I put together the tube screamer last night. I couldn’t turn it on until today, because I was still waiting on the IC chip to arrive. The mail came, I popped it in, and I love it! I was expecting the pedal to be brighter, but from what I’ve read the RC4558 is supposed to be warmer.

Most of the parts were purchased from Mammoth Electronics. The PCB is from General Guitar Gadgets, and I used a few GGG’s ideas for mods. The left toggle is a fat switch. The right toggle is a on-off-on that lets you switch from (asymmetrical 914 diode clipping, no clipping – boost, red led’s – crunch). I also used the list supplied by GGG to switch out some parts like the Keeley Mod.

This was the first pedal project that I housed in a 125 size enclosure. It’s a third of an inch taller than the standard 1590b size. With that extra space I tried top mounting the jacks like Wampler!

I’ve never owned a tube screamer. I was never drawn towards them. The closest I’ve ever gotten, was when I played through a Double Barrel by JHS. I didn’t like it. If felt as though the bass was cut. I just recently learned that Stevie Ray Vaughan used to stack two in his signal path. That fact alone spiked my curiosity. I just got all the parts today, except for the RC4558 chip. I’m expecting that to show up tomorrow.

I was excited to work on a pedal today. I sort of rushed through drilling all the holes. The result of my haste is wonky holes. I’m not too happy with how the holes are spaced. I might buy a new enclosure and re-case this pedal, if I like the way this pedal sounds.