Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini

Pros
- Sounds unbelievable especially with a Stratocaster!
- Almost half the price of the regular TS9
- ^^ that means you can get two for the price of one
- Small compact size
- Really good build quality and looks great

Cons
- No battery - only a con if you like being able to operate a pedal with a battery.
- The two smaller dials are really hard to see, even in day light. That's the reason I gave 4 stars for handling.
- As pointed out by some friends, usually mini pedals like this are much harder to repair. That was a general statement and not specific to this pedal. Additionally, thomann's extended warranty should give you peace of mind there!

I spent some time wondering should I get the full sized TS9 or will I get the TS Mini? I had read comments online about how there are differences between the sound. I also read comments online that said there's no difference because the TS mini is made up of the same internal components/circuitry.

I decided to go with the mini because I figured whatever marginal difference in sound (if any) between the two, I'm definitely not going to worry about it when I actually have the mini. This turned out to be true. It really is good enough that it doesn't matter.

From the moment I plugged this in with my stratocaster and all dials at 12 o'clock, I couldn't believe my ears. That classic tone I've heard on so many records! It packs a punch and makes your guitar really sing! If I could own only one pedal it would be this one.

The tubescreamer works really well on top of an amp that's already being pushed to the point of overdrive. A really nice setup is to have your amp volume and gain to a point where your guitar is just starting to sound distorted, but if you roll back the volume on your guitar to 8 or 9 you'll get a nice clean tone. This gives you a tonne of variety where you can play some really nice clean stuff, then you can bring the guitar volume to 10 to get some light overdrive. Then you can activate the tubescreamer to get some soaring lead or crunch kind of sounds. Like I said a huge amount of variety all with a small amount of effort.

The TS mini delivers the classic tube screamer sound, with only a slightly different flavour from his larger brothers. Generally not noticeable, but here and there you feel the sound falls a bit flat in the high mids, especially when stacked with other ODs.

For most use cases however, it's a perfect pedal if you're building a smaller pedalboard, but still want the classic sound of a tube screamer.

Build quality and feel are also absolutely top notch, no issues with any of the knobs.

Only thing to keep in mind is that the smaller 2 knobs are impossible to read and adjust based on their position, so if you're someone that likes to change level and tone settings during a set, consider getting a bigger TS.