Blues Pedals

I have a Tube Screamer (not vintage or new, an 80's model) and a Bad Monkey that I use all the time. I play classic rock though, not blues. I did know a great blues musician however and he used one of these.

Might be worth checking out.

I would see if you could try out a few diferent Over drive, tube screamers, or blues drivers pedals. Everyone has diferent tastes, so find what you like the best. I picked up a cheap Behringer Blues driver, and I realy like the sound of it!! Granted its mostly plastic, so not sure it will stand much gigging..... but so far im real happy with it, and heck... you can buy 3 or 4 for what a name brand goes for.

Have you tryed just messing with the settings on the amp, and guitar? Ive found I can adjust mine [VOX AD30VT ] so its just on the edge of overdrive, and can control the crossover point from clean, crunch, and overdrive with the VOL knob on my Epi LP

Yea I've experimented with both, can get some good sounds but not exactly what I want yet though.

I like my Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Blue pedal, it's just enormous and has its own power supply.

I went ahead and bought the Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9. I really like it. To me it sounds quite a bit different than the Bad Monkey.

I was looking at the Boss Blues Driver TRGuitar mentioned but I read somewhere that some people found it a little harsh and the recommendation was to dial back the tone knob. If I had money to burn I would try the Keeley mod of the same pedal as some people seem to swear by it. For the moment though I'm still at the stage where guitar direct to amp works.

my first pedal was the TS9 tubescreamer. I liked it so much I bought the next generation, the turbo tubescreamer. it was four settings, two of which boost the low end for a fuller tone. a great pedal. then I stumbled on analogman's web site. he modifys and tweaks pedals. I sent in my turbo tubescreamer and had him mod it. he called asking just what I was wanting. he asked ' a tight overdrive, like Van Halen, I said No. I want a loose tone like an old amp being overdriven. he replied 'oh, you want it fat. I said more like big chunks of gravel not the fine gravel tone.
back the pedal came and it is perfect.
analogman.com

My TubeScreamer is one of the ones where they went cheap and the jacks, knobs and switches weren't so good. :( Thats why I bought the Bad Monkey. My switch is iffy on my TS10. Here is a pic ... compliments of analogman's site. The one on the right ... plastic foot switched thing. :x

Tone is great, hate the switch but I like my Bad Monkey so it's OK.

I have 2 Tube Screamers a TS9 and TS808. They both sound good but the 808 is a little better.

Still if you can find an amp that you can crank by itself that is still the best overdrive sound of all. Something like a Deluxe Reverb reissue sounds good.

I have a Super Champ XD that I love and sounds best without any pedels. It has models of old Champs and Deluxes that sound awesome. You can hear it on my website.

I like a good wah and a Univbe... I would say reverb or delay but I know the BJ has reverb already....you can also try a treble booster... Tubescreamer is cool but the amps batral overdrive is a better pick IMO

Finally finished with all my beginner lessons, and making good progress in Intermediate Styles (Blues) Lessons. I love the Texas Blues stuff (SRV, etc) and I'm starting to learn other Blues greats riffs. I recently got a new 2012 American Standard with the Custom Shop Fat 50's pickups, and it sounds amazing. My amp is a Fender Blues Jr. modified with a Celestion Cannabus Rex speaker, and it made a world of difference. I'm trying to find my own tone and was curious what pedals might be popular among other Blues players. I was considering the Ibanez Tube Screamer like SRV used, but I've got a Digitech Bad Monkey, wich has decent overdrive, so I guess it's pretty similar. Are there others that I should consider that might be more for the Blues style. I've been primarily focused on just learning, and been playing everything clean, so I'm really just venturing out in this area.

The bad Monkey is essentially a TS-9 with better EQ options. I compared it with the various tubescreamers, and found it the best for my pedalboard.

The key thing to remember for blues is you don't want the pedal to overdrive, you want to overdrive the AMP. Keep the gain low and the level up on the Bad Monkey so it acts as a "not-so-clean" boost to push the amp. when you kick the guitar volume knob.

probably pointing out the obvious, but MANY MANY pedals on the market are based on the tubescreamer. From boutique to el cheapo.

probably because it is a great sounding pedal for bluesy. Stock, it has what a lot of folks want... modified it can do a lot more and in my mind it doesn't really get any better than that... but it does get "equally good".

the bluesbreaker is another good option: similar but dif enough.
bluesdriver: another great option
od250: yet another
I had the seymour classic, it was very nice with my old amp but didn't do so well with my deville.
klon is a great alternative
several boost pedals chained together is another great alt.
a compressor set up as a boost and a cranked amp...

my advice: start off with one of everything and narrow it down from there!

I'm at risk to be thrown out of the forum, I know... ;) But for a beginner, why not to try some digital modelling pedal first, like Line 6 M5 or Digitech iStomp? It would give a chance to try many "pedals" (and not only overdrives) for a lower price and understand what one wants, tone wise. Emulated TubeScreamer sounds pretty close to a real thing from what I've heard.

hmmm old thread resurection....

i use a blues driver to get my dirt, and a boss overdrive with the gain turned all the way down as a clean boost. if i need fuzz, i have a fiery red horse which i really like alot.