Fortin-Modded Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer

The Fortin-Modded Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer is an overdrive pedal built on the classic Ibanez TS9 circuit and modified by amp builder Mike Fortin. It was released through Ibanez's Custom Shop program in 2022 and is now discontinued and sold out¹².

What sets it apart from a stock TS9 is a pair of changes aimed at players who want more out of the platform. The clipping diodes are replaced with red LEDs, which the maker says produces a more organic, amp-like tone, and the pedal has an extreme output level to push any amp to its limits¹. The gain structure ranges from clean boost to what the maker calls sweet, classic overdrive³.

From clean boost to classic overdrive with extra output

The Drive control behaves differently from a stock TS9 because of the LED swap. Maxon explains that with Drive set to zero the pedal offers a fully clean boost, and as Drive is increased the red LEDs give what the maker describes as more natural-sounding, tube-like clipping than standard diodes³¹. That gives the pedal two jobs in one box: a level boost for pushing an amp, and a low to medium overdrive voiced like the original.

The other half of the mod is output. Godlyke lists "extreme output level to push any amp to its limits" among the pedal's features¹, which is the practical difference for players who found a stock TS9 too polite as a boost into a clean or edge-of-breakup amp.

Red LED clipping and buffered bypass

Red LEDs as clipping diodes are not unique to this pedal. Analog Man notes that the Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer's HOT mode also uses red LEDs, comparing the approach to the Marshall Guv'nor, though without enough power to light them as brightly⁴. The Fortin TS-9 applies the idea across its whole gain range rather than in a switchable mode.

The bypass is buffered, not true. Godlyke specifies buffered bypass switching¹, and Guitar World notes that stock TS9s include a buffered input⁵. Players who want true bypass from a TS9 usually have it modified: Premier Guitar's Brian Wampler documented the DIY route, which involves drilling a 1/2-inch hole in the middle of the case where it says "TS9" under the Ibanez logo, fitting a 3PDT footswitch, and removing the flip-flop switching parts, including two FETs, two 510k ohm resistors, two diodes, the jumper wire, and the capacitor labeled "104"⁶.

How it differs from a stock TS9 and its siblings

The base circuit is the familiar one. The TS9 uses the same printed circuit board as the TS808 with a few components changed, most notably the chip, as Analog Mike explained in a ToneQuest Report interview⁷. TONEHOME notes that different op-amp ICs were used across TS9 production⁸, and Aion FX adds that the original TS-9 was discontinued in 1985 due to underperforming sales, then reissued in 1993 with the TA75558 op-amp and kept in more or less continual production since⁹. A stock TS9 remains readily available today⁸.

The Fortin TS-9 sits in a small family of Fortin-modded Tube Screamers:

The TS808 version got a different description from Godlyke: "an all-new mod that transforms this classic overdrive into an ear-shattering, amp-destroying juggernaut"². The TS9 version is described more moderately, with its gain structure running from clean boost to classic overdrive¹³. There is also the Ibanez TS9-TM Tamura-Mod Tube Screamer, a parallel Custom Shop TS9 mod that instead uses Vishay 1N914 diodes in the clipping stage for a different drive signature¹⁰.

History: a Mike Fortin Custom Shop TS-9

The pedal came out of a chance meeting. Godlyke's product page tells the story: "when we ran into Mike Fortin at the 2020 NAMM show, the first thing we did was pitch him on the idea of doing a pedal mod"¹. The idea was announced as a Custom Shop release and, as Godlyke puts it, was realized two pandemic-stricken years later, arriving in 2022¹.

The TS-9 was not the first Fortin collaboration. The Fortin-Modded Ibanez TS-9 was pitched at the 2020 NAMM show and realized two pandemic-stricken years later as a Custom Shop release. The Fortin-Modded Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer was also sold as a modified TS9 (TS9 Fortin Modified)¹².

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