Which comes first? A chicken and egg dilemma ;)

FragileThunder

The Space Between The Notes
Joined
Feb 9, 2022
Messages
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Quiet afternoon at the office so I'm going to toss the question I'm mulling out to you all. First, some background...I suffer GAS like many of you, and despite constantly reassuring myself that I'm "done" futzing with my pedal board, we all know that's just never true. Over time, I've come to realize that I have a very specific setting on my old TS-9 that is my "go-to" OD tone. Basically Drive at 12:45, Tone at 1:30. It is so much "my" sound that I don't like to touch it so it is always at the ready. After doing some recent board clean-up, I found myself with both space on my board and a couple of pedals I was ready to part with. "Brilliant!" thinks I, now I can get another TS pedal and leave my trusty old one to be a one trick pony! After debating which TS pedal I'd want (another TS9? An 808? Keeley modded?), I went to my favorite local guitar shop today and traded in a couple of old pedals I'll never use again and walked out with a JHS Bonsai to cover all the bases.

So as I sit here at my desk anxiously awaiting going home 'cus it is REALLY slow here this week...I'm trying to decide, which comes first, the TS-9 or the Bonsai? Yeah, I know there's no right answer and that I'll invariably swap the two back and forth approximately 4,267 times. But since we're all friends here and it's a quiet Tuesday afternoon...

Which one's the chicken and which one's the egg? Or if you prefer to be clearer in your responses, which one would you put first in your signal chain, based on my preferred setting for the TS-9?
 
TS-9 first, because it's not true bypass and could take away from the tone of the JHS if you put the TS9 behind it.

If you've modded your TS9 to be TBP, then disregard.

So now you've got "chicken or egg" and "can of worms" opened at the same time. Good luck. :p
:p
 
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Thanks @DreamTheaterRules, that was actually a sensible answer!!!

Follow up question...if the can of worms is opened, will the chicken eat the worms? And if so, does this produce a superior fertilizer?
 
Thanks @DreamTheaterRules, that was actually a sensible answer!!!

Follow up question...if the can of worms is opened, will the chicken eat the worms? And if so, does this produce a superior fertilizer?
Yes, and yes... but you don't want it in your music room!

And yes, I had a Keeley modded TS9 that tone wise, I would have never sold, but the buffer was noticeble. I should have had him do the TBP mod that adds the switch on top of the switch,but thought it looked odd. While I have Fulldrives, and Barbers that more than cover that space, I wish I still had that pedal. When I was a "clean amp plus pedals" player, my core tones were OCD on for rhythm tones, Keeley TS9 kicked on for solos. Both pedals off for clean tones> Peavey Classic 30 with Emi Governor. That particular OCD was V 1.2 which is one of the best ones (also foolishly sold for the new "improved" 1.4 version that wasn't as good...

The core tones from an always on OCD 1.2 with Keeley TS9 kicking it for solos was a really good tone and worked (with minor adjustments of course) with my strats, Wolfgang, Ibanez guitars and of course my PRS guitars.
 
Your journey with the Keeley modded TS9 and the legendary OCD pedal sounds like a rock and roll adventure! It's always a bummer when you part with gear that has that magical tone. We've all been there, selling something we wish we hadn't. But hey, the memories and the search for that perfect sound are part of the guitarist's journey, right?

By the way, speaking of chickens, did you know they have some interesting preferences when it comes to their diet? Check out this article on what chickens can munch on – grapes, tomatoes, bananas, and more https://expertchicken.com/unraveling-the-diet-of-chickens-can-they-eat-grapes-tomatoes-and-bananas.
 
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