Tubescreamer Opamps

[JacksonRR]

Was searching for some answers for a little onboard boost/shaper circuit I'm bread boarding today and found this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTv2jAree8
It's really cool, with a little surprise at the end.

[Elliot]

Yeah - Its a good example of myth busting as well reminding guitarists that the audience may not hear the apparent difference in tone that pedal mods are supposed to create.  However, in my experience, one thing I would say is that if you, the player, interchange different op-amps in your regular pedal and with your regular gear set up, you will be able to hear the difference between say a TL72 and a Burr Brown.  But - as the video shows - no one else will, so you may as well not bother. 

[ras]

With those "you will notice" things I say it falls more in the feedback loop between your playing the amplifier and what you are hearing than there being a distinguishable difference in the overall sound.  The way some circuit reacts has a huge bearing on the "feel" you get from things, you can play a guitar switch pickups in it or nudge the tone knob and the feel and your perception of it all changes.

[dave_mc]

^ agreed

[HTH AMPS]

my own experiences have mirrored what the Visual Sound guy was saying - subtle changes, but not night and day.

you can get much more dramatic changes by changing the gain structure, composition of the capacitors and such like the VS guy says.

tube screamers are great pedals and there is LOTS of mileage in that design, but its not rocket science or tough to get them sounding right.  the best mod, imo, is to remove the buffers from the signal path and make the pedal true bypass.

[Alex]

Few people use tubescreamers as standalone crunch overdrives, most use them in front of already mildly overdriven amps. No chance to hear any difference that subtle then anymore if you ask me.

[gwEm]

one pedal where i *did* notice a night and day difference between opamps was with a Boss GE-7. Made a huge difference to the noise level of that pedal.

[HTH AMPS]

one pedal where i *did* notice a night and day difference between opamps was with a Boss GE-7. Made a huge difference to the noise level of that pedal.

agreed - I had someone bring a Monte Allums mod to me for the GE-7 and it really did lower the noise quite notably.  seem to recall they used a 4559 in place of the 4558.  you never hear of people using the 4559 in tube screamers, but I recall using them when I first got into making pedals in the mid 90s and they were great.  should get some again and see if my memory of these is correct.

[Dr. Stein]

my own experiences have mirrored what the Visual Sound guy was saying - subtle changes, but not night and day.

you can get much more dramatic changes by changing the gain structure, composition of the capacitors and such like the VS guy says.

tube screamers are great pedals and there is LOTS of mileage in that design, but its not rocket science or tough to get them sounding right.  the best mod, imo, is to remove the buffers from the signal path and make the pedal true bypass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBn75-WN30&feature=related

:lol:

[ericsabbath]

my oliver sd-10 has a brazilian made 4558D and sounds pretty much the same as a boss sd-1, that has the JRC
oliver was a roland licensed brazilian company that made boss copies back in the late 80's/early 90's
even the board layout, codes and component type are exactly the same, but most of the parts were brazilian made

I'm modding it to a ts9 or ts808 circuit (difference is 2 or 3 small parts and 2 pots), but I'm not gonna swap the opamp

any mods to smooth a SD-1 without converting it to a screamer?

[JacksonRR]

Can it take the abuse of 18 volts? That's by far my favorite mod for boosts/overdrives. I mean if you like a higher fidelity version with better dynamics and a better signal to noise ratio. Replace what can't take 18 and get a new power adapter or extra battery if space allows.

[gwEm]

my own experiences have mirrored what the Visual Sound guy was saying - subtle changes, but not night and day.

you can get much more dramatic changes by changing the gain structure, composition of the capacitors and such like the VS guy says.

tube screamers are great pedals and there is LOTS of mileage in that design, but its not rocket science or tough to get them sounding right.  the best mod, imo, is to remove the buffers from the signal path and make the pedal true bypass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBn75-WN30&feature=related

:lol:

not all input and output buffers are that well designed. try listening to an SD-1 *off* - the sound is obviously changed

[JDC]

Digging the overdrive and distortion shoot outs they have on there

[HTH AMPS]

my own experiences have mirrored what the Visual Sound guy was saying - subtle changes, but not night and day.

you can get much more dramatic changes by changing the gain structure, composition of the capacitors and such like the VS guy says.

tube screamers are great pedals and there is LOTS of mileage in that design, but its not rocket science or tough to get them sounding right.  the best mod, imo, is to remove the buffers from the signal path and make the pedal true bypass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBn75-WN30&feature=related

:lol:

I know what my ears tell me and have experience messing with this type of circuit for many years.

I'm not saying ALL buffers are bad, but the buffers in the SD-1 and TS-9 circuits DO thin out the tone of the pedal compared to just having the basic circuit.  This is not just a small difference, it is quite noticeable.

The Lovepedal Eternity is just a TS-9 with the buffers removed, but it sounds much better than a TS-9 (imo).

That Visual Sound video is approaching this subject with an agenda, however we all know that there are many 'buffer' circuits and the difference they make to your tone can vary lots. 

I've played with buffers to gauge their tonal effect and haven't found a truly transparent circuit that I'm happy with yet, they have ALL thinned out the tone.