What are your favourite tube screamer mods?

neiltheseal

Active member
Hey everyone

I asked a similar question regarding Blues Breaker mods and got some great suggestions. I eventually made an amazing double Blues Breaker clone that I really should post here...

....anyway, I'd like to make a Tubescreamer circuit with ALL OF THE MODS. I want to make a PCB that I can tweak to make the best sound ever and I figured this was the right place to ask.

So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks in advance!
 
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I always liked the SD1 asym clipping more, because of the fuller sound the odd harmonics give, and the dynamic response feels to me like having two pedals with different diode thresholds running in parallel. So I would suggest that (lots of pedals like the Timmy do this)
 
I‘d say a switchable Bass and a Clipping switch (maybe like the Aion Stratus). I also like the variable Mid boost of the Ibanez ST-9 and the STL (like the Aion Cirrus). They have good writeups of the mods in both Build Docs.
 
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the best TS mod is to put it in a drawer and forget ab it…… someone was going to say something to that effect, thought I’d beat them to it. But I have to agree with Buddy, build the frost drive to the sherbert specs you won’t be disappointed.
 
In terms of tweakability, the Frost Drive is probably the most versatile TS I've ever seen or used. If you'd like you can mod it to add a diode clipper switch externally.
+1
cant wait to build this one. pretty keen to get hold of those new tweakit adaptors so i can use external trimpots for the hi cut + lo cut controls
 
Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'm going to have to sit on this and think about what to do but I like the idea of incorporating all of the mods.

I'm thinking I will steal the palisades idea with the variable gain and bandwith but add the following:
  • Charge pump on a switch
  • boost on a switch
  • order switcher for boost
  • Mids control like on the frost drive
  • Symmetrical and asymmetrical clipping as well as no clipping option
  • Might as well steal the hicut/locut ideas from the frost drive.
Will probably need to put this in a 1590xx.

I already have an ST-9 clone and a Plumes. I have no Idea why I want to make one of these, but I think I will anyway.
 
I use a TS for tightening high gain tones with TS drive at minimum so IME tweaking the bandwidth/low cut and bright/hi cut caps were the most important. For diodes I find that the speed at which diodes open/close and overall forward voltage matter more than asymmetry but I mostly just wanted more headroom given my use case. Currently using back to back mosfets but I'd want to try back to back zeners at 18v, or a crapload of schottkys in series at some point.
 
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