A quick word about Maxon. They stopped making Ibanez pedals for Ibanez long ago. Their own line is impressive, but extremely overpriced in my opnion. My point? A modified Ibanez-made TS-9 will not sound as good when compared to a modified Maxon-made TS-9.
If you love the sound of a Tube Screamer with a clean tube amp and are reading this, disagreeing with everything I've written, I urge you to try out some Barber Pedals. The different versions of the Barber LTD, Direct Drive, and B-Custom Cool pedals will make any Tube Screamer sound like a fizzy toy. I'm talking uncompressed, transparent overdrive with real amp feel and tone.
Maybe you use a Tube Screamer into an already distorted amplifier to push it for extra gain and palm muting crunch? There is a better way! Have a look at the BB Preamp Pedal from Xotic. This pedal has an active EQ, (meaning it truly adds bass or treble, not a passive hi-cut filter) plenty of volume for boosting, and lots of gain as well. This will give you the quality rock and hi-gain sounds of your favorite recordings.
These pedals have price points of $180 or less. That is a lot of money. I get that. However, you truly get what you pay for. Not some cheap, slave labor, mass produced seasick green pedal...
