Ibanez Bass Tube Screamer

godofthunder · April 06, 2011, 02:21:13 PM

Years ago I had a original Tube Screamer and I loved it, I loaned it to a guitar player and that was the last I saw of it. I just got a Bass Tube Screamer and it sounds just fantastic. I love the blend control for mixing the clean and dirty signal. This thing is great for smaller gigs where my stage volume might not be as high as I would like. On a low drive setting the tone is nice and warm, with the blend control at 12:00 or so the notes on the D and G string sing not stacato dying on the fretboard. with the drive control all the way over it sounds like a cranked Marshall Major with backbone. This thing will be great for gigs with a supplied backline, instant stack in a box. My favorite distortion pedal ever by far! I have had many distortion pedals over the years, this thing is killer!

Basvarken · April 06, 2011, 02:55:35 PM

Thanx Scott.
I read about this pedal and I immediately thought it might be the perfect pedal for me.

Been using the Technophobia Basscreamer that Bernardduur (Rogier) built for a while ago, but lately I can't seem to get the sound I want anymore.
Now that I've read you post I think I should try the Ibanez for sure.

godofthunder · April 07, 2011, 06:43:09 AM

Give it a try! Highly recommended.

Andrew · April 07, 2011, 08:39:20 AM

I'm looking forward to trying this too. They havn't shown up at any stores close to me yet.

gearHed289 · April 07, 2011, 09:56:03 AM

I recently got a HBE Hematoma and love it! I've only been using overdrives with a blend control for the past several years after using an Ibanez Super Tube - a Screamer with mid boost knob and TWO JRC4558 chips - for along time. This pedal has a pre-set amount of blend, which I'm actually preferring. I always ended up second guessing myself on where the blend should be set. I also got what they call the "Tone Stax" mod, which piggy-backs two JRC4558s. Nice and creamy!

stiles72 · April 09, 2011, 10:59:23 AM

How is the low end through this? I've tried different distortions/overdrives but whenever I kick them in live, there's such a discrepency between my main sound and the fuzztone that everyone onstage and off are looking around like "Where'd the bass go?" Only song I ever made one work well on was the intro to For Whom The Bell Tolls. But that was more of a guitar type tone, and I just cranked up the level so it could be heard. On our current list we have a few songs that could really bennefit from some fuzz (Song 2 by Blur, Uprising by Muse,) and this looks like a really cool pedal...

godofthunder · April 09, 2011, 11:05:16 AM

No loss of low end you can tailor the blend control to you taste. The pedal also has bass and treble controls to taylot your sound. Gig testing tonight, If I'm lucky I'll get some audio.

Basvarken · April 10, 2011, 05:10:31 AM

I tried one at the Messe. I think it's a great pedal. Sounds great. The mix function is fantastic.
Plus I like the simplicty of the controls. They work exactly like you think they would. Which is not always the case with effects pedals...

godofthunder · April 10, 2011, 09:33:02 AM

We played a club that held about 250 last night, packed house, enthusiastic crowd

It was a lot of fun. I had the Tube Screamer on the entire night. I used just enough drive to give my sound some zing, the blend was set at 11:00 to favor my clean sound a bit, bass on 2:00 treble on 11:00. BIG FULL meaty tone! My cab was miced with a AKG D112. I have never been happier with my sound in a low volume setting. It was like having the wall of sound on 11.................but better.

Pilgrim · April 10, 2011, 10:32:13 AM

I started with fuzz, backed off to distortion, finally backed off that and went to OD. Got a Humphreys mod (Digitech) Badder Bass Monkey and it's the best sounding pedal I've found. It can be cranked into distortion territory.

Not only that, when I got the pedal used I found out it was a guitar mod, and he changed it to a bass mod at NO cost to me! Incredible!!!

http://haudiomods.webs.com/

I like the idea of a bass Tubescreamer, but haven't had the chance to try one.

Bernardduur · May 09, 2011, 12:35:53 AM

I now have it in for a review

I find it kinda disappointing. The unit sounds really muddy......... the OD is not focussed, the range is really small and the clean blend does nothing....... Inside there is a tubescreamer without the clipping diodes (comp cut mode on the fulltones).

Really, really disappointing!

Basvarken · May 09, 2011, 03:26:07 AM

Quote from: Bernardduur on May 09, 2011, 12:35:53 AM
the clean blend does nothing

Weird.
The one that I tried worked like a charm.

Chris P. · May 09, 2011, 04:59:17 AM

A, nice to read your review here, Bernard!