Jump to content

Best Tube Screamer Alternative?


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Hi all, 

 I recently wrote up a piece on the best alternatives to the plain old Tube Screamer pedal. My choice ended up being the Behringer TO800 because it is so cheap and is pretty much as close to the original circuit as you can get. But which ones would you pick? I'm trying to accumulate a bunch of people's input so I can pick a few to buy and a do a shoot-out style thing! What should I get?? 

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/top_7_alternatives_to_the_ibanez_tube_screamer_overdrive_pedal-109028

Thanks!

-Matt from Ultimate-Guitar.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I have a few OD boxes I have collected over the years.

A Fulltone OCD

A RAT 2 I used back in the 90's

A MXR Distortion + that I used in the late 70's early 80's. My dad gave that to me for Christmas. I think it's up in my attic, but where is a bigger question.

 

I'm not in to the higher gain tones, that many OD can deliver.

The only thing on my pedal bard these days is a Fulltone Fulldrive 2

 

I have never owned a piece of Behringer gears, but if it works for your all the better. I've seen a lot of broken Behringer stuff, and it's not the most reliable stuff. You may have better luck than may.

 

The OCD folks love, but I prefer the Fulltone Full-Drive 2.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Man - there are soooooo many choices for whatever more/less floats your boat these days.  Green Overdrives are a thing unto themselves.

 

Bad Monkey for a bass control

Green Rhine for more control

Duncan 805 for active bass/mid/treble

The Behringer IS a TS9

Mooer Green Mile

TS7 for a "hot button"

Ibanez has half a dozen.  I'll add the TS9DX for the extra tones.

We can go on all day.  Those are all close to the TS( without being too different.

Are the Boss SD1, Blues Driver, the Soul Food, and the OCD Tube Screamers?  Not really, not to me. But could they be in the zone?  Sure.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • Members

I use the Xotic BB boost, it's super flexible and sounds great no matter how I use it - either for boost or light dirt tones.

 

Notably, I've added both the EQD Arrows and Black Eye pedals for clean and solo boosts and they make the need for any 'dirt' boost kind of pointless for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • Members

I've had a Tube Screamer on my board for years, but a few weeks back I found an old Jeckyl and Hyde pedal I had lying around and I have to tell you, I think I like that overdrive better than the TS.  Plus the distortion side of the pedal is an added bonus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
On 8/3/2020 at 8:02 PM, Aceman893 said:

Man - there are soooooo many choices for whatever more/less floats your boat these days.  Green Overdrives are a thing unto themselves.

 

Bad Monkey for a bass control

Green Rhine for more control

Duncan 805 for active bass/mid/treble

I would go for one of the first 3 from Aceman.

We could do a engineering breakdown of the mechanical aspects of the 5-n-dime pedals, but that's probably been done to death already.... just not very robust.
To me, the savings isn't worth the intermittent problems and inconvenient (e.g. gig-time) failures.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • Members

One that has more gain and less mid-hump is the Honker, by TL Pedals (out of Canada). It has both a Tube Screamer and a regular OD vibe. Regardless of the name, it does not have a honking sound to it. Likely a Canadian thing, with a goose logo on the pedal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
  • Members
7 hours ago, Hoot Owl said:

After having tried about a dozen OD's I've settled on the Wampler Euphoria. I'm very happy.

It's supposedly modeled on a Dumble.

I have a Rowin Dumbler. 30 bucks. It's a good enough introduction for me. Does Robben Ford (I cannot) Doesn't do the 6l6 crunchy stuff (I cannot) Does some really crappy tones that need to be big nomer enhanced as well.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
5 minutes ago, 1001gear said:

I have a Rowin Dumbler. 30 bucks. It's a good enough introduction for me. Does Robben Ford (I cannot) Doesn't do the 6l6 crunchy stuff (I cannot) Does some really crappy tones that need to be big nomer enhanced as well.

 

I don't care how much people rave about Dumbles. They aren't worth the money unless you think it'll go up in value more than equities.

There's a company in Colorado that makes an amp intended to fill the Dumble void. Can't remember the name right now. They have one tube amp that puts out something like 120 watts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...