Tube screamer advice needed - never used one

[blackieNYC]

Really.  I don't know any thing about them. I'm going to be building a pedal with/for a young person who's never built anything.  Please read this and tell me if this makes you think of a particular TS circuit:

I've been playing guitar for 2 years and I'm just getting into the pedal effects world. Currently, own a Fulltone OCD and Digitech Obscura Altered Delay. I'm still trying to figure out how to use these well.
The "band" plays tons of 90's rock and while I enjoy alternative, hard rock and heavy metal, in 5-10 years, I hope to be playing the blues. The blues is why I started playing guitar.
A flexible pedal sounds good. Though, I'm not a huge fan of the fuzz sound, I feel like a fuzz pedal will be super useful in the long run. I would be interested in making a tube-screamer-ish distortion pedal. Equalizer, compressor and wah pedal are all on the list a little down the road.
I've corresponded with them a bit. Flexibility, fuzz, and a dizzying amount of sound clip links have been my contribution thus far. A tube screamer sounds good- being the other method of diode clipping than the OCD (diodes to ground likeMXR D+)  Thing is, I don't think I can assume there's a nice tube amp involved - does this mean I should build a TS that stands well on its own without relying on it to drive a tube?
Whaddya think? Clipping diode selector switch, input cap selectors switch? Sure, if you like, but what "core" design to build upon?

[thermionix]

I would say a true bypass 808, but never tried one without a tube amp (are there other kinds of amps?).  Diode switching would be cool, don't know if input cap switching would be advantageous or not.

[DrAlx]

Not sure if this is any help but there is a nice article here about matching pedals to amps ...

http://www.gilmourish.com/?p=7115

Point being that you can't really look at the pedal in isolation.  Different pedals suit different rigs.

[antonis]

From your friend's description, I'd propose something like Jack Orman's Overdrive_PRO...

It's a stage combination of Fat Gnat, Fender Pro Roc & TS-808 (if I remeber right..) so you may say that it has it's own (mixed) "personality"..

Quite plain circuit with many modification options (i.e. Pre+Amp gain, Clipping selection (type & place), Tone control of your friend's taste...)

[blackieNYC]

Thanks guys.
The AMZ overdrive pro is of the diodes shunt to ground crop. Not a TS. Looks good though.
Madbean's Green Bean looks good. Suggestions still welcome.

[samhay]

The input cap is far less important that the cap that sets the bass cutoff in the gain/clipping stage of a TS. This can be made switchable - think fat switch or something like the Zen drive, which has both bass and treble controls.

Another option is a Blues Breaker...

[Cozybuilder]

Not sure if this is any help but there is a nice article here about matching pedals to amps ...

http://www.gilmourish.com/?p=7115

Point being that you can't really look at the pedal in isolation.  Different pedals suit different rigs.

Excellent information, thanks DrAlx. I think its a must-read for anyone asked to recommend a pedal for someone (most of us).

[Groovenut]

I recomend building the stock TS808 with a switch to select between stock clipping diodes and LEDs, use an OPA2134 opamp, a 1M gain pot and change the C103/R104 combo (the RC that goes from pin 2 to the bias rail) to 220nF/1k.

One of the best sounding TS derivitives out there, covers a lot of musical territory

[PBE6]

The Timmy is a clever riff on the Tube Screamer design. It has a shelving bass cut control located inside the clipping stage, similar to the Zen Drive (and the Tube Screamer, although that cut is not adjustable), which keeps things sounding tight at higher gain settings. The diode clipping can be revamped to taste.

The Marshall Blues Breaker is an interesting option too. It uses clipping diodes in the feedback loop of an inverting opamp, along with a "blocking" resistor in the diode path. The blocking resistor limits the current through the diodes, which nudges the output towards a standard inverting boost. The overall effect is that it gets louder and cleaner the bigger the blocking resistor gets - well, until you hit the supply rails anyway...

If you make the blocking resistor variable, it's a very flexible configuration. With high gain settings and no blocking resistor you get over-the-top fuzzy distortion sounds, with lower gain settings and a larger blocking resistor you get a dirty/clean blend like a Tube Screamer, and with a very large blocking resistor you get a big boost with just a touch of grit.

EQ is key of course, just like with any other distortion. I suggest putting a variable bass cut before/in the clipping section to keep things tight, with notches/peaks and treble roll off added later to taste.


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[Ben Lyman]

Lots of great ideas here. I kinda think it might be best to start with a totally normal TS-808 or 9 just to see what the tubescreamer is, otherwise you'll never know. I gained some experience using TS pedals a few years back, TS-9 was good, TS-808 was good, TS-10 was (actually) good, Boss SD-1 was my favorite by a long shot. Then about 6 years ago I discovered the OCD, much better at clean boost, better as a stand alone sensitive OD or cranked amp distortion sound, just a more versatile pedal overall. Now all I use is my own "Super COD" based around the Voodoo Labs OD & OCD but tailored to my personal liking.

I feel the goal of the TS is just to raise your guitar's output up enough to drive your amp's preamp tubes harder, not as a stand alone "do all OD tones" pedal. There's other pedals out there like the OCD (Super COD for one  ) that do a better job of sounding AND responding like a Marshall, as in "more like a Bassman" as in "more like a blues amp" 

So, having said all that, ya maybe either stock TS or create your own on the breadboard using something as simple as the Voodoo Labs OD as your jumping off point.

[Mark Hammer]

The requester's OCD is far more of a "fuzz" than what is being asked for...even though it's not a fuzz.  Indeed, the various alternatives being suggested, while all pleasing pedals, are essentially variants on the same thing that the OCD is: an op-amp based overdrive that uses diodes or the diode characteristics of transistors for clipping.  At the risk of being glib, any single one of them can be tweaked to be/mimic any other one by fiddling with the gain, the number/location of diodes, and the EQ or tone-shaping.

Now,,,that doesn't mean any of them will not be musically useful, or that musicians NEVER employ a cluster of very similarly-designed overdrives because their individual mods let them get to certain sounds efficiently.  I just don't get the sense that any TS derivative is going to give the person what they're asking for.

I'm partial to the Fuzz-Rite/Orpheum/FY-2 form.  It is very easy to make, really tolerant of component values or variation, and even if the final product doesn't nail the original, the resulting sound will still be satisfying and fun.  It will also be qualitatively different than any OCD or TS variant.