Super Tube Screamer?

[phillip]

Has anyone built or owned a Super Tube Screamer?  It looks like a pretty interesting circuit, but the question is...is it worth building over a regular TS9?

If it is...maybe we could convince the Tonepad guys to make a PCB layout for the STS  They're the only two that I know who could make the board layout small enough to fit inside a Hammond B box.

TIA!
Phillip

[TheBigMan]

I have an ST-9 Super Tube Screamer.  Personally I do like it more than a regular tube screamer, and I am a big fan of them as well.  I think it's probably worth someone trying it, the ST-9 is second only to the OD-9 in terms of rarity AFAIK.

I think the ST-9 sounds a bit fuller and grittier than the stock TS-9.  I'm curious about modding the filter in the clipping section for more bass/distortion would do with the mid boost control, but on the other hand I really like the stock sound of the pedal.

[Ed G.]

Don't know about the super tube screamer, but my friend/luthier Gerard Melancon (www.melanconguitars.com) (How's that for a shameless plug?) Has got a STL, I think, it's just called a Super Tube. It's got a lot more sustain than the tube screamer.

[Mark Hammer]

The Ibanez "Supertube" schem I have, drawn by a Keith Gwin (thanks, Keith!), and dated late 1999, shows the identical gain structure to a TS-9/5/10/808.  The only thing that is noticeably different between it and a TS-9 is the insertion of the resonant filter stage between the clipping stage and the usual 1k/.22uf lowpass stage.  This should not affect the clipping in any appreciable way (except to EQ it a bit post-clip), nor should it impact a great deal on the volume level.

You will note that the earliest MAXON versions of the TS reversed the order of the clipping and tone-control stages, such that the tone control stage came before the clipping.  Given that the additional stage in the Supertube permits selective emphasis, I'm wondering if there is any utility to moving it *ahead* of the clipping stage, and then following the clipping stage with the usual tone-control stage.

[Darren N]

Filter before clipping stage = super tube screamer ST9
Filter after clipping stage = super tube STL

On the ST9 it's a very subtle effect, I have a feeling the pedal is so rare because the 'mid boost' control doesn't do very much, and maybe it was discontinued early in production.

The effect is quite pronounced on the STL (as anyone who's ever played with wah/distortion order should be able to guess). Not entirely sure that I like it but it does give a wide variation in tones.

Get your hands on a couple of dual gang pots and some switches and make a super super tube screamer, I dare ya.

[Mark Hammer]

Thanks, Darren.  That's a useful tidbit and something I was unaware of.  The differences between the ST9 and STL carry on the dialogue RG Keen and I have been having about pre and post-clip EQ for the last 13 years or so.

This is entirely analogous to the fuzz->wah vs wah->fuzz distinction.  The major difference, of course, is that the nature of the filtering in a wah drastically revoices the clipping, whereas the resonant boost in the ST9 is probably just enough to add coloration but not radical revoicing.

I actually have a couple of little dual-ganged 20k slider pots I picked up somewhere long ago.  Might be a nice use for them.  For that matter, the resonant filter stage is simple enough to plug in just about anywhere in a variety of op-amp-based circuits.