Ibanez TS-7

Easy to use if you've ever used any pedal. Push-button, flip-up battery access is a snap, with no cover to fall off and be lost. A second stomp switch in place of the small, non-footswitchable MODE slider switch (which toggles between the "TS9" and "HOT" switches) would have been nice, but for the money it's a logical corner to have cut. Among the possible adjustments I'd want to make mid-song, they chose the right one to leave out, based on the available real estate.
The main on/off switch engages positively, with no annoying "pop" as you step on the switch.
The screened-on characters identifying various knobs and switches couls be a bit more bold, for those of us who struggle in low light. I ended up labeling the jacks IN and OUT in Sharpie on the top of the unit. That's a minor niggle, and has more to do with my eyes than with any design deficiency.

I don't use pedals much; a Strat with hot single coils into a Princeton Reverb or Koch Studiotone gives me most of what I want. I use the TS7 to boost the Princeton's natural overdrive on solos.
I set the tone to flat (or as close as possible -- there is no center-detented "bypass" position in the pot) with the drive set a little below half, and the level at whatever setting it needs to give me a volume boost which won't be too over-the-top.
Set this way, I get a pretty smooth overdrive, with not too much midrange honk, which thickens things just enough to cut through pretty nicely in a standard 4-piece setup.
I have only used the hot mode a couple of times. It is more forward-sounding, a little rougher. I find it useful when I want to hold long, sustained notes until they swell to the edge of feedback --think Robin Trower.

I have owned it for 6 or 7 years. It's seen relatively light duty, and has never been dropped or manhandled. Given all of that, the switches still work like new, the pots aren't scratchy, and it's all in one piece. The case feels like pot metal (thick but relatively light.) Unless you were to drop it from a considerable height onto a hard surface, it would probably not suffer badly, especially if you had the pots tucked into their recessed / hidden (ToneLok) position at the time.

It keeps working; the best customer service experience is the one you never have. No rating.

I play straightforward blues-based rock, with few effects and little trickery. I bought this on the day of one of my highly-infrequent gigs, to replace an ancient DOD-55 which was just too aggressive and raunchy for the band I was subbing for. It worked well that night, and every time I've used it since.
I don't know what a real TS9 sounds like, having never used one. I'm pleasantly surprised in reading the other posts that there's little evidence of "Real TS9" versus "Cheapo TS7" snobbery afoot. People are listening with their ears, not with their preconception that only a re-issue or a $225 boutique pedal will afford jeans-creaming tone. Whether the TS7 will in fact bring about creamage is a matter of personal opinion. I do know that I like the type of boost the TS7 gives me. This little non-snob box is a well-executed bargain.

this thing is stupid easy to use. drive, tone, level knobs which all control what they're supposed to, and a TS-9/Hot switch, the latter half giving a significant mid boost to your tone. the best feature is that you can lock the knobs into place by pressing them into the box itself; you never lose your setting. ever.

I run this as follows: fender strat (modded) or fender baja tele > voodoo lab proctavia > dunlop cry baby wah > boss blues driver > TS-7 > carl martin classic chorus > carl martin red repeat > fender blues deluxe tweed reissue. this thing sounds fantastic. i've got it on TS-9 mode, with drive at about 11 o'clock, tone at 12 o'clock, level at 1 o'clock or so. it's a warm lush tone which pushes my tubes nicely, but it sounds best when kicked in the balls by my blues driver, which i use as a tone boost with slight gain. the TS-7 lives up to its namesake and really screams. and consider how cheap it was, it gets top marks.

it's weird; this thing, when not stomped on hard enough (it seems) doesn't turn on. the light flickers for a second, but the effect doesn't engage. as i say, but stomping hard on it, i seem to negate the problem; it is kinda annoying, however it has never failed me in a clutch situation

never tried dealing with the find folks at ibanez

i play mostly blues and blues inspired rock. i do funk, jazz, improv, open to doing anything. the TS-7 has been in my chain for a while and it isn't going anywhere. the tone is beefy, ballsy, but allows me to hit that SRV sound i'm generally trying to emulate. i would probably replace if stolen, since i've spent enough money on other things that a TS-9 seems like a waste of money.

i know everybody who digs the blues scene has a tubescreamer, or has had one, but it's for a reason: they kick ass. if you're reading these reviews thinking of buying one, stop doing thusly, and buy one already!

Quite easy to use, I am still unsure why the knobs are set up like they are, but they are. I guess it would be better if you could switchh tfrom the ts-9 to the harsher "hot " mode with your foot. That would be useful.

It models a ts-9 well, and the distortion on the hot channel is a bit full of midrange, but it does not sound like a solid state crappy amp, so this is a giant plus.

I bought it used but it seems reliable enough, as tough as a boss pedal for sure.

I own a Boss DS-1, a TS-9, a danelectro daddy-o, a hm-zone 2 and various other effect for distortion. My main amps are a vox valvetronix ad-120 vt and a Magatone m-15a 65 watt vintage all tube. On my pedal board is the Ds-1 and ts-9. I use them separate and together for leads. This pedal faithfully recreates the ts-9 sound and I like the added distortion of the hot mode. I couldn't resist buying it for 20 dollars. It is really worth this price, and IF my ts-9 was gone I would throw this on the pedal board without reservation. There are a lot of nice intricacies here- the level knob, teh tone and how it interplays with the tubes.

Bottom line, decent analog sounding pedal.

Bought this pedal because it seemed pretty straight forward, 3 knobs nothing hard. Manual was included but not need it, it is one page of common sense in x number of languages.

I have a pedal board full of stuff (ie. a crybaby, big muff, whammy pedal, noise gate, talkbox adnauseum) got this pedal for a Crate VTX^% 50 watt 1x12 with a 3 button switch,3 channels and built in effects ( reverb, delay, auto wah, toch wah, phaser etc.) use the pedal board on a Vox AC30 and a Fender "Frankenstein" amp. Good sound quality with the VTX65, enhances the amps effects nicely, using an Epi LP Standard, 2 Carlson Tele copies, a 335 copy and a couple of vintage Gibson Lp Standards. Clean is clean, distortion is off the chain

have used it without back up no problem, metal casing and adapter seem very road worthy.

Haven't needed it.

A keeper,. Great with the great amp, haven't tried it with the others(have an older Tubescreamer for them). Would recommend this for anyone, especially a newbie because of price, sound quality and ease of use.

Very easy to use if you are familiar with the TS-9.

I use it with a couple of differten tube amps; Fender musicmaster, Crate v5, and Pignose g40v. I play mainly strat, sometimes tele or SG. This is a very nice sounding box.

Seems rugged, have had no trouble, so kinda hard to rate.

Can't comment, never used.

Ok, this is my bottom line. DO NOT waste your money on a "brown modded" ts9. I challenge anyone out there to differentiate between this pedal and the ts9. I know we all like the classics, but as one reviewer said, Ibanez knows what they are doing. And the price of this pedal is unbeatable. Spend your money on this because it is well worth it.

Very simple to use...level gain and tone (like the TS 9) and one switch to the "hot" mode.

GREAT! I try it with Fender Stratocaster Reissue and Fender Stratocaster '79 plugged into my Fender Hot Rod Deville and Fender Twin amp...It sound very good,natural and sweet like the TS 9.
Tone level and drive are very sensitive and realy changes your sound.
I lkie also the "hot" mod,it sound similar to the Ibanez Tube King.
IT' really a very good pedal!

I'm a professional guitar player and i love tubescreamer TS 9 and TUBEKING since 1997. I have many other overdrive and distortion pedal (boss od-3, boss ds-1, boss sd-1,boss bd-2).
IBANEZ TS 7 it's very good pedal,great sound and small price ( i've payed only 30 $ on ebay!!!).

It's no problem to turn the 3 buttons in the wished position and the the big kick-switch tight enough to prevent a change by accident

I play a Fender Stratocaster with seymour duncan pic ups and an Epiphone Les Paul into a Fender Blues Deville 4x10.

The TS offers a powerful sound especially in addition to the standard overdrive of my amplifier. I even contemplate buying a second one because i like the different sounds it makes when it's used in front of and after the preamp.
If you push the tone level very high or low it really changes extreme while it is pretty constant in the middle region.
In my opinion it is perfect in conjunction with amps which doesn't have a high overdrive or to give a warm tube crunch.

never had problems very robust

I would recommend it to players who like blues and rock

Very straight forward and most settings make a good sound.

Its been debated already. I can't comment on on how "original" it is. Last time I played an original ts9 was when they were new 20 years ago. I can say it sounds great specially compared to my boss df-1 super dist and feedback. The boss is a toy by comparison. I'm not fooled into thinking I have a tube amp but the ts-7 is a well voiced pedal. I bought this as an inexpensive pedal that I could modify but after playing it I'm going to hold off any changes. I'll modify the boss instead. If I hurt it there's no loss.

It seems to be built like a tank. Its obviously metal and should last a long time. I want to comment on something I haven't seen mentioned here. I opened my ts-7 up and looked inside. It has the famed JRC4558 chip although it makes sense that the diodes that do the clipping may make the most difference in the sound. As I dug in I was amazed at the build quality. 4 or 5 component boards and very hight quality wiring all in detachable harnesses. The 1/4" jacks are not connected to the metal chassis but to metal brackets inside that are screwed to the chassis. Frankly it looked over engineered and overly complicated to build but its so reasonably priced I must assume it was designed for automated assembly. Its not hard to get into. I see they could have built it with a single pc board by mounting all jacks and pots on the board but that always causes broken solder joints. I took it half apart and it went well. Very high quality but it does use self tapping screws into the chassis so if you were to take it apart too many times the screw holes would likely strip out. Also the push-in pots are a great gimmick. Possibly useful but certainly more costly than simpler ones.
The insides may not matter to most users but there are many who may want to modify their ts-7 into an 808 or ts-9. There are many hotrod tips on the internet and the price makes it affordable to play with.

If they make it work this well and this solid then it seems their job is done.

I really have not used it enough as guitar effect but its great as a science experiment.

Easy, 3 knobs and a switch. Manual I found useful, but didn't really need.

Sonic revelation!

I play through a multitude of effects into a Laney VC15. I use this to take the overdrive of the amp into proper distortion, and this is does perfectly.

I don't give two shits whether it sounds like a 'Proper' TS-9, it sounds good to me.

Incidently, I was always under the impression that Tubescreamers were called thusly because they were supposed to be used to boost tube amps. I've seen so many poor reviews of this good product from ignorant fools who use it as a standalone distortion pedal on thier solid state amps, and who then complain when it sounds like shit. Think people!

Only had it a week, but have already fallen in love. I had the FZ-7 for months without fail, and have had the PM-7 for a while now too.

I suspect this TS-7 is no different.

So many people complain about the small internal switch and how it will fail. Has it failed? No. So shush.

The manual it came with had loads of languages, told what everything did, and gave a few suggested settings. I like the latter.

Never dealt with Ibanez, but I hear they don't like responding to enquiries...

This is a great pedal, and for what I use it for, it does well. I paid just ??35 for it, but would have paid twice as much if I had to. Luckily, I didn't need to.

very simple pedal... just remember that the "tone" knob makes a huge difference depending on where your drive and volume setting are set.

the "hot" switch is very nice when shifting into leads... just wish you could activate it by foot... anyway you look at it, that little switch is not easy to use when playing live. taking off 2 points for that.

this pedal can dial in very nice blues (from smooth to gritty) and can also dial in very nice overdriven rock and roll. the lead tones from this pedal are exceptionally huge and violin like, if set up right with some volume going on, via a tube amp, and a smidgen of delay behind it.

while i continue to perform side by side comparisons with the ts-7 and my old RAT, the TS-7 seems to have the lead spot in my chain and gets used the most. the RAT is very edgy and will not provide the smoother bluesy tones of the TS-7 quite as well (but close).

seems to be fine in the dependability department, mine is somewhere around 2-3 years old now with no issues. yes it is a gig worthy piece of equipment... but then so are most pedals on the market today. so since this one is built stoutly and came to me for only $39 brand new, i'm gonna give it a 10 here.

i have no idea... i have never dealt with the company.

rock and roll mainly... improvised with blues and my own styles. i'm 51 and have been playing since i was 8-9 but i should be a much better player than i am.. i have owned a lot of gear in my many years of playing, but this pedal only plays through my G&L ASAT and my 1974 Music Man 112/65 amp. if stolen i'd probably buy another or the TS-9(???). i would definitely consider getting one that has been professionally modded as well. if the modded TS-7 sounds any better than it already sounds out of the box from ibanez... that would be pretty darn sweet.

Very easy.

Tube screamers aren't for everyone. They reproduce the sounds of the early 70's natural overdrive tube amps. Compared to the TS-9 reissue, in standard mode it is identical in sound. I paired both up and could not find a different tone between the two on many configurations of settings. My opinion is if you want a TS-9 and don't want to pay 3X the price, get the TS-7. The added HOT mode gives it one more feature the TS-9 doesn't have. It basically converts the petal to a higher distortion that you may or may not like. But there's no rule saying you have to use it. Is there?

I bought mine as a store demo with the battery door not holding and the rubber backing missing, but othwise, just fine. I paid $25 for it 2 yrs ago. I spent $.45 on some rubber "feet" at a hardware store and rigged the battery door so that it appears without any defect by stuffing an 0-ring inside the latch channel. It has still operated perfectly for me all this time. I then sold my TS-9 on ebay for $80!
(Retail new was $99)

To sum it up, get it if you want a TS-9 and want to save a lttle dough.

ez to use only 3 knobs and switch so not much tweaking to do

not bad when i first tried it but after awhile it wasnt what I was looking for, a bit muddy or muffly or flabby or somthing but this pedal is better than the Fuzz and de7 tonelock pedals so that is saying alot and not much at the same time...

Telecaster, Epiphone sheraton 2, Fender deville 212, various other pedals...

didnt have it long enough to tell but it seemed built like other stomp boxes that use metal like boss or Dod etc.

just wanted to try it out to be honest and didnt like it after about an hour of playing it but at first it seemed like good distortion so I recommend this pedal for people on a budget who need an overdrive dirt pedal and cant find anything better, the tone lock is cool too, this pedal had velcro on the bottom of it when i got it from pawn shop so someone -i dont know who- thought it well enough to keep for awhile before giving it up i guess so...

real easy to figure out. i always start all my pedals off at the dummy setting of everything at 12 o'clock and tweak from there. it's not very trebly but more so than a sd-1. i like a harsh overdrive for some parts, kinda like a weakened distortion pedal, this works very very well. there is a switch to change from the ts-9 and hot mode. that's really it.

guitarists have been using tube screamers for quite a while now. i couldn't begin to list how many this and the 5 series ts don't get very much praise but for the price compared to a ts-9 or ts-808 (easily double if not triple the ts-7's price) it does a good job. i use ibanez rg's and fender mustang/jag-stangs into a fender twin and this sounds nice. i haven't tried to have it overdrive a dirty amp as my amp is ridiculously clean. not very noisy on the ts-9 setting, it does make some feedback when on the hot setting.

the tone-lock series seems to be a very dependable series of pedals. doesn't need a back up

never dealt with em

great pedal, not as amazing as the originals but for the money it's a great overdrive

3 knobs,a mode switch and the pedal its self.In and out jack.If you need that manuel............I'm very sorry.lol

Well I use it as a clean boost for my Silver Jubilee Marshall.I run it on TS-9 setting with the distortion completly off.I set the tone to match my amps natural tone(well as close as can be)then boost it a hair for more cut.And I run the leval about 6.5.Just a volume sustain boost realy.
The pedal sounds pretty decent for a $60 pedal.Nothing to rave about but I compared it in the store against a Boss DS-1 which is buzzy evan with the dist OFF and a Digitech Bad Monkey which was pretty nice,but the Tone-Lok TS was smoother for lead work.The Tubescreamers are nice but they do loss a little body and add a mid hump to your tone when on.Great for leads but a hair narrow and middy for rythm work.Not bad for a lead boost its pretty cool.But I'd like to try one of those new boost only clean boost pedals Duncan's pickup booster or Keeley's Katana boost.Good lead pedal.BTW my TS-7 is pretty good as far as noise so I'd say its studio worthy.

Well I'd baby it its a cheap pedal with flimsy plastic knobs.I know the lock that holds the pedal down as a battery release,broke on another one I saw.Baby it and it should be fine no stomping the pedal or trying to turn the knobs mid song with your foot they'll prolly break off.

N/A

OK pedal.Good deal if you want a lead boost with some mids for a creamy lead sound.If you want a pedal for heavy/hard rythms this won't cut it.Or if you want a pedal to duplicate your amps own tone just w/ more boost and or distortion this ain't it,it adds an inherant mid hump.
I also would look for a more durable pedal for a tour.But for clubs,bars weekend gigging it should hold up OK.

Easy? Easy. C'mon, you need fewer neurons than this thing's got knobs to use it. Oh, and a dinky little switch to go between the classic, more mellow "TS9" channel (comparable to anything between a slight peach-fuzz to a rhythm-chunk buzz on a Marshall DSL100's OD1 channel) and a "HOT" channel (sound ranging from a sufficient grind to a howling, hot solo a la above-said Marshall's OD2 channel). The switch is too small for operation from afar; if you were playing on stage (as I haven't yet) you'd literally hafta bend over and click it over to change channels. For performing, I'd suggest using it as a Clean/OD switch, or leaving it on with a little fuzz into an amp's own Clean/OD footswitch and using it as a booster on the OD channel. But the knobs are easy to use, push-in/push-out so as to keep the clumsy-footed from inadvertantly changing their sound. Drive level, Tone level, and Volume level knobs, and dinky switch: 8.

Considering a "Brown-sound" or TS808 upgrade service via eBay. Gotta look into it more. Germanium diodes? Sweet :)

Don't use weak pickups unless you want a weak sound. Here's mine:
Epiphone G400 > Vox wah-wah > Ibanez TS7 > Crate BFX-15 amp.
Sound whack? It is. The amp's a 15 watt BASS amp with built-in effects. If I EQ it right, it sounds decent, but especially benefits from a good boost in the bottom end. The effects have actually served me more as a sampler of what effects sound good for my sound. The only ones I appreciate are the Room/Hall reverbs, Delay, and Octave. The lack of a decent upper-end means my TS7's Tone is usually maxed, and without being tinny or buzzy, so I can't complain about that really.
My Epi (think Gibson '61 Reissue SG) actually has a maple (not mahogany) neck; coupled with an EMG-81 (bridge) pickup and an EMG-85 (neck) pickup, the guitar sounds much more Les-Paul like than a newer stock Epi G400 (Epiphone switched back to mahogany necks) and in general is good for Slash/Zakk Wylde sounds. Having hot, noiseless, high-output pickups really brings out the best qualities of the TS7.
I'll also use the CIT-modeled output jack of a Digitech Metal Master to EQ the sound more closely to a Marshall full-stack. Goes well placed before or after the TS7, though I rarely use the Metal Master for it's own effect anymore.
I play a lot of Led Zeppelin and other classic rock, and this pedal is perfect for that, perfect for AC/DC, and even good for some of Black Sabbath's funkier stuff like Vol. 4. On other ends of the spectrum, Rolling Stones, early The Who, The Doors, The Beatles, and other 60's bands are pretty much off-limits--wrong kind of sound; I've also gotten into Iron Maiden, Slayer, and Pantera, and this pedal doesn't sound hard or edgy enough for them, though you can elicit some NOTB/Powerslave-era Maiden sounds.
Modern bands may or may not benefit from this pedal. If you're going for a '70s classic/power/arena rock sound, great, buy this pedal and you're set. but for fuzz or harder distortion, or just something more unique like for indie or garage rock, I'd suggest looking around more.
The Drive level has great variation when you play with it and has excellent response. The Tone level knob doesn't work as great; the most variation seems to come from between the range of 9.5 and 10; it could be how hot and bright my pickups are, or it could be the fact that I only have a 15-watt bass amp, but between 0 and 9, the tone doesn't seem to do much.
But as my favorite band is Led Zeppelin, and I love to be able to recreate their sound for my own songs, I'm very pleased with this pedal and it's range of sound when you mess with the knobs: 9.

It's not as thick or heavy as a Digitech or a Boss, but no pedal has ever been made invincible. These are electronics that people are bashing in and kicking about on stage; most are built tougher than your cell phone or iPod but you should still care about them and the money you invested in them just as much. That said, I don't perform live yet, but I have gotten into jam sessions with this pedal and it's held up admirably so far. At first I was put off by how light it is, and I was almost fooled into thinking it was plastic. Compared to cars, Digis and Bosses are like Hummer H2's: big, heavy, clunky, and made unneccessarily heavy-duty. They're meant to take more abuse than they'll ever see. The Ibanez is like my trusty little Civic: it's tough enough to take everything on the road, and you can drive the damn thing into the ground for an eternity before it poops out. I've f**ked with this pedal for as long as I've had my car and neither's pooped out yet, so yay! 10!

Haven't dealt with Ibanez yet.

This pedal is great for when I wanna rip some Zeppelin or other '70s rock sounds. It's also perfect for AC/DC, '70s The Who (play Pete's first A-chord on "Don't Get Fooled Again" with a Gibson SG or Les Paul through this and you'll see what I mean), and I have fun playing Black Sabbath songs like "War Pigs" "Sweet Leaf" and "Under The Sun" through it too.
Now that I'm starting to write my own songs, I'm looking into changing the sound of the pedal a bit; there are a lot of upgrades available for it on eBay, and I'm considering one.
Reason being, I want a more original sound but without looking at pawn shops for equipment made by brands nobody's heard of. So now I want an Orange AC140 Twin-Channel head and two big amp cabs (likely Marshall 4x12s), and either a Telecaster or Stratocaster with Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio pups. Well-known equipment, but off the beaten path of bigger bands playing Marshall stacks and Les Pauls. Once I get the Orange stack, my TS7 will likely serve as a slight boost instead of being my dominant sound itself.
But until then: if anything happened, I'd replace it in a flash; I didn't really compare it because I heard it and loved it from the get-go; I picked it because it's simple and has a great sound like I was looking for; and it's more conducive to making my style of music than my Metal Master.
Can't remember what I paid, but it's been worth it.

3 Knobs. Pretty easy to figure out. Start with everything at 12 o'clock position and tweak to your liking.

I use a few different Stratocasters with a Fender Hot Rod Deville 2x12. Like most people I use it to drive the tubes for a solo.

Stock I found the sounds too gritty and too much like a distortion box. I replaced 2 resistors on the outboard pcb (100k with a 10k, and the 470ohm with a 100ohm) and the sound is much smoother and more mellow. I wasn't looking for a high gain screaming sound so if you do this mod don't expect that kind of an effect. It really smooths out the drive in my opinion and it's more of a mellow dirt sound.

Like a few others have commented, and I have to agree the tone control is really bad, but at the same time I guess that's what EQ pedals are for. But if you just strum a chord with a perfectly clean amp and turn this pedal on you'll notice a big change in your tone no matter which direction you turn the tone knob. To much treble or too much bass. Never seems to matter which way you turn it...But as I said...that's what EQ's are for.

As a stock pedal I give it a 6. After my mod, I give it an 8. As most people are buying a stock pedal I will rate it accordingly. Again though this is my taste. I don't like gritty dirty sounding overdrives. It should be smooth and enhance your already clean sounding amp in my opinion.

I haven't had any problems with it. It's a nice metal case. I've heard some say the switches wear out or break. Mine hasn't yet so I can't comment. It seems well built though overall.

I've never had to deal with Ibanez but they are a large company and I'm sure once you get through the automatic phone system and can talk to an actual representative they would be helpful. I'll rate as No Opinion but they should be alright to deal with.

I play blues and classic rock. I've been playing for 15 years. If it were stolen or lost I'd probably see what else is out there. We all eventually want to try a new sound or get a new tone so experiment and find what you like and when you want something new, move on. Overall a stock TS-7 is probably a 5 or 6 depending on what you are looking for. However, if a brittle, gritty, raspy sound is what you look for in an overdrive pedal than maybe this pedal is for you. But if you are really looking for a nice mellow smooth overdrive pedal. Either mod this one or try something else, and for the price if you screw it up with mods, it's not that expensive to replace.

Three knobs.....one switch. Very basic, simple and straight-forward. If anyone has any trouble trying to get this thing to work or sound right then either the pedal is messed up....or the person trying to work the pedal has a SERIOUS learning problem.

I play an Ibanez Artstar AS120TR(a la ES335-style) through the Traynor TRM40 amp. Although I've got a Ibanez DS7, I prefer the warmer, more subtle-edged sound of the TS7. I play with few other effects. Most of the time, I've been jammin' with just the TS7 and the chorus/reverb effect both set at relatively low levels in order to truly hear the nuances of the pedal. The sound that I'm after is similar to the jazz/blues/funk '70 fusion style of Lee Ritenour and Larry Carlton...this pedal is pretty darn close.

From how it's built, I'd be willing to be that it will hold up for a long time to come. But then, it's not like I plan on actually abusing it to start with.

If I have to deal with the company, that means I have a problem with the product. So far, so good.

I'll certainly give an update six months from now....

I play a little of everything, but my man focus is jazz, blues and funk and this pedal is the missing link that I've been looking for. I've been playing for about 8 years and have the Ibanez WD7 Weeping Demon(wah pedal), the PH7(phaser) and as mentioned before, the Ibanez DS7(distortion). I would certainly get it replaced if it were stolen. I did compare to the Boss OD pedal before buying. I choose this not because I have a bias toward Ibanez but because Ibanez makes great quality products for great prices.

Now before I give you my final thoughts in my next statement, I will account for the fact that "SOUND" is subjective. What may sound good to me may sound like crap to you. That said, let me make sure that those reading understand one small but VERY important fact....THIS IS NOT A DISTORTION PEDAL!!!!!!! Overdrive and distortion are TWO different things! Sad to say so many players that I jam with and chat with online make little to no effort to seperate the two. Even the big online stores put both the overdrive and distortion pedals in the same category, further adding to the confusion. Do not purchase this pedal for that heavy-metal, death metal extremely distorted sound! The TS7 was NOT made for that! The purpose of this pedal is to add a warm, subtle "edge" to your guitar. Again, if you're looking for something that will "wake the dead" or whatever extreme playing you desire, don't bother getting this pedal.

very easy to use, 3 knobs and 1 switch (normal/hot)

I use this though some old solid state road amp and a Epiphone Thunderbird Bass.

I love bands like Motorhead,Black Sabbath, Primus, Dead Kennedys etc.. really crazy tone on the hot setting. I like my tone over the top and a bit metallic.. a bit insane.... so this one is right up my alley... probably reminds me more of a Motorhead/kennedys mix than anything else in intensity but wouldn't say it sounded the same.

I crank up the drive, turn down the tone and balance out my level so it ain't to loud and I can get some pretty wicked tone.

It's got stepped on, dropped, rocked off my bass amp, etc, etc, etc.. It hasn't died yet, pretty damn solid if you ask me.

hadn't had a problem yet!

I play jazz/punk/funk, I don't use it for the really thick funk, but when I want that utter insanity and explosiveness of punk/metal I'll throw this bad boy on for that boost.

I'm not a pedal connoisseur by any means but I know what I like to hear. I plugged it into a bass at the store and instantly thought "motorhead." I've tweaked it so it's more like Les Claypool molesting Lemmy or something (specially when I through in a chorus pedal) but hey, whatever, it's not too much like anything I've heard before I really enjoy it.

The TS7 features three knobs: Drive, Tone and Level. The knobs are easy to use; Drive is gain, tone is eq, and level is output volume. The included switch is also mentionable. It is called Hot and turns the pedal into very sustaining distortion. There is a manual with three basic setting suggestions. Overall, I think the Tone knob could be expanded to encompass a wider spectrum.

This is my first Tubescreamer and I am very impressed. My setup is a 70's Reissue Telecaster Custom with two humbuckers into the TS7 and then into an Epiphone Galaxie 10. This is the first pedal that sounds transparent and doesn't change the tone of my guitar much. All of my other pedals (Jekyll & Hyde, Rat, Big Muff, Guyatone HD-2,Roland Cube Distortion, Distortion +) were either too muddy or too fuzzy. This pedal is really great sounding. I suppose you can get the sound of anyone using a stack or an overdriven tube amp: Black Sabbath, T. Rex, Free, The Stooges, Kiss, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, etc. I plan on buying a Dyna Comp to smooth out the distortion a bit. I don't use that many effects, obviousbly. My only complaint is its almost too transparent. If you don't like the sound of your pickups, this pedal will not change it.

I bought the first one used on ebay and it did not work. I got a refund...
This one is new from Musicians Friend so hopefully they are reliable.
Maybe the other was abused?

I play alt/classic/indie/experimental rock. I like the tones of The White Stripes, The Stooges, Free, Black Sabbath, Howlin' Wolf, etc.
I have been playing for three years and if it was lost I would upgrade to the TS-808 with the Keeley mods. I hate the way the TS9's look.
For the price this pedal is amazing. It doesn't sound like a pedal it sounds like a real overdriven amp. Superb!

- this pedal is very easy to work with
- good manual

- I use this pedal for preamping my Line6 Flextone III XL combo
- guitar is Fender Lite Ash
- on clean sounds when set level quite high it can be noisy, otherwise when adding more sustain/preamping it sounds pretty thick and full
- I think the effect is always good
- the basic distortion without the hot mod position is GREAT!

- very rugged because of the whole metal casing, won?t break easily

- the Ibanez web pages are very informative for example sound demo clips are good, it is sad that they don?t update the older models database anymore or I don?t think they ever did...
- japanese pages are crap, why don?t they translate...

- This is absolutely the best effect that I have!
- It sounds good with almost any amp channel setting, I don?t use or like the hot mod position
- Very good value for money, I would buy a new one

No brain required...

Off the shelf, this sounds better than a TS-9, and close to a TS-808. Quite acceptable for a $40 pedal. If you want the classic Tube Screamer sound at this price, get a Digitec Bad Monkey ... read my review on it for the full story. Having said that, I have a modified TS-7 on my pedal board in addition to the Bad Monkey. I use it in ?hot? mode with the drive maxed out for more of a Mesa Boogie hi-gain sound, which the Bad Monkey can?t do. The TS-7 does this quite nicely. The addition of the "hot" mode is quite nice. In hot mode the output gain is a bunch louder, plus less low-end is rolled off. It generates quite a lot of self noise in hot mode ... but that's kinda par for the course.

I've heard too much bad stuff about the switch to give it top ranking. I will say, however, that the thing looks like it's "built like a tank".

I got mine on sale at SamAsh for $30. Put a few bucks into a mod kit (available all over ebay), and wound up with a pretty good sounding TS pedal! If it get's stolen or quits working ... what the heck, I'll just buy another one ... it costs less than filling the Van up with gas!

It's as simple as can be. And it has a TS9 and Hot switch too (TS9 is mellower, and Hot is more grungy loudy)

Eh... I'd pass on it. At the time I bought it, I needed a distortion pedal for under 50 bucks because I was very short on cash, and I brought it back to my little Fender Champion 30, and the built-in distortion on that tiny amp sounded better than it most of the time. If you're broke and you need distortion, it's an decent choice.

Seems pretty sturdy.

If you ever buy a distortion pedal, it will be the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff ?. That is assuming you have more than 35 dollars.

Very easy to use

3 dial controls the recess to lock in place

Hot switch...I also call it the cranky flab booster! lol

Eh...it seems pretty good at first but it's overly harsh and midrangey. The treble overclips and you get this brittle, crackling distortion to your heavily clipped signal.
I now understand why every single verson of the tube screamer has been modded by the users....even this version which is a modded version of the original!

The 4558 chips are overly harsh. They sound like garbage in most every single application I have tried them in. I think people must mod these things for a lot smoother gain that can be used at lower levels. There are chips with more maching specs in comparison to a 12AX7 tube and they all sound better than the 4558's...well IMO but I'd put my TS7 against any other basic and typical mod.

It sounds good, but don't expect it to mesh with more than one or two pieces of your gear. The tone control is absolutely horrible and if nothing else I recommend changing this simple tone capacitor.
I was happy with mine for a while but I finally modded it of my own engineering. That shit 4558 chip is long gone. The noise from this chip is ridiculous and why the sound is so harsh.

It's built really well and has lasted easily 6 months

Good pedal but out of the box it's designed for a 30 watt or less single speaker amp. Actually, I think with most any single speaker amp it would sound great because the way tone controls always work on single speaker combos.
Otherwise it's far too brittle and midrangey for a dual speaker or more amp. I just think any amp with serious muscle is going to bring out the brittleness and harshness of this thing. For some reason it clips very harshly in the treble if you give it much boost and the tone control absolutely sucks sucks.

I put in a chip socket then replaced the 4558 with a Texas Instrumnents OPA2604, MUCH MUCH BETTER CHIP. The tone capacitor was replaced with .001 uf cap which along with the new chip cut noise TREMENDOUSLY and makes it sound like a genuine tube based circuit. The tone control is very smooth and offers a very mellow amount of tone cut which is all you need. The old cap lost pinch harmonic at any setting less than 8! The .001 uf caps STARTS to lose harmonics at 5.

Great pedal if you know how to mod it or know someone who will do it for a fair price.

I would like to clear something up, several people seem to think that this is a cheap verison (plastic) or junk parts compared to the TS-9, and 808, because it is so much cheaper. I have researched this and found that the main differance in price is not because of cheap parts or a junk chip, it is in the manufacturing of the pedel, while the TS-9 and 808 are hand soldered and assmbled, the TS-7 is done roboticlly, so production cost are cheaper and so is the price. Less labor equals lower cost. THe TS-7 is a great pedel for the price

2 mins to set up, took that long for me to figure out where the batt. went. Came with a manual, mostly self-explanatory

First off this is not a distortion peddle. It is designed to boost a tube amp's overdrive. I have a Fender blues deluxe reissue, and this peddle works great for boosting the lighter overdrive that this late 1950's vintage copy has. The boost switch works great on the clean channel. It boost my overdrive and still leaves the guitars sound integerty alone.

I haven't had it that long, the last time I had an Ibanez tube screamer was back in 85 or 86 and it was an old TS-9 that I used to push a Dean Markley 60 watt tube amp. This unit seems very well built, metal housing, push lock knobs so that you can set it and not have to worry about it getting bumped or turned. So you can keep your setting locked in place.

Haven't had to use them

this is a great peddle for doing what it does. It gives you the TS-9 overdrive sound and an extra hot switch, and for only 35 bucks you can't beat it. The regular TS-9 reissue goes for about 100 bucks, so if you are on a budget, or just don't see a reason to spend 100 bucks on something that you can get for 35 then this is the peddle to buy. None of the other makes can really compare. This will not give you the high end distortation that real heavy metal calls for, what it does is push your tube amp to a new level, and gives your lead playing that extra edge and sustain that you have been missing.

Took <5 mins to set up. Manual included but not required.

Bought to replace a dying Proco Rat. Similar effect, but less harsh and doesn't 'do' fuzz. On the 'hot' setting, it is a little noisy compared to my old Rat. I didn't think this would provide much overdrive/distortion, but with a compressor behind it, set at only about 12 o'clock on the 'hot' setting, it gives a very satisfying rock distortion. Between the TS-9 and the Hot settings, you get an impressive spectrum of overdrive sounds. I managed to get the Pearl Jam (both guitarists use TS-9s) and the Tool guitar sound with little tweaking. I put a Boss Metal Zone before it in my effects loop and the two sound surprisingly good together, I now use the Metal Zone as a powerful boost for the TS-7, just took a bit of tweaking getting the tone levels about the same.

Not had it long. It's made of metal (can't believe anyone would think it's plastic!). Design is very similar to Boss pedals, the retractable dials increase durablility, so possibly more reliable than Boss.

N/A

I find this very versatile and will do every type of guitar music with the possible exception of Heavy/Thrash Metal. I use it with several different guitars and a Marshall SS practice amp and it sounds good with all. If it broke I would probably buy another as it is the best priced high-quality overdrive pedal I've seen. The retractable dials are a superb idea, although the design looks a bit cheap. Of the pedals I have used, I found it could get all of the sounds I used my old Proco Rat for, but with a slightly different flavour (I don't use 'fuzz' distortion). As an overdrive pedal, as far as I'm concerned this is as near to perfect as you can get without a Marshall valve amp. If you need fuzz distortion too, get a Proco Rat.

Pretty basic. Very easy to use.

This is a damn good pedal for the price. It gives a warm, light overdrive that sounds particularly good on the neck pickup of a strat, whether going through a tube or good solid state amp. Very bluesy on neck pickup, somewhat weak on other positions. The TS7 has this 'hot' mode switch that I found to be too noisy initially to be useful. However, after installing a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage 2.1 noiseless single coil in the bridge position of my strat, I found the most luscious sound imaginable. The extreme noise was gone and what was left was a ballsy sustaining drive with a 'violin-like' thing, while not coloring the guitar's natural sound. So,if you have Fender Noiseless pickups or Lace Sensors, this unit could be heaven for you. Humbuckers seemd too overbearing in this mode. That's just my opinion. Soundwise, the TS7 offers a good tube screamer sound and a tube screamer on steroids sound. Pretty cool, but it can be noisy in 'hot' mode.

I've had some problems with the on/off switch, having to tap it several times to engage it. I don't play in a band or record. If I did, this would be a real problem. Otherwise, no other problems in two years.

Great sound...can be noisy...on/off switch ain't the best. Let's give it an 8.

3 knobs and the Tone Loc feature makes it where you can't screw up your settings on while stomping. You know all this anyway from other reviews so I'll move on

I've been using my TS-7 for 2 years and never thought to write a review until I realized that it's I love it as much as my pedals costing a lot more money. It sounds almost identical to my friends vintage TS-9. The vintage unit is a tiny bit smoother sounding, but not noticably different. The TS-7 is the best overdrive on the market for the money. I love the hot side. I have several boutique pedals and have been playing for 21 years. I'm playing 2 early 80s Squire Strats, one with EMGs and one stock. I have a Maxon OD-9 for the TS-9 sound and a Nuance Razor Back for heavier sounds that I like a lot. The hot side of the TS-7 almost sounds a good as the Nuance for way less $$. I got to where I was using just the two TS type pedals and the amp for awhile. Then I bought a Toadworks Death Rattle and the TS-7 stomps on it! I sent that one back. This is the best deal on a great overdrive pedal. Buy two and use one in TS-9 mode and one in hot mode. It will do everything most players need. Cascade them for more gain and you are there!

The switch in mine doesn't engage sometimes after 2 years of heavy use. It helps when the battery is new. Also, mine was used when I got it so it aleady had some wear on the switch. That's the only problem I've noticed at all. For the price, you could jus