[sealofcleansing]

so im running through a peavey ultra 120 plus (sounds a mazingg) and a vader 412 and 482i and other rack stuff. basically what im asking is what is the ts-9 used for in referral to "clean boost". will it help my tone? i just never heard anything good distortion wise come out of a pedal.. what am i missing here?

[JohnnyC]

"clean boosting" is very popular with a lot of high gain guys to tighten up the sound. IMO i actually preffer it with a mid gain amp to send it into higher gain territory and add sustsain. imost Tubescreamers suck some bass which makes your amps high gain distortion feel tighter...with a slight mid hump

so you are not using the TS/Overdrive for any gain...just to boost the input signal of an already overdriven amp. try it but dial the gain back on your amp a bit (or set it to being on the verge of breaking up) and set your Tubescreamer/ overdrive settings to

volume - full (or near full)
Gain - Zero
Tone - to taste

[sealofcleansing]

ok so basically your trying to distort the input singal/or make it clip. so you get some tube clipping or am i way off here

[warlock7strEMG]

Overdrive pedals like the TS9, TS7, TS808 and maxon OD808 all provide a good clean boost when used with the drive turned all the way down and the level of the pedal cranked up a bit. Basically they make the signal of your guitar hotter sounding goin into your amp, pushing your pre amp a bit harder therefore makin your amp sound more aggressive and adding sustain. This also allows you to turn the gain down on your amp a bit but still pull off very nice strong pinch harmonics with ease.

These pedals also have something in the circuitry that cuts off a little bit of the low frequencies, making your tone a bit tighter and also smooths out the highs by cutting certain high frequncies out. The result is your amp sounding alot more upfront because of the boost bein primarily in the midrange.

Originally Posted by sealofcleansing

ok so basically your trying to distort the input singal/or make it clip. so you get some tube clipping or am i way off here

yeah thats pretty much right. the boost somewhat adds clipping by overdriving your pre amp

[sealofcleansing]

hmm ok that sounds cool. ill have to try it out

[CentaurPorn]

Once you do it you will never be able to play again without it.

[sealofcleansing]

hopefully so. the bbe helped sooo much also, so hopefully this sweetens it up too. but it already sounds damn good so im curious to see what kind of improvement it will make

[budda]

when you boost it.. try it with the BBE off

and yes, most stock tubescreamers take a bit of low end away.

if you get your tube screamer/OD pedal (boss SD-1 etc) modded by Joe Bodenhamer (Bodenhamer Electronics - LordovChaos on these boards) you wont get that low end loss - my TS7ovChaos, in either mode, gives me More low frequencies when engaged. i dont know if any other modders have thought of this, or quite to the extent joe has (since there's that low B through to F# depending on number of strings and tuning), the low frequencies get through so the amp just gets tightened up, with a bit of thickness added.

i run drive: 2 tone: 6 level: 8 (i use a les paul.. its beefy tone as is ). like johnnyCnote here, i run as low gain as possible, and get that extra sizzle from the TS out front - works like a charm.

and it'll make your clean channel sound sexy to boot! (in my experience)

[st2012]

Is the effect of an OD pedal lessened if the amp volume isnt that loud? I"ve tried this before with my Valveking at living room volume and didnt see a whole lot of difference in the tone.

[budda]

i dont think so. i dont notice a HUGE change in tone when i turn mine off (cuz its always on ), at talking volume and at rattling-things volume. the effect is more pronounced at higher volumes, but then your EQ does more and your amp will sound different when its more pushed as well