Is Anyone Interested In The Maxon SD-9?

[edsmith]

Hello gents. I just received my new Maxon SD-9 in the mail and I'm headed off to my studio for a few hours to check it out. This is very exciting as I have wanted this pedal since I was initially struck by the brilliance of my OD-9. I'll post an evaluation if anyone is interested in reading about it.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: Is Anyone Interested In The Maxon SD-9?

I just sold mine, only because it was waaaay too much for the kind of music I generally play. That being said, it was a lot of fun.

I'd love to hear what you think.

 

[edsmith]

Re: Is Anyone Interested In The Maxon SD-9?

I just sold mine, only because it was waaaay too much for the kind of music I generally play. That being said, it was a lot of fun.

I'd love to hear what you think.

What I think... humm... severe disapointment. After my experience with the Maxon OD-9, OD-808, and Distortion Master, I'm in shock that they could make such a pittiful sounding pedal. That's $150 wasted. Here's what I think about it.

Way too mid scooped. You can't adjust the tone knob without either adding too much treble, or cutting too much out. It's impossible to find any treble balance unless you're playing some bright, mid scooped kind of music. I don't know what that would be, but I don't play that stuff.

It actually has a real nice crunch, but it's so screwed over by the lack of mids and thin sounding top. I tried for hours to find a great sound. I tried it in conjunction with my amp gain, clean, with my OD-9 and TS808. I tried six ways from Sunday and it still sucks. It definitely has potential, but not without some major modifications. I hate the way this pedal sounds. Those Danelectric FAB pedals would eat this one alive. What a crying shame this is.

One possible stroke of luck though. I found this place:

http://www.analogman.com/ts9.htm#sd9
http://www.analogman.com/sd9.htm

I just don't know if it's worth sinking another dime into though. Normally I would give gear at least a week, but this one sounds so bad that I won't bother another minute. I'm so disappointed because I was really really looking forward to it.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: Is Anyone Interested In The Maxon SD-9?

I should have mentioned that the one I had was the Analogman one. It was not mid scooped, at least to my ears. The tone control was useful for pretty much the whole rotation. With a Strat, it kind of reminded me of the Buddy Guy "**** Right" tone, which I don't particularly like but that's kind of what I would compare it to. For chords it was pretty big sounding and actually was quite touch sensitive for a high gain pedal. For me, though, the Barber Direct Drive has enough gain.

You might be able to find an already modded one for somewhere around $130 used if you troll the Gear Page for a couple of weeks.

 

[edsmith]

Re: Is Anyone Interested In The Maxon SD-9?

I should have mentioned that the one I had was the Analogman one. It was not mid scooped, at least to my ears. The tone control was useful for pretty much the whole rotation. With a Strat, it kind of reminded me of the Buddy Guy "**** Right" tone, which I don't particularly like but that's kind of what I would compare it to. For chords it was pretty big sounding and actually was quite touch sensitive for a high gain pedal. For me, though, the Barber Direct Drive has enough gain.

You might be able to find an already modded one for somewhere around $130 used if you troll the Gear Page for a couple of weeks.

Luckily the Ebay merchant I purchased it from has a wide selection of pedals and operates a store, so it's quite possible that the item can be exchanged. We'll see when they reply to my email. I'm just shocked that Maxon can make such a POS, but I guess everything they make can't be a winner. I'm not going to hold it against them.