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Tube Screamer - 808 - Not very authentic...


musiclover7
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Finding myself rather disappointed in the tone of the tube screamer in the helix.  It does not seem possible to get that mostly clean, yet highly sustained tone that I usually reach for with it.  I have tried lots of knob tweaking, even putting two of them back to back in a chain, but I am pretty much striking out.  Honestly, I prefer the way this effect gets translated on my Zoom G5, which is disappointing, as other effects in the Helix, are leagues better than the G5.  Still, this is one of my go to's, so it is kind of a deal breaker.  Anyone else having difficulties?  Anyone figure out how to solve them?

 

 

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I have to disagree with the OP, for me the tube screamer sounds very close to my Joyo tube screamer clone and i'm more than happy with it. The Minotaur on the other hand is my favorite drive pedal i've ever used be it digital or hardware. Minotaur is incredible to me  

 

The Teemah is amazing, too.

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Love the Minotaur, and somewhat to my surprise, lately the OCD. Also Hedgehog and KWB, Teemah!, Tycoctavia (w post EQ) for some ok-we're-bent stuff.

 

Lots of my patches have a kind of clean base, and at least two levels of OD on footswitches, plus sometimes others not on switches that I'm messing with to see if I want them in too.

 

Guess I'm an OD lollipop :)

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I was comparing to the Original.  I had to send my helix back, as my original unit turned out to be defective, so waiting on another to come in the mail.  In any case, I will try the Minotaur when it comes and see if I can get the tone I am after.

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The Ibanez 808. yeah.. the green one.

 

This reminds me of a story about when my buddy went to a conference in Mumbai. He overheard the desk clerk ask the bellman "please deliver these to the American's room."

 

The bellman asked "Which American? There are fifty staying in the hotel right now."

 

The desk clerk replied "You know—the white guy!"

 

:D

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This reminds me of a story about when my buddy went to a conference in Mumbai. He overheard the desk clerk ask the bellman "please deliver these to the American's room."

 

The bellman asked "Which American? There are fifty staying in the hotel right now."

 

The desk clerk replied "You know—the white guy!"

 

:D

 

Reminds me of when I was in the Navy and people would come to visit the ship or post.   They'd ask how they'll spot me and the response is always...  "I'll be the one in the white hat"    Still makes me smile.

 

But seriously, I have been wanting to say this for a loooong time and I'm just gonna sneak it in on this post so I feel better having said it.    We musicians REALLY get hung up on brand names for some reason, even more than bikers.  I think a LOT of people are listening with their eyes. 

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Well.. that's interesting.  I am still like 4 years new to effect pedal world, though I have been playing professionally for about 25 years.  Used to be, I would run straight into my 68 twin with reverb, occasional tremolo, and that was enough pizazz for me.  Then I started delving a little a few years back, and wound up getting really sucked into the land of digital effects.  I knew I was never going to be a guitar player who lugged around a complex pedal board with 10 different pedals attached to it.  Way to much to maintain, so the idea of an all in one box has always appealed to me, even if I can just find 3-4 additional tones to tuck into my belt for when needed.  My guitar into my vintage twin, is already tone heaven.

 

I have no idea what year tube screamer I played that hooked me.  It was one of those green ones though for sure.  I liked the effect, cuz it created this amazing sustain with very little 'distortion'.  It was almost as clean sounding as just my guitar into amp, and yet I could hang on one note for 2-3 bars, and my tone would not slowly dissolve on me.  This was straight awesome sauce, and is a definite tool I don't want to go without.

 

Anyways, I appreciate the education...  Makes sense to me that the tube screamer I played may be of a different era, and that the Zoom G5 was closer to that than whatever year/make the Helix is modeled after.  All I know, is that for the brief few hours that I was able to mess with the helix, I was unable to achieve that tone I was after.  I am definitely, in no way a 'brand happy' player.  I go with what sounds good to my ears and could care less what it's called.  I'll look forward to trying with the minotaur when the new Helix arrives. 

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Oh, it gets way hairier than Tube Screamers. Age, humidity, batteries, power supplies, North America vs. Europe AC, conductive paint, and a thousand other things can notably alter the sound of a pedal. Amps are even worse; the history of the myriad versions of the Vox AC30 (and their countless mods) is encyclopedic.

 

Just goes to show that the specific amp or pedal we choose to model can be as important as how we model it.  :)

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Reminds me of when I was in the Navy and people would come to visit the ship or post.   They'd ask how they'll spot me and the response is always...  "I'll be the one in the white hat"    Still makes me smile.

 

But seriously, I have been wanting to say this for a loooong time and I'm just gonna sneak it in on this post so I feel better having said it.    We musicians REALLY get hung up on brand names for some reason, even more than bikers.  I think a LOT of people are listening with their eyes. 

uh oh!!! :o  you shouldn't have let that one slip buddy!!! you need to start looking over your shoulder and if you see some guys that kinda look like the "The Blues Brothers" B)  just pretend you didn't see them and walk fast into a place with lots of people..... ;)

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"That Pedal Show" on YouTube just put out a new video in which they're comparing 4 different Tube Screamers, along with a few other pedals.  Good episode.  I don't own a Tube Screamer but I do have a 1985 Ibanez SD-9 Sonic Distortion, which sounds identical to the Hedgehog model in Helix.

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After reading this thread earlier today I quickly put together a preset.  Of course I had to expand upon it so you can scratch quickly at this point :lol:.  The TS 808 sounds good in my preset; I did add a few other blocks into the mix and made a full "Max the DSPs" preset.  I am not sure what the version the OP is talking about but with a few tweaks I get a good tonal response and sustain plus clarity.  Of course that is subjective based upon my ears. 

 

Dennis

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LOL!   They wouldn't let the TS7 Tone Lok series into the family photo?  ;)  Maybe even Analog Man doesn't want one... 

 

 

 

Back to the OP: 

 

+1 on the Minotaur for low-gain boost.  It's incredible!  This modelled pedal made me go and buy a Klon clone for my IRL pedalboard!   (twice!)

 

Also  - it's important that the input impedance in Global Settings is set to "auto" if you really want to replicate the sound of any given pedal.  From the perspective of your guitar's pickups, In "auto" the input jack in the Helix "looks" the same as the first pedal in your signal path. 

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

 

 

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What about the soundtank ts? Lol

 

Sad to say that was the first one I owned. I was young and naive, and broke.

 

Lol, I had the Soundtank TS5, too... Actually, I think I still have it in my basement somewhere. That and the Soundtank Chorus were the first two pedals I bought.

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