Music Store Finds Are What Give Me Hope...

All of us that are lucky to live near a great local music store know what greatness can await us in the discount bin. Lately I had a great find in my local store. I've been looking for a deal on a pedal I could tinker with, so when I noticed an Ibanez TS-9 sitting in the used gear bin I got a little excited. The guys at the shop gave me a fair shake on the price so I came home with the pedal. After giving the pedal a good going through. I decided to tweak it. So I sit down with my new find about to get busy with a soldering iron and, on a whim, I peel the velcro that had covered the bottom plate. Of course the label peels off. I decide I want the label on my pedal so I try to separate the two. This is almost impossible. Just getting a corner start was frustrating enough, but I kept going. I notice that the label read, "Made In Japan". Interesting, most pedals are made in china, except the vintage ones of course. So now I look up the history of the TS-9 and how to tell if it is vintage or reissue.

Step one: The Label

If the label is black then it is the oldest edition of these pedals, meaning it was made in the very early 80's. This doesn't mean that a silver label is not vintage, just that its is made after the first ones with black label. The Silver label has a couple clue to the age of the pedal. If it says "Made in Japan" then your off to a good start. In the upper right hand corner there should not be the familiar "CE" symbol. This was added later, and its a dead giveaway that the pedal in more recent. The more recent reissues' serial number begin with "00", vintage units should not. The first number in the serial number should be close to the year of manufacture, ie 3xxx means the pedal is made in 1983.

Step two: The Guts

Getting into the pedal, the inside of the battery cover should say "MAXON". Looking at the PCB the capacitors should be green in color and the IC may be a few different types, but the JRC4558 is the one that most people look for. If all these things check out then you can feel pretty confident that you are in possession of a vintage Tube Screamer. Congratulations!

This was the case with my find. I couldn't believe it. I found this pedal in the discount bin and come to find that it is actually worth several times the price I paid. Sometimes it pays to do you homework.

Do you have a word for your fans? Astronaut.

I'm not sure if that is a factual quote, but it is a line in the movie "I'm Not There". A film about the life of Bob Dylan. I'm not sure if I can really recommend this film. I frankly didn't enjoy the movie, but it was artfully filmed and edited to be a quandary or riddle. I don't mind movies that make me think, I enjoy then actually, but this one was a little more bent to the bizarre. Dylan is played for 6 actors, none of them are actually named Bob Dylan. and they each represent a phase of persona of Dylan. To make things worse, the film has no feeling of timeline or structure. Consecutive scene can display portions of Dylan life that are decades apart. In short, it was a head trip. To make things worse, I'm not even that big of a Dylan fan, and maybe less of one now. Although I may do some light reading on the life and times of the man for kick and grins. Maybe listen to some of his songs as a whole and, if I feel a little folky, I may pick up an acoustic and play a song of his.

As a film go, I'd give it 3 of 5 Stars. But Dylan wouldn't care anyways...