Tube Screamer: How to Use

Known for their guitars and cutting innovations with modern rock and metal, the Japanese company Ibanez created one incredible effect that has become legendary: the TS-808 Tube Screamer. Originally produced in the late 1970s, this guitar pedal is still being sold and added to guitar pedalboards around the world. It’s rugged, heavy, and iconically green. The Tube Screamer is heralded as one of the best overdrive circuits ever made, but the guitar community has been sharply divided on its tone and usefulness since the beginning. Let’s clear up some confusion about the TS-808 Tube Screamer.

*Note: I am admittedly not a fan of the Tube Screamer. I definitely prefer more transparent overdrive options. However, I’ve learned how to use a Tube Screamer effectively and can get some cool tones out of it.

 

First Things First:

Let’s clear this up right away. The TS-808 is named the Tube Screamer because it can make your amp’s tubes scream. It does NOT replicate the sound of a screaming amp. Maybe that was a marketing fluke, but the ambiguity has caused countless players to buy this expecting a great overdrive circuit right out of the box. This pedal must be used in conjunction with a tube amp.

 

The Amp:

Sure, you can run a Tube Screamer into a solid state amp, but it likely won’t sound very good and certainly won’t produce the tone that Ibanez champions. For best results, you have to use a tube amp. Hybrid models that use solid state preamps and tube power sections won’t do it – the amp needs to be all tube (with the exception of the rectifier, which can be solid state).

General consensus indicates that a vintage-style blackface Fender amp or a Marshall sounds the best, but anything with hot tubes will work. Check out our article on different Fender amps if you're wondering about the company's amp eras.

 

Speaking of Hot:

Your amp should be cooking to benefit from the Tube Screamer. It’s an unfortunate circumstance for most guitarists these days since the amp market has shifted to overall lower output, but your amp needs to be loud for this to work. Using the circuit with a quiet tube amp will result in fizzy, lackluster overdrive that may sound like it has been EQ’d incorrectly.

You want to set the amp to the edge of breakup, or light amp distortion. When the Tube Screamer is engaged, it will boost and over-saturate the guitar’s signal. This means that the amp’s preamp tubes get hit harder, that signal is… well… amplified, and the power tubes distort more than they would have on their own. The Tube Screamer pushes your amp over the edge and helps it roar.

 

EQ:

The TS-808 is known for its prominent midrange boost. Many blackface-era Fender amps have a missing chunk hollowed out in the mids, so using a Tubescreamer simultaneously beefs up the Fender sound and tightens up the bass end of the spectrum. This is particularly useful as many players complain about Fender’s flabby bass tones during passages with high distortion. Armed with this knowledge, try using the EQ controls on your amp to play with the mids. The Tube Screamer is known for being dark, so you may want to experiment with adjusting the treble on your amp in addition to the tone control on the pedal.

 

Tricks to Try:

In my opinion, the distortion that is generated from the Tube Screamer’s circuit is pretty unremarkable. It certainly can’t compete with the sound of your tube amp’s natural overdrive. I like using it as a boost – try reducing or limiting the gain on the pedal and using the volume control almost exclusively. Higher volume output means hotter incoming guitar signal to the amp, which means hotter amp distortion. You can color the amps’ distortion by mixing in a little gain from the pedal, but I wouldn’t let the circuit’s grit get in the way. Let your amp do the talking.

Although it’s not a great standalone pedal, the Tube Screamer works fantastically as a stacker. Try combining it with another overdrive or distortion pedal. John Mayer has used the Tube Screamer stacked with a Klon for a long while, and it sounds great. This works best with a transparent circuit like the Klon or a Bluesbreaker.

 

Final Thoughts:

It’s helpful to think of the Tube Screamer as an extension of your amp, or an amp hacker, rather than a pedal. It’s really good at doing one thing, which is pushing a hot tube amp over the edge and making it roar. Most players aren’t using loud tube amps for practice or gigs, so the Tube Screamer may not be the best choice for your application. The actual TS-808 circuit is legendary, however, and countless clones and competing pedals have evolved from its success. Let us know if you have any guitar pedal questions, and I hope that this information about the Ibanez Tube Screamer helped to clear up some confusion!

Check out this gallery from the legend himself, Analog Man, to see the different iterations of the Tube Screamer.