This is THE blues pedal. Very smooth and warm overdrive. It is NOT a distortion pedal it is an overdrive pedal. If you are wanting metal/grunge type distortion this is not the one you want. If you want warm/bluesy type overdrive this is a great pedal. I set the gain to give a little more volume than when it is bypassed.

I have played guitar for 40 years. I am one that will always play perform and JAM OUT! I write and record as well as play live. I won an original Tube Screamer 15 years ago and have used it as my primary pedal since. I tried others but always came back and finally stuck with my "GREEN LIZARD" as I refer to my TUBE SCREAMER. I continue to be amazed at it's durability and incredible warm tube distotion sound. You can sound "crunch" for just an edge or full sustain distortion that takes off, grows in sustain and growls a warm ballsey sound like several Marshall stacks turned wide open. The distortion when playing power chords is a clean and even sound. I used this pedal with an acoustic rig for the longest and had most listening muscian friends in the audiance scratching their heads in amazement of the sounds I was getting. I have played forever it seems and have grown to totally depend on my sCREAM'N "GREEN LIZARD" as the MOTHER PEDAL of all distortion pedals. I love the tone control and the overall simplicity of the unit. Get one. You will NOT regret it.

I use two pedals in my rig. One is a tube screamer and the other is a wah. I have owned every kind of overdrive and distortion and I keep coming back to this. You can turn down your guitar and the tone becomes clean, turn up and you have the grunt of GodZilla!

Last December, I bought a Mesa Boogie Maverick 1x12" combo. It was a little too low-gain for my tastes. I immediately went searching for the perfect pedal to boost the distortion, and I found it: the TS9. I bought the TS9 and I tried it out against several other pedals, such as the Boss Turbo-Distortion and the Boss Blues Driver.It does not have as much gain as a Metal Zone for all you crunch fiends out there, but the TS9 has something no other pedal I've tried does, the ability to accurately reproduce your individual style. Every pick or pluck or however it is you hit the strings is perfectly respected by the pedal in the sense that you can almost feel the note. It's not like a DOD where all you get is toneless fuzz. The TS9 is especially helpful when you run it through a tube amp. The price is a tad steep, but it's worth it.

This is an overdrive pedal that gives warm and bluesy sound to put in your tube amp. I bought it and I don't regret my choice. If you like blues, buy it!