Maxon ST9 Pro+

TOTAL GUITAR SUMMER 2018
T
he Ibanez Tube Screamer
is the single most
important overdrive
pedal ever made. Famed
for its odd-order harmonics,
mid-hump and versatility as a
drive or boost, it’s been reissued
in countless iterations by Ibanez,
and has also been widely cloned
and modded elsewhere.
In the early 1970s, when
Susumu Tamura designed the
visionary op-amp driven,
symmetrical-clipping circuit
that would become the TS808,
he probably did not forsee its
staggering popularity; after all,
his original brief was simply to
come up with an overdrive pedal
to rival the Boss OD-1 and MXR
Distortion+. Today, we’ve
brought together a selection of
the most cutting-edge versions
of the Tube Screamer family
tree to show that there’s still
plenty of life left in this
workhorse design...
TUBE SCREAMERS ROUND-UP
104
A
s the name implies, the goal of the Tube
Screamer was to sound like an
overdriven tube amp. Thanks to
incorporating Korg’s Nutube vacuum tube
into the circuit, this is now a reality. As you
play, you can see the tube responding to the
attack, and the resulting sound is thick and
harmonically rich, if a bit wooly at higher gain
levels without some EQ-ing at the amp.
Obviously, it lends itself to blues licks, but
even into a dimed Mesa, it proves a great tool
for the metal player when used as a boost.
There’s a mix knob for dialling back in clean
signal, but we didn’t really need it.
A
prolifi c TS9 user, Kirk Hammett’s
signature Ghoul Screamer was a solid
boutique take on the original. The Ghoul
Jr brings that to a smaller form-factor, and
slims down some of the options from its
bigger brother. Used as a drive, it’s the tone
you’d expect, but it’s a diff erent set of options
that set this apart. Switch the style knob from
classic to dynamic in the centre position, and
voice to classic in the middle, or mid-boost in
the down position. Then bring gain all the way
down, level all the way up, and tone over at 2
o’clock. Stick in front of a cranked amp on the
gain channel for thrash heaven.
Ibanez NTS Tube
Screamer
OUT WITH THE OLD
KHDK
Ghoul Jr
SAD BUT TRUE
£139
TH
E G
AS
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FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
FEATURES
SOUND QUALITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
BUILD QUALITY
USABILITY
OVERALL RATING
SUMMARY
£239
TGR309.gear_pedals.indd 104 7/18/18 5:21 PM

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