Why the Tube Screamer hate?

[EliasMooseblaster]

I was searching YouTube for info on a (different) overdrive pedal, when one particular search revealed a rabbit hole full of people lining up to bash Tube Screamers - "Why Tube Screamers SUCK", "Why you should ditch your Tube Screamer", and so on. Really balanced, diplomatic titles, and all that.

 

Is this a thing? I obviously don't expect everyone to like the same OD pedals I do, but I was always under the impression they were quite ubiquitous, pretty inoffensive, and generally accepted to be something you bought if you wanted to play Blues.

 

Or is this a case of people just trying to get some video views out of attention-seeking titles? (I'm sure I heard somewhere that Rhett Shull isn't keen on TS9s, so I could believe some people might be trying to capitalise on that...)

[ezbass]

From what I understand, if you’re using a Strat type guitar, into a Fender type amp (SRV, etc), Tubescreamers are pretty much a go to. However, if you’re using a Humbucker equipped guitar into something like a Marshall (Satriani for example), the EQ bump from a TS isn’t where you want it, you’re probably better off with something like a Boss OD1. All depends on what tone you’re going for.

[Crusoe]

Probably just click bait and people trying to be different. I'd say that if you had chosen a different video the algorithm would have taken you down a rabbit hole of how brilliant Tube Screamers are and how everyone should have one on their pedal board, even if they don't have a pedal board. Or play guitar.

[EliasMooseblaster]

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

From what I understand, if you’re using a Strat type guitar, into a Fender type amp (SRV, etc), Tubescreamers are pretty much a go to. However, if you’re using a Humbucker equipped guitar into something like a Marshall (Satriani for example), the EQ bump from a TS isn’t where you want it, you’re probably better off with something like a Boss OD1. All depends on what tone you’re going for.

I agree entirely: if I put my TS between my Tele and Fender-style amp, it's exactly the tone I want. But my SG pairs better with a Marshall-style amp, and a (recently acquired) Dumble-style OD suits that signal chain much better!

[EliasMooseblaster]

1 hour ago, Crusoe said:

Probably just click bait and people trying to be different. I'd say that if you had chosen a different video the algorithm would have taken you down a rabbit hole of how brilliant Tube Screamers are and how everyone should have one on their pedal board, even if they don't have a pedal board. Or play guitar.

Yeah, I didn't bother to watch any of the videos YT suggested (it wasn't what I'd been looking for, after all), but I strongly suspect you're right: most of them probably don't even dislike Tube Screamers that strongly and are just playing up their opinions for clicks.

[ezbass]

17 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

I'm sure I heard somewhere that Rhett Shull isn't keen on TS9s

 

3 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Yeah, I didn't bother to watch any of the videos YT suggested (it wasn't what I'd been looking for, after all), but I strongly suspect you're right: most of them probably don't even dislike Tube Screamers that strongly and are just playing up their opinions for clicks.

Rhett's more of a 'Gibson' type tone player, thus his antipathy towards the TS. However, one of his YT buddies was determined to convert him and brought round a plethora of TSs and Rhett actually found a couple he liked and, IIRC, one of those being a bass TS.

 

 

[EliasMooseblaster]

6 hours ago, ezbass said:

 

Rhett's more of a 'Gibson' type tone player, thus his antipathy towards the TS. However, one of his YT buddies was determined to convert him and brought round a plethora of TSs and Rhett actually found a couple he liked and, IIRC, one of those being a bass TS.

 

Ahhhh, that would make sense. Funny you should mention the bass Tubescreamer - as someone who mainly played bass for the longest time, I got very excited when I found out Ibanez had released a TS-9B. I've never found another bass OD quite like it.

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 04/03/2026 at 15:04, ezbass said:

 

Rhett's more of a 'Gibson' type tone player, thus his antipathy towards the TS. However, one of his YT buddies was determined to convert him and brought round a plethora of TSs and Rhett actually found a couple he liked and, IIRC, one of those being a bass TS.

 

 

Saw this a while back. IIRC, one of his favourites was the Soundtank one. I remember those Soundtanks from the 90s. Budget range of pedals with a plastic body, but the quality of the sound was well above what I'd have expected. I could be tempted if they released a new version of that pedal in a metal housing. 

As to the general point, well... it's the same old cycle. Something gets hyped up for a while, then there's a backlash. TS9s, Klon Klones, the Bad Monkey.... 

Funnily enough, for all the Bad Monkey got hyped for a while after someone did a youtube about it being a Klon Centaur soundalike, it was always (quite obviously - come on, *that* green??) a TS9 clone. 

Funnily enough, the hype around the original Bad Monkey has now led to the DOD 'Badder Monkey', a sequel / reissue of sorts: 

 

Bit more flexible / variable than the original. More expensive, too - I see this selling at over a ton, whereas the original was about £40 back in the day. Adjusted for inflation, that £40 would be +/-£70 today. 

I've lost interest in a lot of effects over the years myself. I have a decent phaser and a few others (like the Boss BF3) I probably won't use again but hang onto just in case. All I really feel the need of these days is a decent tube-sounding edge of break-up overdrive, tremolo, reverb, slap-back echo. Maybe a Fuzz. Though that said, I've amassed a few variations on each of these. The collector impulse is to blame. But truth be told, all I look for in a pedal these days is durability plus reliability. Everything beyond that is purely subjective. I enjoy finding than in a £30 pedal probably more than in one at four or five times the price.