Ibanez TS9B Bass Tube Screamer

I purchased the Ibanez TS9B secondhand and normally had the settings set to high to even register that it was making an impact on the sound coming from the bass.

After having played with it on my ever growing pedal board for about a year to provide a very mid heavy muted fuzzy farty overdrive, I decided to purchase an Empress Multidrive that was going cheap, so the Ibanez was sacrificed and sold.

Just before it was sold, I discovered the sheer joy of the sound when combining an Aguilar Agro with the Ibanez pedal.

On the occasions when I remember the Ibanez TS9B, and have access to my pedal board, I will try to emulate that combination using the Multidrive Overdrive option instead.

I would buy the Ibanez pedal again - they are also built like a tank.

Cheers RA

I received this pedal as a gift, and upon trying it out I was somewhat disappointed in that it is not a very good overdrive from the factory, very little if any dirt.

I did do some research and found Joshua @ FXDoctor. I explained the situation and he was confident he could modify the pedal to have a similar gain quality to the ts9, and he sure did. The pedal is much better, I would describe the drive as a politer version of the Microtubes.

Long and short of it is if you can find one of these for like $50 or so buy it and send it to FXDoctor. You will be glad you did.

It may not necessarily sound good on its own, but in the mix it really shines. It adds just the right midrange that I was looking for. Somewhere around the 500-625hz range, I guess (My Peavey T-Max has a 625hz slider that sounds fairly similar). The T-Max also has a tube in it, if that makes a difference. I use it with the drive all the way down, as it is an always-on pedal for me. I do like the sound of the overdrive, but for some parts I need my signal clean (and I’m already good on dirt pedals). The mix knob, in addition to blending, also seems to add more mids as it is turned up. This must be why the mix and drive knob interact with each other in different ways. I’ve been liking it at noon, as at full it seems just a bit too honky. Even though it doesn’t have any low end loss with the low knob at noon, I’ve found myself cranking the lows because the lows/low mids added are very tight. I also crank the highs, because they add just a nice bit of high end clank. If this pedal doesn’t help you nail the Geezer Butler sound, it will at least get you a lot closer. I decided to finally get this despite some of the naysayers here on TB, and it paid off.