Tools, Tones and Toys for Guitarists
There are a host of Big Muff clones and variation, but one of the most sought after clones is the Ibanez OD-850. Like all vintage Ibanez pedals, the OD-850 is just a rehoused and rebadged Maxon design–in this case, the D&S OD-801. While this shares a lot in common with a Ram’s Head BMP, it … Read more
YATS from ’94, recycled by Maxon. Asym clippers and slightly lower rolloff frequency for the high pass. Should be a decent alternative for the standard TS.
Originally produced in the early 80s, the SD9 was the distortion brother of the classic TS9 Tube Screamer. It ranges from mild overdrive to fuzz territory without losing articulation. The easiest way to describe the SD9 circuit is to say it’s half of a Tube Screamer, with a Big Muff tone stack. Original units only … Read more
Maxon released the OD808 in 1979 and it generates natural, mild overdrive tones and is similar to the TS808. Original units used MC1458P ICs, but I’ve listed JRC4558s as they’re likely to be on hand for many of you. Also the original diodes were Panasonic MA150. I’ve listed 1N4148s as a replacement, but socket and … Read more
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 … Read more
Info about the Maxon reissue: Originally released in 1979, the Maxon OD808 was one of the first tube-amp overdrive simulators to hit the market. Its smooth, creamy crunch tone caught on quickly, and helped to launch a long line of predecessors as well as imitators. Today, the OD808 design is without a doubt the most … Read more
Here’s something quite interesting. A switch to toggle between TubeScreamer-like, and a Rat-like mode. Basically this could be the basic tool, think swiss army knife, of overdrives and distortions. I omitted the in/out buffers from the layout, but used the original JFET pinout. I built the layout, and noticed that with my batch of NE5534s … Read more
Maxon’s now discontinued Overdrive / Soft Distortion pedal. Brother to the very popular OD820 and in the same series with the same size case. This layout uses two dual opamps instead of the 3 singles in the original to keep the layout size down. The equivalent of the LM741 in dual opamp form is probably … Read more
Info from Maxon about the reissue: Originally released in 1979, the Maxon OD808 was one of the first tube-amp overdrive simulators to hit the market. Its smooth, creamy crunch tone caught on quickly, and helped to launch a long line of predecessors as well as imitators. Today, the OD808 design is without a doubt the … Read more
