Of course all of you know that John (aka Stradeluxer97) is well known for doing mods and this is a review of the Ibanez TS9 mod that he has done for me. A little background to set the scene so to speak.
I have long wanted John to do a mod on a pedal for me but as I live in England to actually send one over to him and for him to do the mod and send it back was going to be a logistical (and possibly expensive) nightmare. After pursuing some possible options we agreed that the best thing was for him to purchase the pedal and carry out and do the mod and send it over to me (of course I paid John). John is one helluva person to deal with and communicate with. He purchased the same day that I contacted him and did the mod and sent it over to me and I got my hands on it earlier this week. Due to some personal problems with my mother I have not really been able to give the pedal a thorough going over and today I was able to do so.
I also have a Maxon OD-9 pedal which is really an Ibanez TS-9 pedal as well, so it was going to be a shootout between both of them and interesting to see how they compare. For the review I used my Highway US strat (complete with the new Warmoth wenge neck and brazilian board), my vintage '57 strat complete with fralin pups. I also used my Hamer Studio Custom. For my amps I plugged them into my Blues Juniors and also went into my Mesa Boogie Nomad 55 with ext speaker.
Well John's mod on the pedal just rocks for my strats - it has plenty of lows and lovely gain and lots of output - John said to me that this has more balls and he is absolutely right. In fact it has loads of BALLS in comparison to my stock OD-9 pedal. Keeping the gain at or around 1-2 o'clock gives you lovely lead tones and you can easily get some very sweetsinging sustain. You still have the ability to dial in clean "boosted" tones also and you'll have more range on the drive knob overall. As long as you don't dial the gain up too much but if you want dirty then you have got it. What I also noticed that somehow it is also a very quiet pedal in comparison to the other pedal.
With my Custom Studio ('59 humbuckers) the amount of sustain and gain is huge, although you have to dial in a bit more tone (and also do some eq on the amp - Mesa Boogie) - quite literally you are talking Santana tones which just lasts forever. In comparison with my stock pedal it was thin by comparison and in fact I tend to use my OD9 pedal for my humbuckers and use my SD-1 for my strats. They are now going to be taking a back seat and I am only going to be using John's modded pedal from now on. Of course I will be testing them it in real gigging condition and I think the others will largely become redundant.
For anyone who is even thinking about getting John to do the mods on their pedals or even do what I did and ask him to buy one and send it over - what are you waiting for?? John is a tremendous person and a guy who will communicate with you and let you know what is going on at every stage. I am only grateful that John considers me a friend and was willing to do this for me.
To him my immense gratitude and thanks buddy
Norman
I have long wanted John to do a mod on a pedal for me but as I live in England to actually send one over to him and for him to do the mod and send it back was going to be a logistical (and possibly expensive) nightmare. After pursuing some possible options we agreed that the best thing was for him to purchase the pedal and carry out and do the mod and send it over to me (of course I paid John). John is one helluva person to deal with and communicate with. He purchased the same day that I contacted him and did the mod and sent it over to me and I got my hands on it earlier this week. Due to some personal problems with my mother I have not really been able to give the pedal a thorough going over and today I was able to do so.
I also have a Maxon OD-9 pedal which is really an Ibanez TS-9 pedal as well, so it was going to be a shootout between both of them and interesting to see how they compare. For the review I used my Highway US strat (complete with the new Warmoth wenge neck and brazilian board), my vintage '57 strat complete with fralin pups. I also used my Hamer Studio Custom. For my amps I plugged them into my Blues Juniors and also went into my Mesa Boogie Nomad 55 with ext speaker.
Well John's mod on the pedal just rocks for my strats - it has plenty of lows and lovely gain and lots of output - John said to me that this has more balls and he is absolutely right. In fact it has loads of BALLS in comparison to my stock OD-9 pedal. Keeping the gain at or around 1-2 o'clock gives you lovely lead tones and you can easily get some very sweetsinging sustain. You still have the ability to dial in clean "boosted" tones also and you'll have more range on the drive knob overall. As long as you don't dial the gain up too much but if you want dirty then you have got it. What I also noticed that somehow it is also a very quiet pedal in comparison to the other pedal.
With my Custom Studio ('59 humbuckers) the amount of sustain and gain is huge, although you have to dial in a bit more tone (and also do some eq on the amp - Mesa Boogie) - quite literally you are talking Santana tones which just lasts forever. In comparison with my stock pedal it was thin by comparison and in fact I tend to use my OD9 pedal for my humbuckers and use my SD-1 for my strats. They are now going to be taking a back seat and I am only going to be using John's modded pedal from now on. Of course I will be testing them it in real gigging condition and I think the others will largely become redundant.
For anyone who is even thinking about getting John to do the mods on their pedals or even do what I did and ask him to buy one and send it over - what are you waiting for?? John is a tremendous person and a guy who will communicate with you and let you know what is going on at every stage. I am only grateful that John considers me a friend and was willing to do this for me.
To him my immense gratitude and thanks buddy
Norman
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