bucks. It has a TS model as well as six others. It has bass, treble, and parametric mid controls for all of them. Although I believe it is digital so many will turn up their nose. It also has quite a good direct recording/pa output.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

Thanks, I'll add it to the list of things to try. I'll be test driving some Fulltone stuff tonight - a Robin Trower OD, OCD and Catalyst to be exact. I'll let you know how they stack up to my Maxon.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

After a few hours A/B'ing the three Fulltone pedals against my Maxon OD-9, my brief summaries of these pedals are below. For guitars, I used my '62 Custom Shop Strat, CIJ Jazzmaster and Les Paul Studio all plugged into my 70's Vox AC30 and AC4TV (Thanks Brian).

Robin Trower OD - Very transparent with low compression but was a bit mid-rangey in comparison to the OD-9 - which is something that I think I'm trying to get away from. There's definitely a lot more gain on tap with this pedal and you can really go into distortion territory with it quite easily but I felt that in higher gain it didn't sound as natural as the OD-9 when it's maxed out. This pedal sounded huge with my Les Paul by the way.

OCD - The cleanest of the bunch. Lower noise compared to the OD-9 and sounded a bit more natural through the AC30. I really liked this pedal on the flat setting because I felt like it didn't colour my amp too much. The tone control has a lot of range to it; however, I felt like I was always using it at around 2-3 o'clock regardless of the gain settings and guitar. This pedal by far sounded the best with my Jazzmaster in the HP setting. There was more noticeable punch coming from the guitar than there was with the others. There's plenty of gain available with this pedal as well but I found that for what I need it for, I was never really going past 12 o'clock. I later experimented with this pedal in 18v mode and really fell in love with it. This pedal is definitely on the short list now.

Catalyst - This might not be a very fair summary of this pedal as it is advertised as "a clean boost to fuzz" sort of swiss army knife pedal. In the clean boost to overdrive settings, I could actually hear some splattiness (if that's even a word) in the gain. I thought the battery was dying so I hooked it up to my PP2 and found the exact same thing. The only time I felt that the pedal was actually useable was when I was in higher gain territory in both the spark and flame modes. This pedal is great if you want to use it as a distortion or fuzz pedal but it doesn't quite nail the lower gain stuff that I'm looking for.

If I have the time this weekend, I hope to sample a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive against the OD-9 and OCD.

Maybe this thread should be renamed to "TS Alternatives".


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

TWRC said:


> *Maybe this thread should be renamed to "TS Alternatives". *


Haha, I was just thinking that. If you hadn't asked about TS variants specifically, I would have definitely recommended the OCD! I use mine in HP mode at 18v.

I'm surprised you're not liking the Maxon OD-9. I just got one with the Analogman 808 and Silver mods and it's a fantastic pedal. Especially when I use the TS for a light drive and stack the Timmy on top, I get absolutely killer Marshall tones out of the pair!


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

the OCD is pretty hard to beat.

I've tried replacing it a few times, but it always finds a way back on my board.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

It's not that I don't like my modded OD-9. In fact, I love it but I've had it for so many years and have tinkered with it so many times to the point where I think I'm just bored of the sound. I don't plan on getting rid of it because I know I'll always go back to it but I'm just looking for some new flavours on my board. 



hollowbody said:


> Haha, I was just thinking that. If you hadn't asked about TS variants specifically, I would have definitely recommended the OCD! I use mine in HP mode at 18v.
> 
> I'm surprised you're not liking the Maxon OD-9. I just got one with the Analogman 808 and Silver mods and it's a fantastic pedal. Especially when I use the TS for a light drive and stack the Timmy on top, I get absolutely killer Marshall tones out of the pair!


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## -mbro- (Apr 3, 2010)

The overdrive section of my nova drive is a ts circuit. Nice sounding pedal and a tone of tonal variations with its clean signal blend, separate distortion and routing options.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I built myself a nice little clone of the original Boss OD-1 last week, the first issue that used op-amp buffers, rather than transistors. It is essentially an SD-1 with a bit less gain, and no TS-type tone control stage, just a fixed lowpass filter. The SD-1 uses a 1+2 diode complement, rather than 1+1 in the TS. This preserves a little more dynamics, and offers a little more output, though not as much as the units like the Timmy or Bluesbreaker that use 2+2, or those that use a pair of LEDs (Marshall Guvnor). 

I modded it with a 3-way switch that gives stock, extra bass, and extra bass with "rounded" top, and I TB'd it instead of using the FET switching. Not thrilling, but not bad at all. The extra switch makes it suitable for HBs (stock) and for SC's (with extra bass). I don't think they're worth "vintage" prices on e-bay, but a pleasant enough.


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## ElectricMojo (May 19, 2011)

Hey,
You should check out the MJM Phantom Overdrive.
It's really an incredible TS-808 clone with an added switch for versatility and a couple of tricks that really make it something special:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCXnUZo76vw&feature=relmfu

I personnally love Michael's pedals, I have 'em on my board.
They are unbelievable and extremely responsive to your playing and guitar controls.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> I built myself a nice little clone of the original Boss OD-1 last week, the first issue that used op-amp buffers, rather than transistors. It is essentially an SD-1 with a bit less gain, and no TS-type tone control stage, just a fixed lowpass filter. The SD-1 uses a 1+2 diode complement, rather than 1+1 in the TS. This preserves a little more dynamics, and offers a little more output, though not as much as the units like the Timmy or Bluesbreaker that use 2+2, or those that use a pair of LEDs (Marshall Guvnor).
> 
> I modded it with a 3-way switch that gives stock, extra bass, and extra bass with "rounded" top, and I TB'd it instead of using the FET switching. Not thrilling, but not bad at all. The extra switch makes it suitable for HBs (stock) and for SC's (with extra bass). I don't think they're worth "vintage" prices on e-bay, but a pleasant enough.


I had an original Boss OD-1 for a brief time, but didn't like it. Fortunately, I got it cheap and just flipped it for something else. The lack of a tone knob made it a deal breaker for me. I couldn't get it to sound "right" in my setup. I guess as an "always on" pedal, it could work if you EQ your amp, but I was trying to use it as a drive on top of a clean sound.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

And I think that's likely why it disappeared and was replaced by the SD-1.

I suspect 2-knobbers need to have a specific identified niche to be marketable. The transition from 2-knob distortions to 3 and 4 knobbers over the 70's was likely a response to that realization.


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## TWRC (Apr 22, 2011)

I also had an OD-1 at one point and didn't really like it. I was also rocking a BD-2 for a while and that was eventually replaced with my OD-9. 

I guess I should update this thread. I went a totally different direction on this one and settled for a Fulltone OCD and I love it. It sounds great through my Voxes and does a bit more gain (even though I like it more for low gain) and tone control over my TS. It cleans up a lot nicer too through both my Les Paul and Strat, so I'm ultimately happy about that.


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