Maxon SD9

Corvus

Anyone got or had one? Do they clean up on the guitar vol, is there bass cut, are the main things.

Been listening to Scott Henderson a fair bit lately and liking some of his sounds.
Cheers.

stratman3142

I've got one, which isn't currently in my pedal board. I ended up not using it full on like Scott Henderson, which wasn't to my taste. I used it on a minimum setting for a glassy crunch sound, which I really liked.

Corvus

Cheers, that sounds interesting... I think it would work as a stack with my setup as well. If you fancy selling it please fire a PM.

JDE

They're a good distortion, good bass response. They are *very* bright, though, so I got the best results keeping the tone knob low. They clean up pretty well. Personally the larger Maxon Distortion Master is a more refined version of it, so if you have the board space, I'd look at those. 

Corvus

Thanks JDE, space probably OK and I like the separate tone controls, might well go there instead. Will do some research tomorrow. Cheers for that.

Sassafras

Our friend Mr Vertex has a pedal "based" on the SD-9.
In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't made an appearance.

Corvus

Yeah, I was interested in that. In the same way I'm interested in sawing my leg off with a butter knife.
bought a new SD9 last night, I can return it if not keen, cheers all for the input .

Winny_Pooh

Read this thread and bought a Maxon Distortion Master off ebay, hopefully here Friday to test, currently stacking a Zen & blackstone or ODR-1 for higher gain stuff.

Corvus

Cool - I'd be interested what you make of it Winny_Pooh. I was tempted but decided to stick to trying the SD9 first.

stratman3142

Corvus said:
...bought a new SD9 last night, I can return it if not keen, cheers all for the input .

You've probably already seen the clips of Scott Henderson using an SD9 in a full on way, which was the way Mike Landau used to use one I think.

I like to use mine on a very low drive setting, as used by Oz Noz in the clip below. I believe Wayne Kantz uses (or used) one in this way as well.

bingefeller

Shiva Audio will mod your SD-9 too

Pete24v

Analogman does a great mod, with either an  internal or external mid control. I sent my Maxon to him, it was much better on return. Also I've had the Ibanez Mods version, which to be fair, sounds very much like the Analogman mod! 

Corvus

Cheers chaps, I did find some clips but not yours bingefeller, sounds good...
Should arrive tomorrow. I wondered about the Ibanez mods one but internets gave conflicting opinion (surprise!) on whether it same or different in nature.

AndyJP

They have less of a mid hump than a regular TS yeah?

Corvus

More slightly scooped if anything, and decent amount of bass, it's a different beast - arrived today, given it a run only with a Strat so far, with trad-ish pickups not over hot etc.
I'm liking it so far, its added a new character to my setup. I like the chimey spank it can do.
Pushed by a Zen copy it takes a different character, the mids fill nicely too. Pushing the Weehbo JTM it does really nice things to that. The softness of the attack in that pedal is transformed, it can make it do very spanky chimey drive, very addictive, or more driven rock type gain.

The tone control is pure bonkers. I like it just above 9 o'clock so far. At max the treble is sharp enough to slice cheese... Nice amount of bass in it with the tone in the good zone though.

Winny_Pooh

I tested the Distortion master last night with a my plexi and it bore little to no reference to the Scott Henderson tone to the point that I was like WTF? I tried rolling down the tone on the pedal, guitar & amp but no variation could get a smoother tone (the fizz is at a different freq that I would need an proper EQ pedal for), it's very much in the realm of a fuzzier Smashing Pumpkins gain sound. 

Corvus

Interesting. Probably not my thing, I keep buying hi-gainers and moving them on.. Still liking the SD9, though mostly boosted or pushing something else which fattens it out nicely. It mostly feels a bit thin on it's own.