TS808 Original Tube Screamer Overdrive Pedal Review

Great pedal

I've owned a ts9 before but i love the 808.

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Glad I waited!

I had seen this Green pedal for a long time but had chosen other pedals instead. Ive always liked the SRV tone too but I just never pulled the trigger. Fast forward a couple years and I had decided to really start playing/ studying the Blues. Then Christmas time rolled around. Got a SweetWater gift card and figured Now was the right time to buy this awesome pedal! I run it through… read more my Fender Deville 2x12 with a Strat and this thing sounds rad! It's almost as if this sound is what I've been missing this whole time. I don't max out the gain side too much so it doesn't get too crazy just enough to have it sit into my playing. And it's so addictive that I get lost in time! (That's always a good thing when playing) I haven't tried the TS9 or any of the other models out there, maybe they sound as good but I like the 808 chips. Tone matters. So it's a little extra money but we'll worth wait! You won't be disappointed.

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MY FAVE GO TO OVERDRIVE

Been a Boss OD guy for years but when I tried a reissue TS9 with the bigger switch ( and with an upgraded JVC chip), I never looked back. That was 1996. However, as time went on that switch kept breaking. Very frustrating. Then in 2013, I got the reissued TS808. Built like a tank. The sound is slightly different but the pedal is still so versatile and very easy to adjust. Although… read more the knobs don't have a lot of tonal variation, I pretty well can mate this to ANY amp I have. Marshall, Orange, Fender, Vox and Boogie. For a clean amp, I crank the overdrive. For a slightly dirty amp, the overdrive is a third of the way up. For heavy gain or distortion I crank the level nearly full with distortion about quarter way. Its a bit noisy but its dealable. The tone is either 11 or 1 oclock depending on treble. The only problem I have with it sometimes is the tiny footswitch but so far after heavy use the switch has not broken unlike the TS9.

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The One Pedal

From a Les Paul thru a Vintage Studio (Plexi), this is the one no-fuss pedal to have. I've tried a few...TS9DX, SD-1, TS808DX and Soul Food but constant tweaking never delivered that legendary driven Marshall tone. The TS808 does it in spades w/no fiddling. I simply unboxed it, swapped into the pedalboard chain, checked knobs set to 12 o'clock, engaged it, hit a power chord and… read more there it was. In fairness, the DX version sounds pretty good also but the true bypass "pop" made it downright unusable. That said, the TS808 seems to have a little something extra over the DX. Awesome pedal!

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Make the change

I gigged with the ts9 for years. I had watched too many reviews showing how there was very little difference between these two. They are right and wrong. That little difference is very sweet to the ears. I should have bought this years ago. It took exactly 3 minutes of A\Bing with my ts9 before I ripped it or for good. Ts9 served me well for years. The ts808 sounds better to my… read more ears for what I want. I can see the ts9 working better for metal music. I wanted something just a little more organic and not to brass. This fits the bill.

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