# [Tech] Pimp your Ibanez TS5 Tubescreamer!



## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

Long ago I posted a thread about how to do the TS808 mod on a TS7 and it went over REALLY well! Well I thought I'd share some more love. An Ibanez TS5, as all tubescreamers except the 808, is a TS9 circuit on a cheaper board, in a cheaper box... and tanks are metal so this one is kind of special! Not to mention you can score them for $20 or so usually.

Here's the culprit!







Start by removing the three knobs. Just pull really hard and they come out. Then take the four screws out of the bottom cover and the one screw holding down the PCB and ground strap. The board should come right out now:






First step... remove that HORRIBLE sounding opamp!!! Use desoldering braid on all parts mentioned in this thread. Press the braid against the solder pads and heat until all solder is absorbed. If the part doesn't fall out or pull out with no effort, desolder some more. NEVER force the part out! These boards are cheap and easy to damage. 











If you have little experience at this I HIGHLY recommend soldering in an IC socket as opposed to just soldering in the new opamp. Heat can destroy them very easily. Note the notch on the top of the opamp drawing on the PCB, you want the notch of the socket and the dot on the opamp pointing in the same direction.











For old school tubescreamer tone use a JRC4558D. I personally prefer RC4559P but you can use TL072, TL082, NE5532, OPA2134PA, etc... lots of opamps work and you can find differing opinions all over the net. 

Next... Desolder R34 and R35:






Change R34 to 100 ohm and R35 to 10k ohm. I use 1/4 watt metal film resistors but anything you can fit in there will work. It doesn't matter which direction you put resistors in.

Now desolder D2 and D3:






If you are aiming for early tubescreamer tone try to find some 1s1588 diodes and put them here. I buy them on ebay or effectsconnection.com Note the arrow on the board, this points to the negative side of the diode. The diode will have a stripe on this end. I recommend using two different diodes for asymmetrical clipping. A 1N4002 and a red LED is my personal favorite. The short leg of an LED is the negative leg and goes in the direction of the arrow on the board. 1N4148 diodes sound pretty close to 1s1588's and can be bought at Radio Shack. Try different combos and also try soldering two diodes in series in place of one diode!

If all you want is an 808, now you have it! You can stop and reassemble the pedal... but that's boring!

Next I recommend desoldering C11 and C12:











These little orange tantalum fellers sound like shit lol. They are .22uf caps. Just removing them and replacing them with .22uf metal film caps make the pedal sound quite a bit better. It cleans up unwanted distortion and adds overall clarity. I replace them with .15uf metal film caps. This reduces mid hump and shifts the frequency of the tone control. Another popular combination is .22uf metal film in C12 and .1uf in C11. Experiment!

Desolder R18 and R19:






These change the gain! R18 is 4.7k ohms stock and R19 is 51K ohms. The lower value you use in R18 the more gain and clarity you get but it also reduces bass. The lower you use in R19 the more your pedal cleans up when you have the gain all the way down. 10k is good and the most popular for R19 but experiment. Anything lower than the original is an improvement. People use between 3.3k and 1k in R18, again experiment.

Desolder C10:






Original is .047uf. The bigger cap you use here the more bass you get. I recommend anything in between .1uf and .22 uf. Try a few and see what works for you!

Now remove C8 and C13:






These are 1uf electrolytic caps. Replace them with 1uf metal film! This takes some mud and distortion out from the low end and again improves overall clarity.

Last but not least... What would any good pedal be without a bright ass LED? 

Desolder it first then remove the screw:






The negative side will be marked with a line or arrow just like the diodes, short leg goes here. (LED = light emitting diode)

3mm LEDs will fit right in. I like 5mm  drill the hole out to 3/16" to fit one.

The finished product:











That's it!!! Just put the pedal back together the same way you took it apart and RAWK! Feel free to ask any questions!


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## loktide (Dec 6, 2009)

that's one bright-ass LED 

also very cool mod-guide, joe


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

loktide said:


> that's one bright-ass LED
> 
> also very cool mod-guide, joe



 yea the green and white ones I have are blinding!!! Thanks man


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

EDIT: Just noticed the chip I took out of this one is a JRC4558D... other TS5's I've worked on were not! So check before you go ripping it out  might not have to.


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## djpharoah (Dec 6, 2009)

Fucking workbench'd


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)




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## TomAwesome (Dec 6, 2009)




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## Scarpie (Dec 6, 2009)

this is awesome. i am curious as to what a tubescreamer 808 can do for me, but am broke ass broke. but i am handy so this is a great alternative. thanks for posting


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## zeal0us (Dec 6, 2009)

Extremely kickass tutorial, didn't miss a beat. Thanks a lot for this, LordOVchaoS!!


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## TomParenteau (Dec 6, 2009)

I have an old metal TS-9. It's actually my second one; some jerk swiped my first one off the stage one night. Now I screw them down solid to a big fiberglass pedalboard! 

Isn't the '80s TS-9 already a "good" one? I have always liked them just fine.


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

TomPerverteau said:


> I have an old metal TS-9. It's actually my second one; some jerk swiped my first one off the stage one night. Now I screw them down solid to a big fiberglass pedalboard!
> 
> Isn't the '80s TS-9 already a "good" one? I have always liked them just fine.



They were a favorite of Stevie Ray Vaughn and they work really well for that sort of thing but... boosting high gain amps for metal is different! TS808 works much better... fully modded works even better than that. Here's the TS9 to TS808 mod:

TS-9ü¢¨TS-808


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## TomParenteau (Dec 6, 2009)

Well, boosting high-gain amps is all I have ever done with it. But the mod looks easy and I have lots of circuit board experience, so I better hop mine up.

I'm not hurtin' for gain, but I like the idea of a better-sounding op amp and some better caps.


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

TomPerverteau said:


> Well, boosting high-gain amps is all I have ever done with it. But the mod looks easy and I have lots of circuit board experience, so I better hop mine up.
> 
> I'm not hurtin' for gain, but I like the idea of a better-sounding op amp and some better caps.



If I get motivated soon I'll post a full TS9 mod page  I'm working 70something hours a week though so motivation is scarce!


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## DeathMetalDean (Dec 6, 2009)

LordOVchaoS said:


> Long ago I posted a thread about how to do the TS808 mod on a TS7 and it went over REALLY well! Well I thought I'd share some more love.



I'm getting my TS7 in about 2 days  was dispatched on saturday, I can't find that thread in the search thingy, you got a link?


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

DeathMetalDean said:


> I'm getting my TS7 in about 2 days  was dispatched on saturday, I can't find that thread in the search thingy, you got a link?



http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ge...2-detailed-ts7-to-ts808-mod-instructions.html


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## Piro (Dec 6, 2009)

In the middle of the tutorial you say that if I increase R18 is get more gain and clarity but loose bass. Then 2 steps later with C10 if I increase the capacitence (sp?) I gain bass. If I put a 1k resistor in R18 and a .22uf cap in C10 would the bass even itself back out but I get all the gain and clarity?

Besides that this tutorial is amazing!


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 6, 2009)

Piro said:


> In the middle of the tutorial you say that if I increase R18 is get more gain and clarity but loose bass. Then 2 steps later with C10 if I increase the capacitence (sp?) I gain bass. If I put a 1k resistor in R18 and a .22uf cap in C10 would the bass even itself back out but I get all the gain and clarity?
> 
> Besides that this tutorial is amazing!



The combined components are called an negative feedback loop and they work in conjunction. They don't necessarily ADD or DECREASE bass but they change what frequency the pedal starts rolling lows off at. Go here: Guitar Pedals: R-C Filter Calculator to find out which frequency the pedal starts rolling them off at. 



Piro said:


> If I put a 1k resistor in R18 and a .22uf cap in C10 would the bass even itself back out but I get all the gain and clarity?



Do that and use 5mm red LEDs for D2 and D3 and you essentially have a $400 Landgraff DO... Use an OPA2134PA opamp with that and you essentially have a $1500+ Clay Jones overdrive 

In all fairness both of them use a 1M ohm pot for the drive as opposed to 500k ohm...

A|| uR bAsS r belong to swirl paint jobs.

Cool name btw


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## lurgar (Dec 7, 2009)

This looks awesome and I really want to do if for nothing else just to check it out. Question though, how close to the real thing does this sound get? Is it exactly the same after being modded, or is it a really close approximation?


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 7, 2009)

If you do all the mods it will sound a lot better than a ts808. If you do only the 808 mod it will sound nearly identical to a stock ts808. The circuit will be 100% the same but there will be some variance in parts brand and quality. I doubt anybody could tell tue difference in a blind test, sounds the same to me!



lurgar said:


> This looks awesome and I really want to do if for nothing else just to check it out. Question though, how close to the real thing does this sound get? Is it exactly the same after being modded, or is it a really close approximation?


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## JBroll (Dec 15, 2009)

I've played with a few TS-like pedals (read: more of those stupid 9->808 conversions than I can count, op amp switches, diode swaps, and so on) and I still have one question - you're spending far more time on this than I care to, so here goes...

Precisely why the fuck does anyone care about 4558s anymore? They were picked because they were cheap and readily available, and we have far better op amps available for even less money (like the 5532 and 2134 you mentioned), so what am I missing apart from 'traditional' nonsense?

Jeff


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## powergroover (Dec 15, 2009)

nice thread nice info


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 17, 2009)

JBroll said:


> Precisely why the fuck does anyone care about 4558s anymore? They were picked because they were cheap and readily available, and we have far better op amps available for even less money (like the 5532 and 2134 you mentioned), so what am I missing apart from 'traditional' nonsense?
> 
> Jeff



I was using 2134's for a while and decided I didn't like them. They gave pedals a honky midrange character and "quackiness" that I didn't like. They sound good IMO if you're going to use the overdrive into a clean channel for some bluesy breakup but NOT as a boost for a dirty channel. I tried NE5532's for a while and had a HUGE failure rate! I originally bought them to quiet down Boss GE7's and the first time I installed them they were ALL bad! Replaced them all and one was still bad. Finally got them all good and one of them died 2 days later. I threw away the rest of them. I ended up using 2134's in that pedal and they ARE perfect for that! Yes, 4558's were used because they were cheap and readily available but... they also gave tubescreamers the sound that they're known for. They just work. I prefer RC4559P  Clearer, quieter, and a little more hi-fi sounding than 4558 with a tad less mid hump.


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## JBroll (Dec 17, 2009)

Unlucky bastard... I have never had a 5532 fail, and didn't wind up with that 2134 honkiness bothering me - was that mid nonsense on a pedal that was otherwise stock?

Jeff


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## LordOVchaoS (Dec 17, 2009)

JBroll said:


> Unlucky bastard... I have never had a 5532 fail, and didn't wind up with that 2134 honkiness bothering me - was that mid nonsense on a pedal that was otherwise stock?
> 
> Jeff



No it was in Bloody Murders. I only shipped two of them with that chip, I think Crucified and Noodles own them. Compared to 4559's they just sounded quacky and honkey  I can DEFINITELY see where somebody who plays a different style could like it, just not for me. I try to make my pedals as transparent as possible.

:EDIT: and are you just now figuring out that my luck sucks?  I'm thoroughly convinced I was Hitler in my previous life!


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## JBroll (Dec 17, 2009)

Bloody Murders have the usual TS mid hump reduced significantly, don't they? That may be the issue - the stuff I usually think of as 'quacky' is a bit above the cutoff in the usual pedals.

Jeff


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 16, 2011)

after stumbling across your thread i attempted the same thing but realized I had a bad diode so i changed it


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 16, 2011)

its alive!!!!! Plugged my Ibanez 8 string (with 18 volt mod) into it... then output into a line 6 tiny 15 watt practice amp on the clean channel....sounds like crap....so I going to work on getting the right op amp like possibly pulling one out of my 92' Crate stealth (it has a couple of TLO72cp and NE5532 in it or i might try to acquire one from work...I actually found an 8 pin socket to install in the board to switch out op amps......looking for metal tone


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 16, 2011)

Wow follow the lord ov chaos instructions about halfway through installing resistors I realized my pedal doesnt match his....damn its an sp5.....LOL should have looked at the board 1st..


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 16, 2011)

I swapped out a diode for a red LED (cool idea from lordOVchaos) and it worked but Im getting this hummmmm from something I will get back to this hopefully when I get home from practice tomorrow night...Got to clean it too very nasty


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 31, 2011)

After not realizing what i got into then realizing I had a completely different pedal than the tube screamer (I just compared the schematics and made adjustments as I went) I think Im getting a hang of it...I know it looks messy but i really made a difference with its original distortion tone...I'm at a point where Im tryng to adjust the gain to be more acceptable...


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## Chris Migdalski (Oct 31, 2011)

side note: could not use the Line 6 15 watt amp for testing this thing...it couldn't handle it, so i switched to an old crate G60 practice amp on the clean channel...huge difference in being able to monitor ditortion tone etc...when time permits I will continue to tweek


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## plexi17 (Apr 22, 2012)

does anyone know where i can find the yellow boxed metal film capacitors used. Ive seen them on monotone but not in the correct values. 

LordoVChao5 could you tell me where you order your parts from? 

Thanks


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## asilayamazing (May 7, 2012)

plexi17 said:


> does anyone know where i can find the yellow boxed metal film capacitors used. Ive seen them on monotone but not in the correct values.
> 
> LordoVChao5 could you tell me where you order your parts from?
> 
> Thanks


smallbearelec.com they have most everything, sometimes can order singles or bulk is reasonably priced.
http://www.smallbearelec.com/servlet/StoreFront


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## SouthpawIbanezFreak (May 17, 2013)

When you put the red led in D2 is it suppose to light up when the pedal is on? And does it matter if it is a diffused led?

Thanks


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## shreddykreuger (Aug 31, 2014)

THANK YOU LordOVchaoS! 

I just did this mod last night. It was my first attempt at something like this and I think I might be hooked. It took a while but the instructions were great. 

I did my own research of course too and took it slow. Getting a parts list together took as long as the mod itself, though I screwed up and didn't order the right parts to replace R18, C10 and C13 so those were skipped for now. I did buy several different Op Amps from Mouser Electronics so I intend to go back into the pedal and experiment. I ended up with a lot less bass but one of the things I liked about this pedal before the mods was how the mids and highs cut through.

After the mods, the settings had to be messed with to find the right tone but I like it - I recorded samples of before and after and it's definitely a clearer sound and less unwanted noise. Before it was like a mild distortion, now it sounds like a good quality overdrive. 

I'll be trying to add more gain and bass in the next pass. 

By the way, this is my first post to Sevenstring.


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## H34rtster (Mar 14, 2015)

I had a beat up TS5 and followed your instructions. The results were a huge improvement. Thanks for this!


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## CrushingAnvil (Apr 27, 2015)

How many of those TS5's did you make, LordOvChaos? I got given one by a friend (TheSixthWheel) and it's a Chaos modded TS5. Do I have the pedal in the OP's pictures?


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## CrushingAnvil (Apr 29, 2015)

CrushingAnvil said:


> How many of those TS5's did you make, LordOvChaos? I got given one by a friend (TheSixthWheel) and it's a Chaos modded TS5. Do I have the pedal in the OP's pictures?



Actually I think mine is Bodenhamer modded, so never mind 

Look exactly like this though!


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Sep 6, 2016)

Bumping this because I got a TS5 on the way. 

Any clue if the footswitch is SPST or DPST? I wanna see if I can replace the stock switch with a soft-touch momentary switch. I did this with my Bad Monkey and it worked perfectly, and I believe the TS5 uses the same FET switching.


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## gearfanatic (Nov 20, 2017)

Where'd the images go?


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