TS 808 and TS 9 differences...2 resistors?

[jimilee]

I've been obsessed with tube screamer history and research, five-watt world history, and the pedal movie are great watches. From what I"ve been able to find, the only differences between the two come down to 2 resistors and that's it. Looking at the greenbean schematic, it looks like R15 would be changed to a 470r, and R16 would be changed to 100k. Can someone confirm this? This seems unnecessarily silly.

[JackSkellington]

I can confirm that, following the schematics we can find.
Replacing those two resistors we can't change too much the sound. Actually, we can say that there's no audible difference between a TS9 and a TS808, except the tolerance of the parts, especially the pots because the higher tolerance.
I saw sometime someone to add, on its Tube Screamer clone, a toggle switch to pass from TS9 to TS808.

But, I have to add something about the two resistors. There's no important difference in the effect schematic about gain and equalizing, theorically. But changing those resistors I think that the output impedance change, this could make the amp, or the pedals after the TS, sounds a bit different.

And we can't forget that the TS9 has a different switching system that exclude the "driving parts" leaving the input and output buffers always on. (The TS808 is simply true bypass).
I don't know if that switch system is totally transparent, maybe it is, so the only difference is just that two resistors, that change the output impedance.

I wait some others technical opinions about this.

[jimilee]

I agree, that there is no audible difference, I just wanted a second opinion set of eyes. I was looking for a bit more drive, but it looks to be negligible. I guess it's more of a marketing thing maybe. I was looking over the greenbean, the madbean version has mods for more drive. I'm seemingly obsessed with distortion pedals right now, and I haven't found "that sound" just yet. I think part of the equation is, I haven't tried higher output pickups yet.

[Aentons]

I agree, that there is no audible difference, I just wanted a second opinion set of eyes. I was looking for a bit more drive, but it looks to be negligible. I guess it's more of a marketing thing maybe. I was looking over the greenbean, the madbean version has mods for more drive. I'm seemingly obsessed with distortion pedals right now, and I haven't found "that sound" just yet. I think part of the equation is, I haven't tried higher output pickups yet.

If you are looking for a higher gain tube screamer then try a super metal, they are killer. I wish someone made a board of the older one but I haven't been able to find anything other than a schematic

[thesmokingman]

some also argue that there some difference in clipping diodes (ma150/1s1588/1n914/1n4148) but we're talking a few hundred mV of Vf or some odd claim of being warmer/harsher etc ... same thing for the small amount of series resistance before the op amp in the ts-10 ...