Ibanez has rolled out a real beauty for dyed-in-the-wool Tube Screamer aficionados, with the TS808HW V2 offering a premium tak on its iconic green stompbox.
Now, before you say it, we know. With seemingly each passing week there is a new TS-style pedal, another clone, another version of the Tube Screamer formula. How many more Tube Screamers does the world need? How is this any different?
Well, for a start, this is the real thing, straight from Ibanez, and it offers some subtle revisions of the brand’s flagship hand-wired overdrive pedal.
It is still recognisably a Tube Screamer. That chunky enclosure has scarcely evolved over the years. Ibanez has given this one a dark green paint job with white print and an upscale aesthetic thanks to those custom designed black Alumite knobs.
It is under the hood where the big changes are, with the R&D team doing a lot of work on the circuit – a lot of testing – to improve its performance.
Most notably, there’s more output on this one, with the final stage of this refreshed TS808 circuit packing an extra 6dB to hit the the front-end of your guitar amp a little harder and give it something to think about. Elsewhere, it is what you would want from a Tube Screamer.
The idea wasn’t to reinvent the wheel. This is a Tube Screamer, so there needs to be that warm, juicy drive, all that come hither midrange that works so well between, say, a Fender Stratocaster and a tube amp of your choice (or as the secret sauce in your high-gain metal guitar tone). It can give your solid-state setup a bit of tube-emulating life.
There are any number of playing scenarios in which the vital ingredient is the low-gain edge-of-breakup heat from a TS808. There is a reason why it is one of – if not the most – cloned guitar effect pedals of all time.
Designed and assembled in Japan, Ibanez says there was a lot of sifting through various components before it settled on the circuit for the TS808HW V2.
And there were many prototypes before Ibanez were satisfied. The finished pedal uses Mogami OFC (oxygen-free copper) wiring, arrives replete with the JRC NJM4558 op-amp which the brand describes as “essential” to the Tube Screamer’s magic. Many circuit geeks would agree.
Also essential is its simplicity. This is the archetypal three-knob drive pedal with controls for Overdrive, Tone and Level.
A red LED illuminates when the pedal is active. It is true bypass. You can use a 9V battery or run it at 9V or 18V via your pedalboard power supply.
The ultimate Tube Screamer? We would imagine the TS808HW V2 is at least in the conversation, and it is available now, priced £249/$299. See Ibanez for more details, and you can now follow Ibanez’s dedicated Tube Screamer page on Instagram.
