For those of you who are into guitar pedals, you may enjoy this one.  I recently had the fortune of meeting Eric Shcriefer at the Lakewood Bar & Grill in Dallas.  He informs me of his expertise in building custom guitar pedals.  A week later I decide to order a custom Tube Screamer overdrive pedal from him…  Two weeks later, I'm opening a box containing my custom designed, hand painted TS-808 Tube Screamer.  I play it for the first time about 2 days later at the Coast Club gig in Port Aransas. 

Let me just start by saying, absolutely amazing!  The creaminess of this pedal is astonishing.  I have it in a chain next to a stock TS-9 so it's easy to notice the beauty of this Custom TS-808.  The sound coming out of the TS-808 is super rich with warmth & clarity.  It's got a sweet amount of overdrive where it bites a little and cuts through with beautiful sustain.  On the top is a boost type switch to get a little more drive out of the pedal if needed. 

The Schriefer TS-808 sounds great through two Roland Jazz Chorus 77s, but it doesn't come to life until put in front of real tubes.  I tested the pedal out on my Custom Audio Electronics preamp and Mesa Boogie 20/20 poweramp and it instantly reminded me the necessity of tubes.  The pure tone this pedal created when pushing tubes was absolutely astonishing.  It was so sweet that I knew I needed to go back to tube amps immediately.  I soon discovered that Eric is incredibly passionate about making custom amps from the ground up…

To be continued…