software

well, he got a maxon od-9, and is claiming that even when his amp is maxed out, the pedal still makes it a lot louder

i told him he was full of crap, but i dunno, is that pretty typical of tubescreamers?

I don't know. I've never played any of my amps maxed out. We're talking about a dangerous level of volume here. I can't see any benefit gleaned from boosting it further.

Hmm i think (im not sure cause I dont make those pedals) it could boost the signal strength a bit because if it's an overdriven transistor stuff it's also able to amp the signal... dunno...
Is your friends amp a combo? because then I wouldn't use it at max gain because they sometimes tend to kill their speakers when they are maxed...

it might just kick in frequencies where you hear it more easily, but i have heard amps get MUCH louder when you kick a booster pedal in, i guess the poweramp's dimed, but the preamp isnt..

Yes. That's ok. Its an OD/booster.

yes, an overdrive will boost the signal

however, it's more commonly used to get overdrive at reasonable levels

That is accurate. The Maxon/TS acts as a boost as well.

yeah, the tones weren't all that accurate though

i plugged into a '59 RI bassman, cranked it for a few, then turned it down, kicked on the ts, and, ehh, it was ballpark at best


Originally Posted by Impit might just kick in frequencies where you hear it more easily, but i have heard amps get MUCH louder when you kick a booster pedal in, i guess the poweramp's dimed, but the preamp isnt..

1. Tweaking the equalization can make an amp sound louder without actually increasing the SPL.


Originally Posted by drew_half_emptyyeah, the tones weren't all that accurate though

accurate, compared to what?

all tubescreamers, and most overdrives for that matter, have somewhat of a mid hump, although you can set them for clean boost

you may perceive it as louder, but i doubt it is, you'd be driving the preamp more into clipping, unless the pre amp isn't biased for maximum signal swing to begin with, then the additional signal boost may cause the amp to be louder.


Originally Posted by Curlyaccurate, compared to what?

all tubescreamers, and most overdrives for that matter, have somewhat of a mid hump, although you can set them for clean boost

compared to the sound of it ACTUALLY cranked

and yeah, i know all the ibanez ts's are known for having a mid hump, and the story goes that maxon invented the tubescreamer amp; sold the design to ibanez, so i bet this one has the hump

and as far as biasing i was gonna have the bassman set to where on 9 or 10 it gives a real light rockabilly crunch, and then when i kick on the tubescreamer well, get into rock/blues territory, maybe kick it on for solos, who knows

I wouldn't recommend having a fender amp cranked to 10 all the time, there they tend to get real nasty and muddy unless you have a larget output transformer that would shift its sweet spot. Fenders enter the mud zone when cranked excessively because of their bassy/mid scooped nature, which is why a tube screamer sounds good not when the amp is on 2 or 3 for cranked simulation, rather a TS9 sounds awesome when your fender is at 5 or 6, with the level nice and high and the drive down to 12 o clock. No OD will make a 50 watt fender sound cranked with its volume at 2 or 3.

Fender sweet spots are 6-8.5 give or take, with an OD and you'll have incredible smooth tone. With a larger OT like a fender twin OT in a bassman (cesar diaz style mod) you'd shift the sweet spot to 7-10.


Originally Posted by drew_half_emptywell, he got a maxon od-9, and is claiming that even when his amp is maxed out, the pedal still makes it a lot louder

i told him he was full of crap, but i dunno, is that pretty typical of tubescreamers?

The mid hump in a tube screamer and it being an overdrive would make an amp seem louder, as the human ear perceives upper mids as louder than any other frequency (why marshalls sound so huge too...)

If this guy's amp had more headroom to spare, this is entirely possible. A Twin,
for example, is near impossible to distort heavily even at 10. This means that it has more power to spare because of the incredible effeciency of that huge output transformer. The bigger the OT, the less the tubes distort, since they're not working as hard. So if you throw a TS9 or similar tubescreamer, you'll get a volume boost because the amp has headroom to spare, and it will seem even louder because of the TS9 mid hump.....

I hope this answers your question. An amp with a smaller tranny like my bandmaster purposely gets less efficiency so i could crank the 2 6l6's more. I can't get any more volume out of my bandmaster at 10 and a tubescreamer in front because it is already saturated at 9.

If the amp is maxed out, a booster would just saturate the signal further, correct?

not if it still hasnt run out of headroom at 10, like a vibroclone for example....