Select JRC4558D IC chips?

[tedmich]

Check the "new" original Ibanez Tube Screamer, with "select JRC4558D IC chips" for only $499 list



Don't (admittedly non-select) JRC4558D's cost like $0.50?

[JoeM]

No way...

[thumbs]

"TS808HW"... hand wired?

[Robert M. Martinelli]

Marketing blurb at the nth power....

The REAL problems with things like this are:

-1- that someone will actually buy one.....

-2- that, thanks to the "placebo effect", someone will actually believe they sound waaaaaay better than the ones around, and will post enthusiastic reviews on the internet, pushing someone else to buy one....

I cannot blame Ibz for trying to take advantage and make some money out of one of the many wrong beliefs that are around....If they really wanted a better and cheap alternative to a 4558, they could have used an NE5532 or another (better) opamp in its place; their choice reveals their intention to indulge to market(ing) whims rather than make valid choices motivated by technical reasons....

Me, I'll stick to the OVD pedal I built myself using an NE5532 and metal film resistors....It sounds terribly good to me (and incredibly enough, to some other people as well, including some Ibz TS owners), and has a very low NF, but then again, maybe I'm just too stupid to buy a "real" HW TS....

JM2CW

Cheers

Bob

[jrfrond]

I have HUNDREDS of JRC4558 chips in stock. We pull them from the bin one-by-one, hence they are ALL hand-selected.

I'm going to have to mark these babies up more!!! Looks like they are the "RCA Blackplates" of IC's. NOT!!!!! :O

[Robert M. Martinelli]

I have HUNDREDS of JRC4558 chips in stock. We pull them from the bin one-by-one, hence they are ALL hand-selected.

[J M Fahey]

Well, to be fair I have to admit that the case is gorgeous, beautifully finished , in what I'm sure is some high grade guitar paint.
Very probably the pcb tracks are gold plated, it should boast some high quality resistors and capacitors, excellent pots, etc.
And why not? That way it probably costs an appalling $60 or 70 to produce, instead of around $30 for the regular one.
And the Mojo value is worth at least $200.
If there were no new Tube Screamers available since, say, 1976, the few remaining might be fetching even higher prices by now.
Just my two cents.
PS: that list price alows retailers to offer it at "heavily discounted" prices. Maybe they have a street price between $250 and 300.

[g1]

It really is hand wired, turret board construction.
Read an interesting review here: Welcome to LegendaryTones!
They found it to be the best sounding current tube screamer. Then they tried a vintage original...

[dumbassbob]

I watched a you tube where the guy has 20 guitar player in a room and has different od but changes the JRC's Noone could see or hear a difference.He even used a vidio chip.It is all a myth,Its who builds it and how they think it out

[dai h.]

It really is hand wired, turret board construction.[ATTACH=CONFIG]10546[/ATTACH]
Read an interesting review here: Welcome to LegendaryTones!
They found it to be the best sounding current tube screamer. Then they tried a vintage original...

We asked Jacob about the possibility of capacitance of the standard RI’s circuit board perhaps contributing to the handwired’s warmer tone and he agreed that there may be some of this effect coming into play. The idea is basically this: As circuit board traces are layed out in design, those traces themselves collectively can serve as a capacitor, and the net sonic effect would be a brightening effect caused by the traces. This idea of capacitance is more clear cut on amplifier circuits which run high voltages however, and isn’t supposed to be an issue with low-voltage electronics. So the effect on a 9v-operated pedal should be negligible. But still, this indeed could help explain why the HW model, which uses no circuit board comes out as a slightly darker and warmer Tube Screamer than the stock Ibanez TS808 reissue..

who knew? More capacitance leads to a brightening effect.

[J M Fahey]

Sorry for having to use this language, but all of that review is a P.O.S., a mountain of cr*p, bullsh*t, choose your adjective at will.
1) The *worst* offender, by far, is the "turret construction". Ridiculous!!
*What* are they re-issuing ???????????????????.
If anything, it should be made using the original PCB, maybe hand soldered , with hand placed parts, dressing the leads the same way , using a classic carbon-zinc 9V battery, etc.
2) Op amps are Op amps, by definition.
What they were invented for is to provide a "neutral" gain block, a black box , where *external* components shape frequency response, gain, etc.
That said, they are real world products, and do not fulfill exactly that promise, so when used close to their limit, *some* differences start to appear.
But that on different types, most emphatically not within different batches of the same product.
A TL071 and a 741, as examples of quite different op amps, sound and do quite the same when well within their limits, for example up to 10X gain , audio signals, less than 1V level, the only difference being that of slew rate, which might show as making the 741 very slightly darker, and of course it will also be noisier.
But "finding differences" between chips from the same batch, obviously same model, same doping, same "cooking", is the most ridiculous notion.
And any minute (inaudible) difference that might exist, would be ironed out by the use in a high feedback circuit as most Op amp ones are.
3) They forget a *much* more important device, which being in the feedback loop shapes what the Op amp does: the diodes !!!!!
What irks me most about that stupid review is that they do find this expensive P.O.S the best ... after hearing it with their eyes. Oh well .
In a slip of the tongue, they admit that they placed a "user review" on Harmony central ... with all 10's of course , so now be warned.
Now, where did I put those titanium legs, polished Oak encapsulated, special order 741's, made by Buddhist Monks at high altitude Monasteries on the Himalaya ???
I need them for that MXR Distortion+ reissue.

[Mark Hammer]

I suppose a great many companies like to have one or two products that they don't anticipate selling very much of, but use to position their "brand". In this case, with the glut of TS-based pedals out there from Fulltone and so so so many others, Ibanez wants to do a Crocodile Dundee and declare "That's not a Tube Screamer. THIS is a Tube Screamer." The intent is not to sell them, but to use them to sell normal Tube Screamers that are perceived as the "real thing".

[Robert M. Martinelli]

How sad.....
As long as people will prefer to buy tons of expensive effects only relying on someone's else opinion and put "tone" before "playing well", things like this will always exist....( I especially liked JM's phrase " listen with their eyes"...it really nails it!)

Crappy playing cannot (and never will) be disguised by good tone....It's much like having a beautiful voice and using it to say a bunch of bullsh!t.....

I'm sure we said this before, but I think it's better to stress the concept once again:
Our fingers are the first and most important "good tone" generator.

JM2CW

Best regards

Bob

[g1]

Oops! When I said that I found the review interesting I didn't mean to give the impression I agreed with it. The part I found interesting was that they found an original version to sound better than this overpriced limited edition nonsense. Also the part about out of tolerance parts and such. Of several reviews I read, the others were even more biased.
Well, no time to chat, gotta go install some "brightening caps".

[Jazz P Bass]

1970 & 1980 opamps do not, in any way compare to ic's made in the 1990-2010 range.
Slew rate, rise time, ring, overshoot parameters have all gotten better.
Case in point.
I had a Tube Works TS252 come in with a bad preamp tube (which just so happened to take out the 4558 IC).
Replaced the tube, put in a new IC.
The customer hated it.
Changed this, changed that, selected a "medium" gain 12AX7 (selected).
Hated it.
Pulled the 4558 from the reverb circuit & stuck it in the preamp.
Loved it.