I already have a couple of drive pedals of varying degrees of distortion. I was looking for more of a blues overdrive that would not colour the original guitar tone too much.
There are so many tube screamer clones around it is hard to choose. But the price point here is great and the build quality is excellent. The name is derived from a famous Canadian live show that Stevie-Ray Vaughn played, so this gives you an idea of where it is aiming. There are drive, level and tone controls. The drive is not too harsh and relatively mild, providing dirt without altering the original guitar tone too much. The tone knob does let you colour it for bass or treble and has a surprisingly wide range. If I have the level at 12 o'clock , drive at 3 and dial in a little bass at 11, then on a neck/middle position single-coil I can really start to get the tones this is trying to represent.
For those looking for more bite in the overdrive, you should probably look elsewhere such as other TC models like the Cinders or Mojo. If you want to put this before another gain pedal as a boost or to overdrive your amp gain (which is what tube screamers are for), this will work very well. And of course if your are looking for those SRV tones from your single coils this will probably get close to what you are looking for. Recommended!
