Ibanez TS-5/808 Mod

Awesome. The TS5 is an OK sounding pedal, but the TS moded is a AWESOME pedal. The TS 5 was alright, but I disliked how it muddied up my tone and how difficult it was to use in conjunction with other pedals. It had limited use. So I did a bit of research and did the mod myself. It cost me about $2.00 in resistors. It's pretty easy of you can figure out the coding on transistors and have a steady hand with a soldering iron. I'll be honest, I've never plugged in a TS9 or an 808. But I have loads of other pedals and fuzzes, and have a pretty good ear. This pedal went from good to great and I am simply tickled by how easy this was. It sounds fantastic and really great on its own -- no compressor or other effects. This little pedal makes my solid state practice amp sound just sweet. I did notice a few things with this mod. One, it seems to take away some of the gain. The pedal after the mod does not have as much gain as the stock pedal with the gain knob maxed out. This is no big deal for me, as I never used it at full distortion anyways; it sounds its sweetest with all knobs at 12 o'clock. This mod also seems to have cleaned up the tone. It has a brighter sound and less of a filter sound. Also keep in mind that there are many other mods out there for this pedal. You can add more gain, more bass, different colour, etc. I'm pretty pleased with this baby as it stands, but who knows if I'll be able to resist the temptations of a "sweeter" scream.

The big negative here. The soundtank are cheap, and I mean in cost and in quality. They come in a little plastic box, which I can deal with, but the switch and the AC jack are simply the shits. The switch needs cleaning every so often, and the jack is a touchy little piece of shit. Use the battery and learn how to spray wd-40. This pedal is no MXR or Boss.

I love it. I had my TS5 for sale when I saw the mod on the web. I did it in about 30 minutes and pissed myself when I plugged it in. I actually pissed myself because the pedal actually worked after I had taken it apart and assaulted it with a hot poker. The sound of this baby, however, made me pee again, but then again, that may have been because I drank too much coffee that morning. Anyways, do this mod. Or you can pay Analogue Mike to do it, but I am not sure what exactly he does to the circuit.

 

As far as value goes, us who have done the mod, are laughing all the way to the bank. In fact, if I see a another cheap TS5 or even a TS10, I'll scoop it up and do the mod and perhaps mess around with different combinations. The hype and price of the Ibanez re-issue TS's are a pile of bull{censored}, but this sweet sound is no ca-ca. Do it!