OD9

henever we see a green
overdrive pedal, it’s diffi cult not
to feel that this is a reference to
arguably the most sought after and
imitated pedal of them all: the Ibanez
TS-808. However, that’s not to say that
what we have here is simply another
procession of Tube Screamer clones. In
reality, excluding the Sound Tank
series, the Japanese electronics
wizards at Maxon designed and built all
of the Ibanez pedals from 1974 until
the latter part of the 1990s, along with
the pickups on many of the sought
after ‘lawsuit’ electric guitars in the
1970s. Maxon’s partnership with
Ibanez’s parent company Hoshino
proved very fruitful indeed, and saw
Maxon units distributed worldwide
under the Ibanez brand; open up the
back of any Ibanez pedal of that era
and the Maxon name will be visible on
the circuit board.
While these days the Ibanez TS-808
and TS-9 reissues are no longer
manufactured by Maxon at its Nisshin
Onpa factory in Japan, many of the
company’s classic models survive as
part of current Maxon range. With this
kind of heritage, it’s fair to say that
Maxon knows its onions when it comes
to overdrive pedals. But while
production has remained constant,
UK availability has been sketchy at
best with only a handful of stores
which specialise in esoterica, such as
Charlie Chandler’s Guitar Experience,
carrying any stock. French-based
company Filling Distribution are now
handling these units in the UK, so
hopefully they will soon become more
commonplace in music shops around
the country.
The fi ve Maxon stompboxes here are
culled from across four ranges. The
Nine Series will be cosmetically
familiar to anyone with any experience
of the Ibanez TS-9, fi rst introduced by
Ibanez in 1982 as a successor to 1979’s
0 Series that included the original
TS-808. Maxon’s similarly retro Reissue
Series pedals are housed in smaller
standard die-cast cases with much the
same proportions as an MXR pedal,
W
122 FEBRUARY 2006
The original manufacturer of the Tube Screamer returns to the UK and we get our
hands on a quintet of dirtboxes with a formidable heritage by Chris Vinnicombe
Maxon pedals £95-£199
PHOTOGRAPHY PHILIP SOWELS
GIT273.rev_maxon 122GIT273.rev_maxon 122 5/1/06 2:48:55 pm5/1/06 2:48:55 pm