It's worth pointing out that quality components often make the biggest difference between a great-sounding pedal, and a bad one. One of the earliest Tube Screamer clones. If you have a boutique pedal using these ingredients, then you're using a Tube Screamer clone. Next mix it with transistor buffers at both the input and output and bake it with a IC chip that produces symmetrical clipping of the input waveform. So what are the ingredients in a Tube Screamer that so many pedals copy? Well, first take light-to-medium overdrive and add electronic field-effect (FET) bypass switching.

Even if you've never owned a Tube Screamer, there's a good chance that one of your current overdrive pedals is just a glorified rip-off of the TS9. Sure, pedals like the Boss DS-1, Electro Harmonix Big Muff, Crybaby Wah pedal, and the MXR Phase 90 are popular, but are any of them as recognizable as the Tube Screamer? And for that matter, is there any pedal's circuit that has been copied more than the Tube Screamer? It really isn't that surprising that it's often referred to as the 'most copied pedal' of all time. A quick google search will show that for every 'Top 10' list of effects pedals, it's usually included. The Ibanez Tube Screamer is arguably one of the most popular guitar effects pedals ever made. One of the Most Copied Pedals of All Time

Think about this for a second: have you ever owned a Tube Screamer? If not, then how many of your guitar-playing friends have? Why does it seem like everyone you know that plays guitar has owned one of these at some point? Let's dive into its history and figure that out.

Ibanez ts9 tube screamer serial number