Tube Screamers and Their Clones

So. The whole Bad Monkey thing lately. This post is not about that. It's about Tube Screamers in general. Sort of.

The first drive-ish pedal I ever bought was a DS-1. I bought waaaaay back when. I had just bought my first electric after playing only acoustic for 15 years or so. Figured I needed a pedal to go with it. Ebay was all the rage and the newest way to get cool stuff cheap, so I hit Ebay and found the cheapest drive pedal I could find. Kept it for a long time. Not really sure what happened to it. I don't remember selling it or trading it off or anything, but I have not idea when or where I got rid of it, and it's not in any of my stuff anymore.

6 or 8 years later, I bought my first OD pedal that I figured I would use. It was a Visual Sound Route 66. The one with the compressor on one side and the drive on the other. I bought it because there was a guitar player I liked that swore by that compressor (the single pedal), so I figured it would have to be good if it had a drive attached. So I bought it.

Always liked the drive side. At the time, I didn't know that it had been modeled after the TS808. It was the only drive pedal I had for several years. Then, one year when we were on vacation, I happened into a music store and spent waaaaay too much time talking to the staff and playing with stuff in their shop. It was a mom and pop in nowheresville, so I felt like I owed it to them to buy something before I left. So I paid too much for a TS9. It had a little bit different character than the Route 66, but it did the same thing. It quickly became my favorite.

Sitting in the quiet of my little music room, I think I can hear the difference in a TS9 and a TS808, but, truthfully, they do the same thing, and I'm not sure I could hear the difference in a crowded room. So, at some point, I started into one of those collect-them-all phases.

At some point, in addition to the actual green Ibanez Tube Screamers, I have picked up (in no particular order):

• Digitech Bad Monkey
• Danelectro Texas Pride
• EHX East River
• Visual Sound Route 808
• Behringer TO800
• A couple of Green Rhino copies (which I hear is actually a TS-type pedal)
• Several cheap pedals on Amazon (whose names and brands I've forgotten) that were advertised as being TS-type pedals.

After trying all those different TS-type pedals, I still believe that I like the sound of the TS9 better than the TS808. I'm not sure exactly what I'm hearing that makes me think that, but I do. All of the TS-type pedals made by everyone else are modeled off the TS808. I've, also, never tried a TS10 to see how it compares.

Here's how I would rank them at the moment from my favorite to least favorite. Also, the ones that I own are prefaced with an "o-" and the ones I no longer have are prefaced with a "g-". The ones actually on my current boards also have a "b" added to the preface.

1. o-Ibanez TS9
2. ob-Visual Sound Route 808/Route66 OD/compressor (I have both of these. The R808 is the one on my current board.)
3. o-ElectroHarmonix East River Drive
4. ob-Tone City Durple (I've been told this is one of the Green Rhino copies.)
5. o-Love Pedal Kalamazoo (A pedal I've been told was based on a TS but I don't really know for sure.)
6. o-Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini
7. g-Digitech Bad Monkey
8. o-Danelectro Texas Pride (I honestly haven't played with this one enough to have a good opinion on it.)
9. g-Behringer TO800 (surprisingly nice sounding pedal for its price point.)
10. g-The cheap ones off Amazon. Otherwise I would remember the names and brands, but don't really care enough to look them up at the moment.

I've only ever come across a couple of players that use OD pedals that don't like TS or have never used them. I think they're a pretty universal pedal that we have all used at some point. If not an actual Tube Screamer, we've all used a pedal based on them. 

So what's your favorite TS-type pedal?