Maxon vs. Maxon vs. Ibanez (clips)

[Lasse Lammert]

here's a little shootout between the OD808, OD820 and an 808 modded TS9

know what I think?
it really doesn't matter all that much, I can hardly hear a difference

OD808

OD820

TS9-808


what do you think?


I also have got an 808 modded TS7 that I'm using live....
if anyone wants to buy the TS9 or TS7 shoot me a PM.
the TS9 is what you were hearing on all my clips and recordings so far

 

[kev]

OD808

OD820

TS9-808



At work at the mo but I shall enjoy checking later!

 

[Lasse Lammert]

OD808

OD820

TS9-808



At work at the mo but I shall enjoy checking later!

fixed the links

 

[kev]

Hehe, cool. Didnt know if you had posted then gone for a bit, so thought i'd go for it at the risk of you thinking I was an over correcting arrogant forum nazi lol. Laptop speakers agree with you.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Yeah, it's all fairy dust really. They all sound the same really.
Sometimes you get these vintage tone snobs who claim the "Maxon 808 is SO MUCH better than a TS-808/Maxon has more sparkle to it!" but it's just shit talking.
I have a Boss SD-1 I'm going to mod to TS-808 specs soon hopefully and I'm convinced by the time the mod is done, it will sound within 99.9 per cent of the 808, for FAR less money than buying a TS-808 new.

 

[kev]

I've always tended to use so little overdrive that you cant really tell the boxes apart. In saying that, the modded tube screamer I have (with interchangeable chip) has two switches on it, I have no clue of their actual definition, but they certainly affect the tone drastically. Looks a bit like this. Probably A fat switch to bugger the low end up (why would you use that when you wanted to tighten the sound in the first place) & a switch for toggling between the standard issue (SI), or germanium (GE) diodes which clip sooner and asymetrically. The slight on my tube screamer broke as well, I really need to solder a new LED in Any idea where to get them?

I remember the seemingly ancient (to me) 808 vs 9 debate that I seemed to care about immensly around 4 years ago? ( I think they were the models with the different chips wernt they, with the 808 having a slighlty smoother breakup or something)

 

[guitarguru777]

No difference at all shit you could probably throw a frequency analyzer on these and they would be within a 100th of a DB on every frequency.

 

[Josh Burgess]

the od820 being true bypass is enough for me to want it over the 808. the regular 808 is a tone sucker... It's most noticeable with the pedal off and playing on the clean channel. It sucks out a good amount of treble.

 

[onqel]

The TS9-808 clip and the maxon 808 clip sounds the same to me, the 820 have a little more lowend rumble..
For me it would be more interesting to compare the dry signal taken directly from the TS ...

Edit: After the TS signal is heavily distorted by the amp the difference would'nt be that different, because they're doing the same thing.. AFAIK the 820 doesn't follow the "standard" tubescreamer design and that might be the reason the low end is a little different

 

[Jind]

While I also tend to think that in this setting they all pretty much do the same thing and pretty much deliver the same results sonically, I imagine someone else in some other genre of music, or with some other purpose in mind other than tightening up the low and high end and compressing the mids, might be able to get differing results from different pedals. While I'm not one of those vintage pedal freaks, I have seen some nice pedals that deliver greatly differing tones all based upon that simple TS circuit.

 

[Lasse Lammert]

AFAIK the 820 is actually a TS-10 (or very close), so it's a bit different.
I think I'm hearing a tiny difference between the 808 and the 9-808, but that's so tiny it could also come from part-tolerances.

to me the 808 sounds a little bit smoother and thicker but less open than the 9-808.
the 820 even smoother and a bit gainier.

but as I said, the differences are so fucking tiny, chainging something like the brand of strings will probably make a bigger difference

 

[JBroll]

You'd be surprised at how much of a difference you'd hear from switching between different pedals of the same design and type - it's already possible to find a pair of TS9s that sound farther from each other than one of them does from an 808, and then when you throw it in front of distortion...

There can be a difference with noise - going from the 4558 to the 4558D or 4558DD can make things quieter. (Then again, going to an op-amp that isn't awful can be even better.)

Jeff

 

[Lasse Lammert]

You'd be surprised at how much of a difference you'd hear from switching between different pedals of the same design and type - it's already possible to find a pair of TS9s that sound farther from each other than one of them does from an 808, and then when you throw it in front of distortion...

There can be a difference with noise - going from the 4558 to the 4558D or 4558DD can make things quieter. (Then again, going to an op-amp that isn't awful can be even better.)

Jeff

I disagree, I had 3 TS9 and 2 TS7 at one point..
of course tolerances kept the 3 TS9 from sounding EXACTLY the same but there was a clear (small but clear) difference between the TS9s and the TS7s.
The parts may have the same values and the circuit may be the same but the entire pcb and pedal layout is completely different, on top of that the pedals use different types of resistors (same value though).
the difference between the TS7 and TS9 for example is definitely bigger than the diff between 2 TS9.

The TS7s cut more treble and sound somewhat less "open".
The differences are small though

 

[JBroll]

This is the first I've heard of different types of resistors. (If I see the phrase 'carbon comp' one more time in a TS discussion I may have an aneurysm.) What'll make a huge difference is the very permissive tolerances in the cheaper pedals - PCB layout shouldn't make much of a difference.

Jeff

 

[Lasse Lammert]

This is the first I've heard of different types of resistors. (If I see the phrase 'carbon comp' one more time in a TS discussion I may have an aneurysm.) What'll make a huge difference is the very permissive tolerances in the cheaper pedals - PCB layout shouldn't make much of a difference.

Jeff

I'll try to take some pics soon, the Rs in the TS7 are about half as biig (in size, not value) than the ones in the TS9.
I don't know WHAT exactly makes the difference, but t's definitely there and I think it's safe to say that in audio related circuits more things than just the circuit and value of parts come into play (like spacing, especially in HF stuff etc).

 

[JBroll]

Size differences will probably just mean that one can handle more abuse than the other.

I won't say that layout won't make a difference, but I will say that 10-25% component tolerances will be far more noticeable - I've built these in all sorts of shapes and sizes (including a few that didn't even have a real board or were several small boards stacked so as to fit in a control cavity) and always was able to get them as close to each other as I could possibly want after a little time with trimpots and careful component selection.

Jeff