Maxon OD880 Soft Distortion Overdrive

The Maxon Company is probably most famous for manufacturing the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer pedals (among many other Ibanez offerings). Because of this (and especially in non-Asian markets) Maxon pedals were often overshadowed by their Ibanez-branded brothers. But throughout the company’s history, they have produced a great offering of effects.

The Maxon OD880 Soft Distortion Overdrive was first produced in the mid 70s, and originals are very rare, especially in the West. It used 3 ICs (741 types) to produce a great transparent overdrive effect. The pedal was reissued in the 90s exclusively in Japan with an updated circuit that used 2 opamps. The layout below is for the original 3 IC version. I’ve added power filtering and polarity protection. It should fit just fine in a 1590B.

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