Just bought a George Lynch TMB

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 5:35 pm

I don't know if it can do anything for me, but curiosity got the better of me after seeing the list of players using them.

Hope they're good.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 6:37 pm

I loves the TMB

bluefuzzguitar · Post by **bluefuzzguitar** » Sat Oct 15, 2005 8:00 pm

Me too, doggonit!

Mike

tonejones · Post by **tonejones** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 3:17 am

One thing I've been wondering, does the TMB work equally well with humbuckers???

I've heard many say that 'boosting' is done with single coils and ya need a good old hot distortiion pedal for humbuckers.....

Is this myth??????

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:30 am

I couldnt agree any less. Distortion pedals through an amp with power tube drive. No thank you. I know some people dont agree but even overdrive pedals with humbuckers into an amp like a Super Lead sounds horrible to me. The 'IC' sound of overdrive or distortion just doesnt mesh. Distortion and boosts couldnt be any farther apart in what they do. The boost just drives the input of the amp harder and pushes it into more distortion and breakup. It doesnt add any of its own. Even if you keep an OD or Distortion pedals drive on zero you still have an amount of diode or IC clipping which just doesnt mesh with me. With single coils I think it can work but with humbuckers I just dont like a pedal combination with power tube drive. Even with single coils Im not crazy about it. Maybe in a soupy Robin Trower kinda tone it sounds good with OD pedals and a driven power section. The TMB also has 2 flavors of treble boost also which is a germanium transistor effect. Basically tonejones, I think you would be knocked off your ass if you ever tried a TMB. It may not be yours or everyones cup of tea for their own sound, but it is a really cool toy to use with a superlead.

I think maybe the person or people who said that was one of the many confused people out there that have no clue what a boost pedal is for. There just seems a lot of confusion surrounding them. People think it will boost volume for solos or get some natural grind from the amp even if its set lower and clean. Not really. Might push it into break up but not total drive. Might raise the volume a bit but doesnt really give you a volume boost into an amp with any degree of breakup. The majority of people buying this pedal seem to me to be int he catagory of LP or humbucker players who want to get more drive from their amps in a Lynch kinda way.

Everyone has a right to their opinion but thats a bit of a blanket statement that Ive heard and that I totlly reject. There seem to be 2 main camps. Strat players who want to boost an amp for a bit more of a fat bluesy breakup or boost a bluesy breakup into a little more edge for solos- and more rock type LP players or similar sounds who want to get more gain from an amp like a Super Lead. If your someone who plays 'super-preamp amps' and you put a boost in front of it or an OD/Distortion which do you think youd prefer? Probably distortion or overdrive. Those amps are completely different. I think a lot of those rumors come from people who arent playing or familiar with vintage style amps.

The site has many samples with both single coils and humbuckers into cranked 'power-drive' amps.

Hassan Chop · Post by **Hassan Chop** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:19 pm

tonejones wrote:I've heard many say that 'boosting' is done with single coils and ya need a good old hot distortion pedal for humbuckers.....

Is this myth?

The short answer is, yes, that's a myth.

The long answer (for you) depends on a lot of variables--What kind of guitar or guitars do you play? What kind of amp do you play them through? What kind of speakers? Most importantly, how do you want it to sound? How does your rig sound now? What are the differences between the way your stuff sounds and the way you want it to sound? You needn't answer here if you don't want to; these are more in the nature of rhetorical questions for you to ponder when thinking about what equipment to try when attempting to get your present tone closer to your ideal tone.

I personally have humbucker-equipped guitars which I use with the Time Machine Boost into my cranked Super Lead re-issue. They sound fantastic (to me). They also sound fantastic (to me) when used with my TS-808 Tube Screamer or my DS-1 Distortion, set as boosts with their distortion knobs turned all the way down into the same amp. Likewise my graphic EQ pedal. They all sound different, but they all sound good (to me). My rig is getting close to sounding exactly the way I want it to sound, and part of the way I've been able to achieve this is by using these pedals' adjusting knobs in a way that's pleasing to my ear.

I have no fight with Billy Batz on this--apparently he doesn't like the sound of a Super Lead with a distortion pedal in front of it, even set for boost only, not distortion. Good for him. I find it works for me, but life would be pretty damned dull if all the guitars and amps sounded the same.

Or, to put it another way, "If it sounds good it is good."

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 4:48 pm

I didnt mean to be a dick make it sound as if using distortion or OD is wrong. Maybe I did sound that way, I just see teh ol 'IMO' as a given. But this myth that distortion pedals are for humbuckers and boosts for strats. Thats rediculous. Thats the kind of myths that get started and you have people believing its true after theyve been floated around long enough. I can see how this stuff gets started to. You have guys that are totally unfamiliar with vintage amps and they hear the lingo get thrown around about how they sound and they try em with a Dual rectifier or DSL/TSL or something and it doesnt sound right. I think a lot of people think their some kind of alternate type of distortion. Or that their only a blues thing. Ive used boosts with 'preamp' amps and I do prefer ODs. You have to know what your dealing with before you buy something. Bad reviews are 90% of the time the result of someone using something they really shouldnt for what they want.

Flames1950 · Post by **Flames1950** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:18 pm

Frankly the only OD I can get to sound great with a cranked Marshall is their own original BluesBreaker pedal, which really barely has any distortion on its own into a clean amp so it kicks the Marshall just right, and the voicing is so close to the Marshall amp tone voicing that it's more like an extension of the amp itself.
But that's just me.

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:37 pm

My buddies limited edition Fulldrive II can really get the Bridge of Sighs tone with my Vibe as long as the tone is set lo and the amp isnt cranked that high. Thats about the only time Ive been able to really use any kind of drive pedal into a NVM myself. Ill take my TMB any day. Old hand wired version. Love the 73 treble boost setting.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:40 am

Lets here a detailed review of that thing when it comes Mike!

tonejones · Post by **tonejones** » Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:37 pm

Great info guys

You can probably tell pretty quickly that I've played alot of super-duper preamper amps in my life. My current stage rig is one of these monsters (Hughes & Kettner).

I'm definitely not in the know on the whole boosting situation, but I can imagine. First decent amp I ever had was a Fender Musicmaster Bass. 2 knobs: volume and tone. If ya wanted distortion, ya dimed 'em and dug into the guitar strings.

My '69 clone is still partially assembled (but will be finished one way or another in a few weeks) and I'm just trying to think ahead.

I'm a LP player that's going for the 70s SL agression with a fuller sound (will be playing thru a 5150 slant cab...not a 1960 I know, but I'm getting there). I have an old TS-5 that I'm thinking about modding to keep it from cutting the low end, and a DS-1's easy enough to get ahold of.....keep hearing marvelous things about the TMB, but don't wanna shell out that much green not knowing if I'll dig it or not.......

I guess I'm just gonna hafta wait until it's finished and let the pedal experiments begin......

Thanks for the info guys.......another old wive's tale put to rest!!!!!!

YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!!!!!

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:38 am

You dont get more super preamp then my SLO100.

tonejones · Post by **tonejones** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 1:00 am

Very true!!!!

I have often wondered how far apart the SLO100 and my H&K is????

I know it probably means nothing, but on the PODXT the closest thing to my H&K is the SLO100 model........

Billy Batz · Post by **Billy Batz** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:37 am

There similar in some ways I guess but I played my SLO in a band for a short while with lead singer who had an H&K. I dont remember which model it was but it had 3 channels, the third of which was kind of a high gain SLO type thing. They both had the tight smooth high gain thing going but as a whole they didnt sound very similar. To be totally honest I wasnt fond of that amp at all. Im not all that fond of my SLO either

NY Chief · Post by **NY Chief** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 12:45 pm

Billy Batz wrote: Ill take my TMB any day. Old hand wired version. Love the 73 treble boost setting.

OK, Dan. I just ordered one! If this pans out myabe I'll try those Silver Bells