Review: Ibanez TS808 vintage Tube Screamer Reissue |
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March 23rd, 2008 | Guitar Effects/Pedals |
From wines, cigars, guitars, and now effects, everyone is trying to jump into the "vintage" market. I am usually pretty skeptical about marketing techniques and try my best to alert others about them.
Enter the Ibanez Tube Screamer Vintage Reissue... which will set you back $169 bucks. I don't understand the acclaim that this pedal gets. For as long as I can remember people have been telling me how awesome an Ibanez tube screamer is. A few years ago I tried one and it only confirmed my beliefs- I hate this pedal. (review continued below...)
Live Results:
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IBANEZ TS9 TUBE SCREAMER REISSUE TS 9 DOA REPAIR IT |  |
6 Bids | US $22.75 | 1d 14h 41m |
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Ibanez TS808 Vintage Tube Screamer Reissue NIB | |
7 Bids | US $118.50 | 1d 16h 33m |
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Early Reissue Maxon Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer Overdrive | |
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US $110.00 | 1d 17h 42m |
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Ibanez TS808 Vintage Tube Screamer Reissue | |
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US $139.99 | 2d 14h 43m |
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Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer 1st Reissue 1992 | |
0 Bid | US $65.00 | 4d 11h 31m |
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IBANEZ TS9 TUBE SCREAMER REISSUE Free Shipping | |
1 Bid | US $30.00 | 5d 21h 20m |
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The Ibanez TS808 Vintage Tube Screamer Reissue | |
0 Bid | US $99.99 | 6d 18h 19m |
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Ibanez TS808 Vintage Tube Screamer Reissue Pedal | |
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US $169.99 | 22d 22h |
To me there is nothing tube-like about this pedal at all. Instead of warm, rich, and harmonic distortion you get noisy and loud distortion that is more thin than anything else. I've even tried using this pedal for a live show. Unfortunately my solos were so thin that the audience couldn't hear them over the rest of my band.
Perhaps my particular configuration lead to these results ( I was using a Marshall JCM 2000 TSL amp).
As for features the pedal has a very basic setup with a square footswitch, overdrive, tone, and volume control. When you search online you will find countless people proclaiming how this pedal is the key to nailing down Stevie Ray's tone. I messed around for days and couldn't find it. To me this pedal should not have the word tube in it at all- the tone is crunchy, noisy, and overall thin to me.
I compared this sound to the other Tube Screamer models and simply cannot hear a difference. If I am missing something let me know, otherwise I think this pedal is hardly worth $170 bucks!
