Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS808) On Stripboard

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most famous and sought after overdrive pedals around. The original TS808 and Boss’ OD-1 are classics that everyone wants to recreate.

Well, here it is, the wiring schematic and stripboard layout for the TS808 model Ibanez Tube Screamer, or pretty close. I have an article on building a Tube Screamer on a breadboard where I have some light analysis on the pedal and the schematic I was able to track down, but basically the difference between this stripboard layout and the original comes down to operational amplifier being used. The original used a JRC4558, which I wasn’t able to track down. I used an RC4559 and it’s fine. You’ll be fine using one as well.

Other than that, as far as I can figure out, this schematic and stripboard layout will make a TS808 to original specs. Of course, some things are lost to time and there may have been some minor changes over the years, but this is what you’re after!

I have some explanation on the differences between the schematic and the stripboard layout, but I’ll get to it later in the article.

Jump to stripboard layout.

Ibanez Tube Scream (TS808) Wiring Schematic

For those who want it, here’s the wiring schematic for the TS808 model Ibanez Tube Screamer. It’s a relatively large schematic compared to, for example, my list of easy guitar pedal builds. But there are also more complicated guitar pedal stripboard layouts out there as well.

Here’s the wiring diagram:

Click on the schematic to enlarge it.

And here’s the bill of materials.

		Notes
D1, D2	MA150/1N4148/1N914	Any of these will work.
D8	W03C/1N4001	This is reverse polarity protection.
Q1, Q2	2SC1815/2N5089/MPSA18	I used 2SC1815
Op-amp	JRC4558/RC4559/RC4558	I used RC4559

R1	1K
R2	510K
R3	10K
R4	4.7K
R5	10K
R6	51k
R8	1K
R9	10K
R10	220
R11	1K
R12	1K
R13	510K
R14	10K
R32	10K
R33	10K
RB	100
RC	10K

C1	0.02uF
C2	1uF
C3	0.047uF
C4	51pFuF
C5	0.22uF
C6	0.22uF	Polarised
C7	1uF
C8	0.1uF
C9	10uF	Polarised
C16	47uF	Polarised
C17	100uF	Polarised
C18	100nF

P1	500k Log
P2	20k Lin
P3	100k Lin

Jacks, power supply, etc.	Don't Forget	The stuff you usually use.

To save you from having to count components, here’s the same thing except with how many of each component you need to get.

Resistors
100R	2
220R	1
1K	4
4.7K	1
10K	8
51K	1
510K	2
1M	1

Capacitors
51pF	1
0.02uF	1
0.047uF	1
0.1uF	1
0.22uF	2
1uF	2
10uF (polarised)	1
47uF (polarised)	1
100uF (polarised)	1

IC's, Diodes, Etc.
1N914 Diode	2
1N4004 Diode	1
2N3904 Transistor	2
NE5532 Op-Amp	1
500K Log Pot	1
25K Lin Pot	1
100K Log Pot	1

I’m not going to do a full analysis of the circuit but check out some of my discussion on the Ibanez Tube Screamer.

There’s a lot going on here, including the interesting tone control that has a static low pass filter along with general tone control. However, there’s also quite a bit of simplicity in the circuit. Without the input and output buffers, it’s really just two amplification stages with some clipping – it comes down to using the right components to get that wonderful sound.

I’ve mentioned before, but if you want to get creative, you can change the symmetrical clipping into asymmetrical clipping either hard wired or with a switch. It will make it sound a lot more like an OD-1, except, of course, with the unique Tube Screamer elements.

In experimenting, I also found the drive potentiometer gives good sound up to about 800K Ohms. After that, things break up a little bit too much. If you want to push the gain further consider upping the value of the drive pot or increase the value of R6 for a higher base gain.

Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS808) Stripboard Layout

This layout mostly comes from Tagboard Effects, but I’ve made some modifications to make it a little easier to build. All in all, the layout that Tagboard did was great; he has a more compact layout, but it gets a little crowded. This layout fits easily into most enclosures while also not being too difficult due to crowding.

One thing you’ll notice between this stripboard layout and the schematic that you see above is the 1M resistor near the input (I’ve marked it as R* on the layout with component numbers). This is a drawdown resistor that I didn’t see in the original schematic, but it’s probably good to have so I kept it.

The other thing that’s different is that in the original schematic R4 is specified as going to ground however in this layout it’s going to the 4.5 V reference voltage, which is acting as a virtual ground in this scenario. I’m not sure if this was a decision to make the stripboard layout easier, but it’s electrically equivalent.

Either way, I’ve provided a stripboard layout with component numbers that line up with the schematic above as well as component values. You can either follow along or make modifications as you see fit.

Here’s the Ibanez Tube Screamer stripboard layout:

Click on the diagram to enlarge it.

My Experience Building The TS808 Ibanez Tube Screamer

I was actually surprised at how easy this pedal build was. I’ve made more simple builds that I’ve had to trouble shoot and debug, meanwhile, this one worked first try (minus a stuff up with the IC socket for the op-amp, but it was a simple fix).

My only advice on building an Ibanez Tube Screamer on stripboard is to take your time. As I mentioned, there are much bigger builds than this, but either way, as the amount of components increase, the amount of potential mistakes increase as well. Other than experience, I think this was a relatively easy build for me because I took my time with it. As mentioned, ironically I’ve stuffed up easier builds than this because I’ve gone too quickly.

The 20 x 15 stripboard fits just barely into a 125B style enclosure, it’s not too snug, but does take a bit of squeezing one wires are involved as well.

To that end, before you begin, make sure to sand down the edges of the stripboard to make sure you’ll fit.

How Does The Ibanez Tube Screamer Sound?

Look, this is a classic overdrive pedal, and it sounds great.

There are, of course, similarities in sound to Boss’ OD-1.

Being a pretty early overdrive pedal, it’s not a super high gain overdrive, but just enough to add some interesting frequencies to the guitar’s tone. Like the OD-1, I find this pedal relatively bass heavy (without being muddy), which suits me fine as my primary guitar is a Stratocaster, which can be a little thin at times. Because of this I’m pretty much always running a little bit of overdrive with my Boss OD-3 and now, probably my TS808 as an alternative.

Other than that, there’s not much more to say about the sound of the TS808 that hasn’t already been said or heard. This is such a classic overdrive pedal, we’ve all heard it 1,000 times. My advice is get out there and build this thing. It’s a fun build and you’ll wind up with a very nice guitar pedal.