OD-9 Review

The Maxon OD-9 may look just like your old favorite, but that's where the similarities end. With improved circuitry, the OD-9 stands at the forefront of the Nine Series effects evolution.

Ease of Use:	9
Sound:	10
Reliability:	10
Impression:	9.5
Overall rating:	9.6
Users rating:	9.1
Comments:	11

overall: 10

Featured review by: IncubusMan999, on september 25, 2006

Price paid: $ 148.2

Purchased from: Global Vintage Sydney

Ease of Use: This pedal, the Maxon OD-9, is so easy to get a beautiful sound out of. I am so impreesed with its versatility and I love every sound I can get out of it. There are three simple knobs, just the Ibanez Tubescreamer - level, tone and drive. The maunal clearly explains everything and gives you some settings to use with different pickups to get a nice sound. // 10

Sound: I use this pedal with an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus and a Marshall JCM800 with Avatar 4 x 12 (a Peavey Bandit at home) and I love the sound that it creates. Maxon, the company that designed the original Ibanez Tubescreamers are the manufacturers of this product and I have yet to find anything that can match the Tubescreamer tone, until I saw this. It is True Bypass meaning it leaves your tone untouched when out of use and creates no excess noise. It contains the legendary JRC4558 IC chip that made the Tubescreamer famous with added and upgraded output resistors to eliminate noise and ensure that the tone is even more saturated and genuine than the Ibanez. I can use this pedal for a great, screaming lead boost, a nice light natural overdrive or a classic crunch with the twist of a knob. It excels and beats the competition for anything you throw at it. // 10

Reliability & Durability: This pedal could be rendered indestructible. It has a hard metal casing and a 4DPT footswitch that will take a lot of beating. I treat all my gear in the best possible manner, keeping it in mint condition, but this pedal is designed to take some abuse. I would definitely use it in gigs and have used it without a backup. // 10

Impression: I play anything from Death Metal, classic and modern rock to light rock and everything in between and this pedal provides a briliant Overdrive for any of the above genres. It has finally ended my Quest for a wonderful, versatile and and beatiful-sounding Overdrive that makes me sound how I want to. It matches my style of playing perfectly. I have been playing for 4 years self-taught and I own many other effects pedals and this pedal beat out all of the competition I threw at it for the sound that I searching for. I had heard the good reputation for this product and decided to try it for myself and I was swept away. If it was stolen, I would hunt down the dirty crook and get him thrown away in jail for life. I would not lose because I am reluctant to let it out of my sight. The only criticism I do have to make is the limited volume that it can achieve and the sometimes, difficulty of the footswitch to turn on, but it is more than satisfactory. I compared this to the Fulltone Fulldrive and OCD, the Keeley-modded Tubescreamer and Keeley Boss SD-1 and the Ibanez Tubescreamer and even the Maxon OD-9 Pro+ and it easily thrashed it's competition. Overall, I am thoroughly happy with my purchase and I have found the sound I am looking for in an Overdrive. // 10

overall: 9.3

Reviewed by: CkY freak, on november 10, 2009

Price paid: $ 109

Purchased from: Ebay

Ease of Use: Well I revamped my pedalboard and decided to upgrade most of my Boss stuff. I went from the Boss sd-1 straight to this. After hearing clips of it, I decided there was no other option. To be fair, I don't use this on the clean channel in a Live setting, I only use this on a rhythm channel for extra crunch; so I can only comment on that aspect of it. But I love the sound of this thing. it's very easy to use, it only has 3 knobs - Gain Tone Level. My one complaint on this unit is the footswitch on it. I much prefer the Boss style engage where the whole bottom half of the pedal is the Switch. These only have a small area where you can turn it on, so if you're not perfect, your going to miss it. Also, it's not as easy to engage as the Boss pedals in my opinion. // 8

Sound: My main Live setup is my guitar into my pedalboard, and then into my amp. I'm using my Ibanez RG1570 prestige as my main guitar. I swapped the pickups out for a DiMarzio Tone Zone, and an air norton in the neck. I left the single coil stock. Occasionally I'll use a Fender American HSS strat at home as well. As I mentioned earlier, I use this more as a permanent boost for my head. I have the pedal set with the gain at 0, the level maxed out and the tone at about 1.5. The amp I'm using is a Mesa Boogie F100 and the contour chennel is a bit bright, hence the low tone selection on the pedal. I used to use a Boss sd-1. I found that the pedal added way too much midrange when engaged, and even screwed with the tone when it was off. I do sometimes disengage the pedal for clean parts, which I achieve by rolling down my volume and selecting the middle/bridge pickup combination.

I love that this pedal does not add any coloration to your sound. How you hear your guitar plugged straight into the amp, is how you hear it with this pedal between you and the amp. I've always used overdrives towards the front of the chain, right after the tuner, so I can't comment on how it sounds after certain effects. I'm not really sure what bands are using this pedal right now. Most I notice are using the OD808, which I hear is great too. Of course, as with any Overdrive pedal, you will get some extra noise and hiss. I find that by running this pedal through the loop of my Boss ns-2, the gate works much better than just at the end of the chain. // 10

Reliability & Durability: I love this thing. I have another boost pedal on my board, but that is only used in addition to this pedal. This pedal is on 99% of the time. And depending on what songs we are doing - 100% of the time. As I mentioned before, I just don't like the engage pedal on this unit. it's too small and too difficult to hit every time in a Live setting. So it may not be reliable to make sure it goes on every time, but I know it's reliable in a sense that it WILL work for sure all the time when you do get it on. it's also in a very sturdy metal casing, much better than the Boss pedals in my opinion. Boss pedals I believe are all metal except the footswitch which is about half the pedal. The Maxon unit is ALL metal save for the smaller style footswitch. // 10

Impression: Perhaps this unit is a bit pricey for what it does. However, it's true bypass, and made in japan. Having owned a few other Japanese products, like my Prestige, I can definitely tell the quality difference, and that probably makes it worth the extra $70 - $80 more than your average OD pedal. If it were lost or stolen, I'd probably check out the OD808 to see what it's about, as I don't know if I'd like it any better or not, but it would for sure be an option for me. I play sort of a hard rock/metal style of music (music in profile, but those songs were not recorded using the Maxon od9.) I did a bit of research on different brands and whatnot when I decided to buy a new pedal, and this one seemed to be the best, and I'm glad I went with it. I love EVERYTHING about it except for the minor flaw in the design mentioned earlier. I've been playing now for about 8 years, and have used many different stompboxes in those 8 years. This pedal is definitely here to stay on my board. // 9

Comments

[Andrew_1017]

.

[FretboardToAsh]

you work for maxon or something?

[stoat_toast]

yeah i think he does

[StratRat13]

I have one, it rapes Tubescreamers. They made TS's until 2002. And they just took the best of the pedals they made and came out with this, the OD9.

[IncubusMan999]

nope, i work for Lowes, i just love the tone that comes out of it, as mentioned it creams the tubescreamers and its the sound ive been looking for.

[guitarist_with_]

That review is as accurate as you can get. Awesome pedal.

[ugmung]

i want one!
lol

[pondus92]

I have long thought about getting an Ibanez TS808, though after this im going to the city to try ouut maxon. I really cant believe what you are writing. Does Maxon OD9 have enough gain to play Gilmour style?

[cooler_than_you]

wat kind of music is this good for?

[USCENDONE BENE]

Awesome pedal!

[wolfy808]

pondus92 wrote:

I have long thought about getting an Ibanez TS808, though after this im going to the city to try ouut maxon. I really cant believe what you are writing. Does Maxon OD9 have enough gain to play Gilmour style?

For Gilmour stuff, I would get a Big Muff Pi. I believe Gilmour used a USSR model, but I'm not too certain.