TS-9 with Mods?

[Zona Mona]

I was looking at a TS-9 on Ebay and it says it has the following Mods

JRC4558D Chip Mod
This TS9 has had its stock IC chip upgraded to the JRC4558D chip as found on many of the earliest Tube Screamer pedals.

TS808 Brown Mod
The original tubescreamers were built to overdrive tube amps and the TS9 was changed to better accomodate solid state amps. This TS9 has been restored to the original 808 specs. It also uses carbon composition resistors for a warmer (Brown) overall sound from the pedal.

More/Less Drive Mod
When the Drive control is cranked up there is now more distortion than normally put out by the pedal. When the Drive control is zeroed there is almost no noticible distortion with single notes, and just the sweetest touch of grindy when chording. In between, you get all the classic TubeScreamer tones.

More Bass Mod
The stock TubeScreamer doesn't allow much of your bass signal through the effect. This mod opens the lid on your bass frequencies without sacrificing any of the classic tubescreamer sound. With Drive maxed out you can really tell the difference when comparing a stock TS9 and this modded one.

Can anyone tell me if you have these and if they are really as great as the person says?

Thanks

 

[gusfinley]

well...

most of these are pretty common mods. The TS-808 came with the JRC4558 chip and was nearly identical to the TS-9 other than that a few resistor values.

I "modded" my TS-9DX (which comes with the JRC4558) to the "brown sound" by wapping out those two resistors. Actually, I put in a switch to switch bewteen the two settings. I can honestly saw that I can't tell the differance between one and the other - it may be more noticable on a solid state though... one of these days maybe I'll take it to school and A/B the two settings on a Oscillosope to see what really happens....

The TS-9DX has four distortion modes, I really like the + mode. Its like classic TS-9, but with a bit more fatness- the others make it just like any distortion pedal and aren't that great - depending on what you like.

These mods could help... if its the right price, then go for it!! I haven't heard many pedals better than a tubescreamer. Check out a TS9-DX if you can.... its nice to have a few more options (at least the swtich from TS-9 to TS-9+ is worht the extra $3 in cost on a new one........

 

[Androo]

I use the Tubeblower pedal by Jacques, its freakin awesome. Check out this page and be sure to check out all the samples he's provided:

http://www.jacquesstompboxes.com/tubeblower.htm

and the samples:

http://www.ts808.com/tubebloweraudio.htm

I've shared many emails with Jacques himself, he's an incredibly nice guy and full of info. I bought my Tubeblower from MF (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_id/105051) - personally I didn't see the point in taking my chances on eBay when this guy is available.

I don't know what kind of amp you are using, but any overdrive pedal designed for tube amps work best with tube amps (duh) - especially big tubes, like 6L6 or EL34.

 

[AlfredB]

I have both - the TS-9 (modded by analog-man) and an original 808-TS (In the Ibanez UE-300 unit - btw - a great unit ... luckily somewhat overlooked by the TS-snobs )

... and the ananlog-man modded one has a slight edge over ther original, esp. in terms of definition ... its a little bit crispier if you understand ... but at the end of the day its a matter of taste.

take care
alfred