Vintage Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9 vs TS10

Vintage, Ibanez, Tube Screamer, TS9, vs TS10,
Fender, Stratocaster, Vox AC30

[bloozedaddy]

I think the green paint on the TS 10 is just a little more opaque....yet lucid.

[jazzguitarman]

I bought my TS10 new in 1986 for $59! I still have it and use it set to on all the time. I set the drive to 2 and the level all the way up. It really warms up the clean sound and if you dig in you get some hair. I am shocked by how much they cost now but it is my favorite pedal and I'll never sell it.

[enielsenvideos]

I bought a TS10 for six bucks at a thrift store.

[lexist]

Part tolerance plays a big role in the differing sounds. They can be set the same but the values could be off by a wide margin. Wampler has a great video explaining this.

[renodavid]

Interesting. I have a TS10 and I love it, but I’m not hearing a significant difference here. The 9 might be a little edgier, which isn’t my preference, but, really, they are soooo close.

[joeyabdrahman]

Ts-10 got that brownsound midrange.. I own all of the Ts series, but for some reason Ts10 are my favourite.

[JeighNeither]

There is more than "a tiny" difference to me; I'm an audio engineer, but anyone can train their ear to hear frequency better as long as they have adequate hearing. The TS10 is what's known as "punchy", meaning it's heavy in the mid-frequency range. I don't want to be cliché, but this is a better player for blues artists, because the midrange is more pronounced, & most blues playing is in that middle frequency area, between the 5th & 12th fret. So you can listen to that when trying to differentiate between the two pedals, but I think a better example comes from the TS-9 side. Here the spectrum is almost broken in two, with the mids being ignored & the high's & lows being pulled up. Think Metallica "And Justice For All". That's known as a scooped EQ, because all the mids have been "scooped" out.

You can't really go listen to this again & think that you can hear it now tho. You might be able to, but because you've just read this, the power of suggestion alone can influence your hearing. Sleep on it, & come back. Hearing is one the worst of the senses for that. We can be lead to believe we hear all sorts of things...especially in the dark haha.

[jordanschulz]

TS10 for me. The difference was in the midrange and was subtle, but that TS9 had slightly more upper mids that gave it a harder sound. The TS10 was flatter and more pleasing. Whether that’s just these two particular pedals and component tolerance/drift who can say?

[kookoogearkook]

To my ears the Ts9 wins. Both sound great though.

[robertross]

The reason many of us did not buy the TS10 was simple. The plastic stress points were plastic. As I had and still have an original 808, then the TS9, the build quality was a considerable downgrade in the TS10. This also why they are relatively rare now--the internal switch often failed or broke. The electronics were cheaper. It would have be to a substantial difference in sound, and it never was. No way these pedals are now are or ever were worth more than $150.

[Rickholly]

Good review. I have both pedals and I use to use them a lot together with the TS-9 set about 1:00 on the drive into the TS-10 set almost full at 4:00-5:00. It is great for sustain and power. I used the TS-9 for chunky rhythm and then kicked on the TS-10 at the same time for leads adjusting the gain so I also got a volume boost on leads. I now use a VOX VT series modeling amp so I have given up the pedals but your video reminds me how much I miss using these pedals. Time to rethink.

[marc-olivierjohnson]

Weird the TS10 was at the time an affordable pedal compared to the ts9 but i much prefer the TS10...its got more harmonics..it'll really wake up an amp when playing strat on neck pickup playing jimi SRV stuff

[Phishboy]

These pedals go hand in hand when stacked.

[bashfulbrother]

I have both and I have to say that I prefer the 9 to the 10.

[wimjbakker]

The construction of the input and output of the TS9 is more robust. They are attached to the housing with nuts.

[collectoreffectors]

At low gain settings they were almost identical. At full gain, the TS-10 felt smoother and more compressed which I liked. Virtually identical sounding, though. You get almost as big a difference between two of the same type of pedal just with differences in tolerances within the same batch.

[TGregers]

TS9 is more clear, warm and punchy. I prefer that.

[ricky]

the bbe green screamer sounds like the ts 10 with nice smooth mids, its been discontinued for a while but you can still get one for less than $100. if you like the ts10 i would get the green screamer. My green screamer is going to stay on my pedal board forever, it is an unsung hero of the screamers

[WilmarBoer]

Is there anything known about circuit differences between the two? To my ears there's a minimal difference but the TS10 sounds a bit fuller. More like a buffer difference than actual circuit difference.

[richardegmontbade]

Picked up an old Teisco Amplifier today and the owner gave me a TS10 as a gift, because the Teisco was in an unexpected bad shape. Didn't know what I got until now