The Truth About Tubescreamer Mods (Part 2 of 2)

[Jeepjones85]

LEDs will only light up with the negative and positive wires in the right spot. So take it back out and solder in the other way lol

[sirsteven88]

I'm going to say that they both have the same tubescreamery sound but the 808 mod is a little bit 'sharper' and I like that. The stock sounds slightly dull, at least in this video.

[Passenger95]

@sirsteven88 Interesting. Cool observation!

[Passenger95]

@Brezarius84 haha Nice. Ya, I didn't hear much difference either, even live.

[Tobeprincecaspian]

I'm getting a Ts7 soon... Basically plan to use it with A Marshall MG series' OD (solid state) for riffs.. Do i need the mod?

[Passenger95]

@Tobeprincecaspian Probably not. There's almost zero difference, especially as the TS7 has the right chip already. :-)

[Tobeprincecaspian]

@Passenger95 Okay. They accidentally Shipped me DS7 instead of TS7 coz i ordered over the phone, Can't wait to get it! :-) thanks.

[beebs07]

TS-7's won't really benefit much from TS-808 mods because they already have a pretty decent chip (you're really just comparing the JRC vs TI 4558); but if you buy a TS-9 reissue with the 75558 chip and change it out to a 4558, you'll probably notice an identifiable difference in a blind comparison.

[Passenger95]

@beebs07 Great point! And I think you can hear in this video that there is almost no difference. When I originally bought the mod kit and then opened this thing up, I was like, 'Oh great. It already has the right chip!' lol

[deantallhat]

So the moral here is don't waste your time doing mods; use it to practice instead. Because we're really splitting hairs over tiny differences - there's enought flexibility in the controls to compensate for any difference between the boxes.

[Passenger95]

@deantallhat I think mods can be really good for tone...just maybe not the particular tubescreamer one that's going around ebay with just a chip and a resistor. hehe But you're right...practice is the main thing. :-) Cheers!

[zimmy4661]

@Passenger95 I aint gonna fuck with mine for sure!!!

[vackraord]

Im leaning towards the stock one sounding better :) Very good comparison!

[Passenger95]

Thanks! And the stock one, huh? Very cool. It's awesome to hear how different everyone's opinions are, and which ones sound best to everyone. I do agree, this is a very decent sounding pedal stock, and it already has the right chip!

[powerdog242]

I think a bunch of viewers here are listening with their eyes.

While watching this the first time, my video wouldn't render and I couldn't tell the difference between the two boxes. If you closed your eyes and/or played this in the background, I'd bet most of you couldn't either.

This is exactly why blind testing needs to be done on these mods.

[Passenger95]

Ya, I agree that this particular mod does very little...possibly nothing. Especially because the TS7 already has the correct chip. And then of course, with just a small difference to begin with, youtube and computer speakers don't help at all! haha Cheers!

[cmonsterz]

The modded version sounds...a little smoother and more musical. I like it.

[Passenger95]

Very cool! Ya, it might be a little smoother. Cheers!

[Fean0r86]

well i modded my ts7 quite a bit the last few weeks, switched out most of the caps and resistors ,even changed some to other sizes and i can tell you.. if done right ,the mods can turn it into a really cool sounding pedal.. light-years away from the stock ts7. nice demo though

[Passenger95]

I totally agree. Any pedal can be changed if modded heavily enough. :-) And I wish I would have done that with this one here! hehe Would have sounded better. This one was done with the stock 'TS808 kits' that you find all over ebay. Just two resistors and a chip. I was attempting to show if there was any difference in sound from that simple of a mod. And there really wasn't much.

But like you said, if you know what you're doing, and mod out a lot of the pedal, you can get some great sounds! :-)

[1Doz]

Yeah, kinda boxy. Both of them. Never have been a big TS fan.

[Passenger95]

Actually, me either. haha

[scorpguitar79]

absolutely no audible difference between the two. That mod is a fail.

[Passenger95]

I agree. I think that mod may have been a rip-off. Live, there 'may' be a difference, but I'm not sure. :-) Cheers!

[Saladzingers]

A question - I (stupidly) modded mine before listening to it stock (my guitar was in bits at the time), so I didn't have much for comparison. The two main observations about my modded pedal are: A) it doesn't sound that good at low volumes, though it does sound great when your amp is turned up. and B) the tone is really, really bassy - a bit muffled to be honest, and I'm playing a tele! I seem to need the tone control almost all the up. Puzzling.

[Passenger95]

What mod did you do? That sounds very odd, indeed.

[thiagosaints]

is there any difference between green stock ts7 and grey stock ts7?

[Passenger95]

Huh. I've never seen a green TS7, so I'm not sure. I know there is a difference between the stock green TS9 and the grey TS7. The TS9 seems to sound better, but the TS7 is closer to vintage specs. Go figure. hehe :-) Thanks for watching!

[Saladzingers]

Find it funny that someone is selling mod kit that presumably consists of two resistors (costing about 10p for both) and a DIFFERENT chip, when the JRC4558D is the one everyone raves about in the TS808!

Anyway, I hear you buddy - I changed the LED to bright green when I modded mine - they don't make it easy! I've modded various pedals and amps and the TS7 was by far the most annoying! (The actual mod is easy but the LED change is very fiddly).

[Passenger95]

haha Nice to know I'm not the only one who found it difficult to change the led! Although, I totally failed in doing it. hehe

And ya, first time I modded one of these, I was like, I just got ripped off! It already has the right chip. :-)

[owens47362]

how hard is it to mod a pedal? could mod kits be used on other petals than the TS?

[Passenger95]

If you're even fairly decent with a soldering iron, it's not that hard. And most tubescreamer-type circuits can be modded. Arion's od's, most of Boss' od's, and such. And then there's other kits for other type pedals. :-)

Hope that helps!

[glocker199]

It's all subjective but I actually prefer the tone of the stock model. It seems to have a warmer, more full sound while the modded version seems too bright and thin.

Thanks for the comparison!

[Passenger95]

No problem! :-)

So you liked the stock one? Ya, I can see that. Honestly, I had a really hard time telling the difference. I'm not sure the home mod kits from e-bay actually do much. hehe :-)