5 Ways To Use A Tube Screamer 

Gain: 9 o clock Tone: 2 o clock Volume: MAX ❤

I watched this while procrastinating at work, so I put it on 2x speed and let me tell you its hysterical.

In the late 90's I was at a gig where the house PA broke. We used a spare Tubescreamer as an impedence matching transformer ( pre-amp ) for our vocal mic run thru a bass amp.

A Tube Screamer in front of my driven 50watt 1986 Marshall JCM800 has always blown my mind (and my ears). Why mess with perfection.

Great ideas! I usually use my 808 to hold down my papers on the recording desk or to hold the door open if the room needs a bit of air. To say that I'm not a fan would be an understatement. It is seldom on my pedal board. I prefer a Nobles OD1 or even the Keeley Nobles Driver or a TS from Wampler, personally. But you have given me some other ideas for putting that old greener to use. Thank you!

You should do MORE of these Super helpful Tips videos Dearest Robert, MUCH more. Very well explained indeed and enjoyable too! Thank You Sir Chapman.

Absolutely beautiful guitar!

The Tubescreamer is one of the FEW pedals that's ALWAYS on my board. The other pedals that's always there with the TS are the Metal Zone, an EQ, a Tuner and a Reverb (IF there's no reverb in the amp). The Metal Zone is a super powerful pedal in that it is EXTREMELY versatile in being able to get an amazingly wide variety of sounds, from mild to wild. I can get it to function from a clean boost all the way to a full hairy fuzz.

The idea of having it as a rhythm - I’d never have considered giving that a go!

Tubescreamer AND a Sovtek Big Muff was one of the best tones I ever stumbled across, can’t remover which order I had them in though. It was some time ago…

I used to use one of the original Marshall Blues Breaker pedals as my "always on" slight broken up tone. I use TS pedals in the same way. I view them a bit like Hot Sauce, a little goes a long way gain wise :)

I have never really thought about that first way of toning down the pedal and using the amp as lead.I will give a try!

I’ve tried a couple of these but several never even occurred to me. Thx!

Excellent... Thanks... I like the cut option and the treble boost idea.

Your brilliant man! Always love your tones and playing style. It is out of this world. Your the Hendrix of metal.

I remember Phil X once explaining that he dialed his amp to AC/DC and used his Bad Monkey to go to Van Halen, and that absolutely made the most sense to me at the time, and has typically been how I've implemented most overdrives. With differential nuances pertaining to any given amp's gain characteristics. Having said that? I've just found myself somewhat regretting letting my old Digitech Bad Monkey go many moons ago. However these days an everyday ordinary BOSS SD1 pretty much gets me everywhere I need to go. Great video Chappers! Hope you are well. Cheers!

Best. Pedal. Ever.

Great advice and tips thumbs up. Im inspired to fiddle with my maxon od808 again.

Not sure if they have the card game Uno in the UK, But felt like you threw a reverse card down out of the gate. Using it to cut out gain 🤯...my tiny little brain could only Ever imagine ADDING gain. This an eye opening video 😊

This is a great video. I'm going to be putting way #1 to use immediately. I don't know why that never crossed my mind, but it's exactly what I need in my chain. I have my amp distortion pretty much maxed, and this would allow for gentler bits without fiddling with the volume knob in mid song.

I also use it on the loop as a booster, it just enhances mids and raises volume, perfect for solos

Rhythm channel and let my sweet amp do the heavy tone lifting for face punching solos…brilliant….so simple it plain did not occur to me. I’m gonna put this computer down and go check it out with my Vox. I’ll come back and watch the rest later, thank mate!

I like to use one after a fuzz , gain low, tone mid and volume unity. This helps to smooth the sound of a fuzz if needed

I often use overdrive or tube screamer together with a fuzz pedal. Like the Carcosa Fuzz. You can get a lot of great sounds with this combination. You have to find your perfect settings.

The main use I'd use one (or a boss sd1) is as a bass cut into and already gain amp for tight metal rhythm tones. If you need more gain (eg a jcm800) you crank the level and adjust the gain to taste, alternatively you can just use it as preeq to clean up something like a dual rectifier or further tighten a 5150. This was the sound of so many Andy Sneap produced metal bands

My Jam tubedreamer made me love that circuit again.

Clever using the tube screamer in the negative. When I heard gainey amp and screamer I thought oh no! But then wow!

Deviously smart.

That's really useful. Thanks Rob.

If you only have a clean tone, then using the Tube Screamer to tidy up and boost a mushy distortion pedal works well. Something like the Mojo Mojo that Mr Big uses, or even a DS1 or Dist+ etc. Low end on those things is a bit mushy, but set it for a mid gain rhythm tone and hit it with the TS808 dialed in as a clean-ish boost. The tone will get tight, give you palm muted higher gains sounds and the higher notes will sing and sustain really nicely. Fat without the mushy low end.

Whoa what! I feel stupid to have never thought to use an overdrive as a gain/volume cut. Now I have to go and try out all my overdrive pedals to find out which is better for this purpose lol.

I know some people pick on you but I dig your show

Most of the time I love a green box. As long as it doesn't smell...

Brilliant - THANKS❗

Love the look of that Ghost Fret.❤ 6th way, in between bassheavy fuzz and amp that slightly breaks up, clock settings: gain 8-9, tone 2-3 and volume 1-3, removes low end, tightens up while still having the punch and gain from the fuzz and cuts through. Not sure if it matters, but I use the 808 circuit for that, doesn’t even have to be the original, there are some cheap clones as well as digital models that do it the exact same way as it, did actually record and compare. For added response there is a version with Jfet at a ridiculous low price from NUX.

Does a Boss DS-1 behave in a similar way? If not, I’d love a similar video for that pedal!

Got a TS9 from a friend. Played around with at home. Never liked it. Few years later took to it a full band gig. Then I got it. They are wonderful live.

My favourite ways to use overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals are (a) to use them *instead* of an amp, which might potentially require *two* pedals; (b) to use two pedals to create a different harmonic profile: even if the pedals are the same, the variety of sounds they produce is far superior than using one pedal; (c) using an amplifier as a pre-amp in front of a pedal, where an amplifier controls the tightness and the character of the sound, and the pedal(s) further add gain and crispy-washy character to the sound; and (d) is to use a parallel processing chain, where one channel uses a pedal as an amplifier, with no cabinet, and that raw and high-definition sound is mixed with a channel that does use a cabinet. Overall, I find amplifiers to be more useful as pre-equalizers and, to some degree, pre-amplifiers, rather than the actual amplifiers per se. Pedals are enormously underrated as amplifiers, most of the time they produce far superior tones than those produced by amplifiers. P.S., no, you, a reader, cannot use this in your video as if you came up with this, or pull a “hey, I've read this comment and will socialize this person's intellectual property for RU-vid views”. I leave this comment so some people could try this, shut the fuck up about it, and keep it to themselves.

Brilliant! Great video!

Not having a TS right now, I am not quite sure if it works with it, but with quite similar Boss SD-1, I have one more possibility. With a classical 3-single coil strat on a clean amp, I can turn it to a HB-like guitar, with gain at zero and volume boosted (tone at noon or at your taste). It rolls off the strat crispeness and scooped tone and boosts mids. With SD-1, it remains clean with any dirt hardly noticeable. Not sure if TS can remain clean...

Number 2 is the only way I’ve ever heard of them being used, and the only setting I’ve ever discovered that doesn’t sound like complete shit.

😮... J'ai redécouvert mon ancienne "Big'Muff" Oubliée depuis London Juin1976..🎸⚠️🤗 ..... Bien que la TS soit devenue une "Classique"😉

GREAT vid man !!!

I do love me some screaming tubes

GOOD JOB, WELL

Great Video!!

Very nice. ANd I have a Johnny Cash T shirt just like that.

If you keep taking those pictures of yourself, you need to apply to be the next bond villain. I think they could name you Mr .C.

Hi Rob , hope you're doing 🤠 Great. Years ago could have been around early 80s. I bought a TS . I used to think 🤔 about Tube screaming and how it would take me into the realms of magnificents, but it was what I can only describe as Sonic cold turkey 🦃 It's very label 🏷️ and it's could be concept is the only thing magnificent about it . I later discovered it was just a fancy name for an overdrive circuit alas my Sonic journey faltered until year's later I discovered overdrive circuits that could Knock me out the 🏞️ park. The TS is OK if you have got a 🎩 Top sounding amp like a Victory or Bogner, etc . Otherwise they are no use to Man nor Beast. Best Regards. John.

The BEST way to use a Tube Screamer is Drive @ 0, Level @ Max, Tone @ Noon in front of the highest gain channel of a Peavey 6505, EVH 5150, or a Mesa Boogie Dual

Rob, will these suggestions work with an OD3?

2:46 gonna have to slow that down and learn it

Some people use it with vol on max, tone and gain either in the middle or zero

How's your band doing man do you still have cì ci on bass

Gain at about 7:15 Tone at 11:30 Level dimed. Or get a REVV Tilt Boost. Heats up the front of the amp without adding much gain.

After 30 years playing my fender strat 1979 (no one cares!) I found out that turning the volume knob from the strat down give some super sounds out of de TS ;)

I Have No Tubescreamer, And I Must Scream

New ghostfret

Must find a dark evil way to use a Tube Screamer. lol

The first vid by Rob that I saw was the one where he was wearing a dragon suit. It is hard to not like a guy who does that. I like his vids about sound and gear etc.......He was playing guitar while wearing the dragon suit. It was as funny as Page's dragon suit was cool. Just sayin. Rock on!

I use my tube screamer to make my wife scream and boy do I make her scream

Sell them all and buy something that just plain sounds good, rather than fighting with a bloody green pedal. I think that amp sounds pretty damn good all by itself.

If i couldl i would buy that guitar

can i come by an paint that wall behind you,,,,,,,,,,,,,,/?

Johnny Cash be proud

interesting....aaaand : funny ...😀

Yo

Tube Screamer into a klon like circuit

It barely worked for me, always sounded like a clean layer goes with the drive sound

6: as a paperweight. I cannot get on with them.

Sounds like one way to me...

6th use: try to hide your bottle of monkey shoulder.

This is how you use a metalzone not a tubescreamer

My Johnny Cash shirt has be tossed by my wife after 10 plus years I,m pissed ! 😢

6. Doorstop

Way 6. Insert that thing in your backside and screaming will commence

Chewbscreamer

You need to wear a beanie hat or something like Greg Koch does for your thumbnails. Being pasty white bald in the sunshine washes out the photo. Add color with a beanie or hat of some kind. Not trolling just a tip.

We’re not worthy!..

Monkeyshoulder spotted

Don´t say Grrrrrrrrrrrreetings!

The best way to use a tube screamer is sale it and get active pickups 😂

yawwwnn.