Ibanez TS9

I'm a little frustrated by the cork-sniffery that takes because of the Tubescreamer line. This one sounds good; I like it. I'm aware that the TS-808s have a kind of holy grail mysticism associated with them, but I don't understand how musicians--people who pride themselves on running against the grain, free-spiritedness, &c--all subscribe to the same set of rules and opinions about this. The Klon, the Tim, Dumble--maybe it is better. Maybe I'm missing something.

In any case, this is a necessary piece of the electric guitar puzzle. I play a telecaster, and I have this on pretty frequently to get a little more meat on its bones. Does get a tad noisy, as my guitar's giant ashtray bridge is pretty microphonic, especially when I'm not phase-cancelling the pickups.

I really like all the things that it is supposed to do--midrange "bump," light drive, even a clean boost for leads. If I trusted the crappy black plastic-enclosed beetle-looking tubescreamers more, I'd have gotten one of them for cheap. As it stands, this is a primary color when putting together guitar tones. Inventive? No. Practical? Heck yes.