One Box, Nine Decades: The JHS Bonsai Is the Tube Screamer Endgame

Sometime in 1979, a Japanese engineer named Susumu Tamura finished a circuit that would quietly reshape the electric guitar. The Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer wasn’t a revolution — it was a refinement, built on the bones of the Boss OD-1 from two years earlier. It had a soft-clipping diode topology, a mid-forward EQ curve, and a bass roll-off that tightened everything without sounding thin. It was, by the standards of its era, a very polite overdrive pedal. It did not roar. It sang. And that turned out to be exactly what the world needed.

Forty-plus years later, the Screamer circuit has been cloned, modded, rehoused, improved, and mythologized beyond any other overdrive design in history. Players have fought wars on internet forums over the relative merits of the TS808 versus the TS9, over whether the Keeley Mod Plus is worth the premium, over whether the original OD-1 predates the Tube Screamer or inspired it (it’s both). The JHS Bonsai 9-Way Screamer does not wade into these arguments. It ends them.

Josh Scott, founder of JHS Pedals in Kansas City, spent years collecting original units — the 1977 OD-1, the 1979 TS808, the 1982 TS9, the metal-era MSL Power Series, the TS10 that John Mayer made famous, the obscure Polish EXAR OD-1, the late-nineties TS7 in hot mode, Robert Keeley’s celebrated Mod Plus, and JHS’s own Strong Mod from 2008. He then analyzed each one using an Audio Precision test system, accounting for the component drift that makes a forty-year-old capacitor sound different from a fresh one off the reel. The result is the Bonsai: not a collection of modifications to a single circuit, but nine complete, independent replications of nine specific, physically distinct pedals, switched via a rotary selector in a box that runs on a standard 9V supply and draws a pedestrian 20 milliamps.

It is, for the Screamer faithful, something like a museum you can take onstage.

From Kansas City With Care: JHS and the Tube Screamer Tradition

JHS Pedals has always had an unusually historical relationship with gear. Josh Scott started the company in 2007 doing mods on existing pedals — including Tube Screamers — and built a following on deep knowledge of what each component actually does and why. His YouTube channel eventually became one of the most-watched educational resources in the guitar world, explaining the inner workings of pedals that most players treat as black boxes.

The Bonsai was not the first time JHS applied this “multiple circuits in one box” philosophy. The Muffuletta (2015) did the same for the Big Muff Pi, housing five distinct circuit versions behind a single rotary. The Bonsai followed in 2018, applying the same approach to the Screamer family — a considerably more complicated task, since the Screamer has more production history, more variants, and more component-drift complexity than the Muff.

The key engineering insight behind the Bonsai is that vintage component drift is not noise to be eliminated — it is signal to be preserved. A 1979 TS808’s capacitors and resistors have drifted from their original values over four decades. That drift is part of why the pedal sounds the way it does. JHS measured the actual, real-world values in the specific units Josh collected, then replicated those values in the Bonsai’s circuits. When you dial to TS808 mode, you’re not hearing what a 1979 TS808 was designed to sound like. You’re hearing what Josh’s specific 1979 TS808 sounds like today, warts and all.

This distinction matters. It means the Bonsai is, in a very real sense, a clone of specific objects rather than an emulation of an idealized type.

Specifications

Brand	JHS Pedals
Model	Bonsai 9-Way Screamer
Year Released	2018
Made In	Kansas City, USA
Circuit Type	Analog
Bypass	True Bypass
Modes	9 (OD-1, TS808, TS9, MSL, TS10, EXAR OD-1, TS7+, Keeley Mod Plus, JHS Strong Mod)
Controls	Drive, Tone, Volume, Mode (9-position rotary)
Power	9V DC negative center (standard), no battery
Current Draw	20mA
Dimensions	2.6″ × 4.8″ × 1.6″
MSRP	$249 USD
Street (used, excellent)	~$160–$185
Equipboard Pro Users	17

The Nine Modes: A Timeline of Screamer DNA

The rotary selector is where the Bonsai lives and dies. Each position is a distinct circuit, not a voicing filter applied to a shared topology. Here is what each mode actually is and what it actually does.

OD-1 (1977)

The Boss OD-1 came before the Tube Screamer and, in a real sense, caused it. It uses asymmetrical hard clipping via a single diode (versus the symmetrical soft-clipping pair of the TS circuit), which gives it a brighter, edgier, more open character. The most important operational difference: the OD-1 does not use a Tone knob in the traditional sense — the control is removed from the signal path, so turning it does nothing. What you get is a raw, unfiltered response that lets your amp’s natural character come through. Premier Guitar’s Joe Charupakorn noted it is “predictably more open and brash.” Think of it as the Tube Screamer before the Tube Screamer learned manners. It excels at boosting a slightly driven amp into singing saturation without adding its own color.

TS808 (1979)

The original. The circuit that started everything. The TS808 is the softest, warmest, most mid-forward member of the Bonsai family, and for most blues and classic rock applications it remains the most useful. The bass roll-off is pronounced, the midrange hump sits somewhere around 700Hz to 1kHz depending on the drive setting, and the overall feel is smooth and compressed. With drive low and volume up, it is a transparent-ish signal fattener; with drive past noon it becomes a creamy lead sound that pairs beautifully with a tweed-style amp. SRV is the canonical reference point — his modified TS808 into the clean channel of a Dumble-voiced Vibroverb is arguably the most famous Tube Screamer sound in history, and this mode gets you most of the way there.

TS9 (1982)

When Ibanez transitioned to the TS9, the main change was a component swap that pushed the low-mid response slightly harder. Charupakorn’s head-to-head comparison in the Premier Guitar review found the Bonsai’s TS9 mode “more or less spot-on” versus a reference TS9 unit, with a slight edge in cleanliness at zero gain. The difference from TS808 is subtle — you could A/B them all night and still argue — but the TS9 has a little more punch in the lower mids and a fraction more output. The Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer is covered in its own feature; the Bonsai’s version is as faithful a replication as you are likely to encounter outside the actual pedal.

MSL Power Series (1985)

Ibanez briefly went metal in 1985, and the result was the MSL (also known as the “Metal Screamer” or “L Series”). The gain range is higher, the low end is fuller, and the overall character is what Charupakorn accurately described as “gooey” — a softer attack with more sustain and a slightly tubby quality that makes it a poor fit for djent but an excellent choice for ’80s studio leads, smooth fusion lines, or any situation where you want a thicker, less aggressive high-gain texture. The Keeley and JHS modes will give you more attack; the MSL gives you more body.

TS10 (1986)

The TS10 is the John Mayer Tube Screamer. Mayer has been documented using it extensively — his specific TS10 setting is famous enough that it has been recreated and published many times. The Bonsai’s TS10 mode is described by JHS as “bluesy, crisp, more low end roll off and low gain.” Compared to the TS9, the TS10 cuts more bass, which paradoxically makes single notes sound more defined and guitar chords more transparent. It cleans up beautifully when you roll your guitar’s volume knob back. Mayer’s approach — low drive, high volume, using the TS10 as a light touch to add warmth and midrange presence without audible distortion — is the canonical application, and the Bonsai’s TS10 mode replicates that feel accurately. The Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer Classic is featured separately in this guide.

EXAR OD-1 (1989)

This is the outlier. The EXAR OD-1 was made in Poland, not Japan, and it uses a slightly different drive character — a bit more gain than the classic TS circuits, with a marginally more transparent feel in the midrange. It sits between the classic Screamer warmth and something closer to a hot-rodded OD, and it is possibly the least-known mode on the rotary for most players. It rewards investigation. The extra gain and transparency make it an interesting mid-gain overdrive for players who find the TS808 too polite but the TS7 too aggressive.

TS7 (Hot Mode, 1999)

The late-nineties TS7 came with a standard mode and a hot mode (activated by an internal switch on the original). The Bonsai uses the hot mode, which is the highest-gain circuit in the entire Bonsai lineup. Charupakorn found a “huge spike in volume” switching into TS7 mode even with the gain dial fully off, and noted that “even with the gain off, there’s a lot of dirt and sustain on tap.” With gain at 3 o’clock, it delivers “assertive classic rock tones that were more distortion than overdrive.” If you are using the Bonsai for high-gain lead work or stacking it before a distortion pedal, TS7 is the mode. Just expect to adjust your volume knob relative to the other modes.

Keeley Mod Plus (2002)

Robert Keeley’s modifications to the Tube Screamer circuit became so popular in the early 2000s that they spawned their own cottage industry. His Mod Plus tightens the midrange response, reduces some of the hump’s bluntness, and extends the bass response slightly — the result is a more modern, hi-fi take on the Screamer that retains its soul while sounding more precise. Players who find the TS808 too dark or the TS9 too colored often gravitate toward the Keeley mod. It also stacks beautifully with humbuckers, where the standard circuits can get muddy.

JHS Strong Mod (2008)

JHS’s own modification, which they have been doing since 2008, is described as “much cleaner and overall more powerful” with “more pronounced higher and low end drop offs.” Charupakorn found the JHS mode to be the loudest of the nine at matched gain/tone settings and “among the most open sounding,” while still retaining “a nice balance of creaminess for single-note lines.” It cleaned up exceptionally well when he rolled his guitar’s volume back. Think of it as the most versatile, studio-ready mode — cleaner and more dynamic than the vintage replications, more transparent than the standard TS circuits, better suited for players who want a modern-voiced Screamer that doesn’t color the signal as aggressively.

The Tube Screamer Tradition: The Players Who Built the Legend

The JHS Bonsai honors a lineage of players who made the Tube Screamer the most documented overdrive circuit in guitar history. None of the following artists are confirmed users of the Bonsai specifically — they are the architects of the tradition the Bonsai was built to capture.

Stevie Ray Vaughan is the Tube Screamer’s most famous ambassador. His modified SRV TS808 — running into the clean channel of a Dumble amp and a Vibroverb, guitar volume at 10, nothing polite about the volume level — defined what a soft-clipping mid-boost could do in a blues context. The TS808 mode of the Bonsai is aimed precisely at this territory. The Edge of U2, whose use of the TS9 is documented in multiple rig rundowns, is in the DB: The Edge. Carlos Santana has used various TS-family circuits over decades: Carlos Santana. Kirk Hammett of Metallica has used the TS9 as a clean boost into a high-gain amp — a technique the Bonsai’s TS9 mode handles perfectly.

John Mayer’s TS10 use is so extensively documented that an entire mode of the Bonsai is named for it. His approach — drive barely cracked, volume high, using the pedal to fatten the midrange of a clean amp rather than add audible overdrive — is the clearest example of the Tube Screamer as a tone tool rather than an effect. Paul Gilbert, a noted gear enthusiast with documented eclectic pedalboard choices, appears on Equipboard as a Bonsai user (Equipboard lists 17 pro artists using the Bonsai, from $160), though independent primary-source documentation via rig rundown or interview has not been confirmed: Paul Gilbert. Mark Hoppus (Blink-182) also appears in Equipboard’s Bonsai user list, though again without independently verifiable primary-source documentation for the Bonsai specifically.

The honest framing for the Bonsai is this: the players who made the Tube Screamer famous did not use the Bonsai, because the Bonsai did not exist when they built their reps. The Bonsai exists so that anyone can access what those players had. That is its entire purpose.

Tone Recipes and Settings

Signal Chain Considerations

The Bonsai is a true bypass pedal — when switched off, your signal passes unaffected. The 20mA current draw is among the friendliest specs in the boutique overdrive market; it will run off the lowest-output isolated outputs on a professional power supply without issue, and it can even run off a 9V battery in a pinch (though the jack is for DC adapter, so you’ll need the right cable).

One critical operational note that Premier Guitar’s review explicitly flags: the rotary mode selector makes an audible click when switching between positions. This means the Bonsai is not a pedal you can hot-switch between modes mid-song in a live context. Choose your mode in soundcheck and live with it for the set, or change it between songs. If you need instant access to multiple Screamer voicings in a single performance, you are looking at two separate overdrive pedals, not one Bonsai.

Placement in the signal chain follows the standard Screamer logic. Before modulation and delay — the Screamer was always an amp-input device, not a loop device, and running it into the front of a clean amp is how it was designed to work. Before distortion if you are using it as a boost. After any wah pedal. Before compressors if you want the compressor to smooth the overdrive’s response; after if you want the compressor to control your clean signal and let the Bonsai do the saturation work.

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver is the Bonsai’s most common pedalboard companion for players who want a cleaner, more transparent alternative for lighter overdrive duties. The BD-2 lacks the mid-hump that defines the Screamer family, so it fills the space differently rather than duplicating what the Bonsai already covers. Running them in series — BD-2 first, Bonsai second — produces a combined overdrive that is thicker and more saturated than either alone without becoming muddy, because the BD-2’s relatively flat EQ response feeds the Bonsai’s mid-push cleanly.

Bonsai vs. Its Source Material: When to Buy the Real Thing

The obvious question the Bonsai raises is whether it replaces ownership of the actual vintage units it replicates. The honest answer depends on what you are after.

If you want a single TS808 sound for your pedalboard and that is all you need, buying a reissue Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro for less money makes practical sense. If you want a TS9 specifically, again the original is cheaper. The Bonsai costs $249 — more than any single current-production Screamer variant.

What the Bonsai offers instead is the ability to audition nine circuits in a structured, repeatable way and find the one that best suits your amp, your guitar, and your playing style — and then leave it there. For players who have spent years wondering whether they are TS808 people or TS9 people or whether the Keeley mod would change their life, the Bonsai answers the question empirically rather than asking you to buy six pedals to find out. For working guitarists who play multiple genres in a single night and need different overdrive characters available without physically swapping pedals between sets, it delivers that — minus the hot-switching limitation noted above.

The Bonsai also represents something that no individual vintage unit can: a controlled comparison. Because all nine modes live in the same chassis with the same downstream circuitry and the same bypass arrangement, you are hearing the actual difference between circuits rather than the difference between circuits plus the difference between chassis build quality, cable runs, jack quality, and component age variance. It is, in that sense, an unusually honest way to hear what these designs actually sound like relative to each other.

Buying Guide: New, Used, and Alternatives

The Bonsai has been in continuous production since 2018 with no significant revisions. The current MSRP is $249. Street pricing on new units runs $199–$229 depending on retailer. Used units in excellent condition appear on the secondary market at $160–$185, which is genuine value for a boutique Kansas City-made pedal with a true bypass and 20mA draw.

The Bonsai has a good reputation for reliability. JHS builds in Kansas City and backs the pedal with a warranty. There are no battery compartment issues to watch for (there is no battery compartment — DC adapter only), no common failure modes in the rotary selector that the community has flagged at scale, and no firmware or digitally-induced obsolescence to worry about, since the circuit is entirely analog.

One volume-matching consideration: as Premier Guitar’s review noted, the TS7 (+) mode has a noticeably higher output than the other modes, even with the drive control at zero. If you set your Bonsai’s volume level in TS808 mode and then rotate to TS7, expect a jump. This is accurate to the original hardware — the TS7’s hot mode is genuinely louder — but it requires awareness in a live setting. Match your volume reference in the mode you plan to use most.

Why the Bonsai Still Makes Sense

In a market that has produced hundreds of Tube Screamer clones and variants since the early 2000s, the JHS Bonsai occupies an unusual position. It is not trying to improve on the Tube Screamer. It is not adding voices the original never had or applying modern DSP polish to a vintage circuit. It is, as precisely as a small American company with an Audio Precision analyzer and a collection of original units can manage, giving you the actual historical objects — all nine of them — in a form you can carry in your gig bag.

That is a specific, unusual, and genuinely useful thing to do. It is also, for anyone who has spent real time with real vintage Screamers, a surprisingly successful execution. The TS9 mode feels right. The TS808 mode sounds warm and compressed in the way the actual pedal does. The EXAR is exotic and interesting in the way the actual EXAR is. JHS did the work, and it shows.

The Tube Screamer is forty-six years old. It has survived the rise and fall of digital amp modeling, the boutique overdrive explosion of the early 2000s, the neural amp era, and every trend that was supposed to make it obsolete. It survived because it does something no amount of clean circuitry can replicate: it makes the guitar feel different under your fingers. Compressed, warm, responsive to how hard you dig in — it makes your amp move in a particular way that players have been chasing since 1977.

The Bonsai is what it looks like when someone decides to take that seriously.

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