808-40

Ibanez isn't the only one marking an anniversary event this year with a commemorative pedal. Maxon has its OD808 40th anniversary model (unfortunately limited to 400 units) to remind the world where the Tube Screamer is coming from. For those of us who gets on with a strict embrace of one pedal over the other, we need to stop & re-visit this history. The Maxon & Ibanez camps collaborated to give us some of the most enjoyable over drive manifestation in history. They subsequently disembarked on a separate journey once the collaboration was over & we note that this wasn't detrimental to either camps. 

Am I looking forward to this one? If it gets here then it's worth checking out. Otherwise, Maxon has a formidable range of over drive in its current catalog to serve our needs.

Drives

Spent some time with these darlings (L-R):

1. Seymour Duncan 805 OD
2. Digitech DOD OD/Preamp 250
3. Maxxon OD808

There is very little to separate them in terms of fundamentals; all overdrives & we know there's not much intensity to be had here. 

The 805 is a surprise in this aspect for its ability to manifest some proto-intensity with all controls maxed out. There's not much to be had in terms of tone tailoring but the in-your-face drive is there for your considerations. 

The OD250 on the other hand is the senior citizen here, but the fact that it's a repro of its ancestor disqualified it from being one. The GAIN control has some pre-determined EQ as you dial it up. At lower settings, it's a mild dirt with a little hint of touch sensitivity (only when you play loud!). Midway, it's a crunch monster retaining much bottom end inclination. Maxed out, the 250 adds fuzz into the mix & it's rather apparent, please take note. Also, at max gain, you'd hear more top end so the overall voicing is a raspy fuzz-induced drive with lots of top end definition.

The 808 will always be my little darling. It's not quite the Ibanez manifestation albeit the obvious association (& Maxxon manufacturing the Ibanez at a point in history), it's a sweet sounding overdrive with loads of clarity. No midrange bump at upper gain settings but more saturation instead, fantastic for someone with a light touch & need for speed most of the time. The 808 is the most outstanding member used with an already driven amp so that's the reason it's my gem. :-)

Weekend noodling

It's the weekend. I kept things simple:

• Aria: 615 Frontier
• Maxon: OD808
• Marshall: JVM 1W

There were no intentions to dwell in the clean realm so the JVM was utilized along with the OD808. The Aria has a high output humbucker in it so it was an all-out dirt affair. I had been in chromatic mode for some weeks now. It's not an attempt to revise my phrasings but it just opens up more connections between metal & non-metal ideas. If you embrace chromatics, you'd discover quite an endless avenue of what works. In fact, everything works, it's up to you to fit these chunks of ideas into your compositions. Isn't that great? You are in control of your ideas instead of being enslaved to finite scales.  

Anyway, this school of thought had forced me to utilize 4-notes per strings ideas more extensively & it worked wonders for finger strength. My left hand is currently quite independent from my right. Under lots of drive, I do not have to pick every note & that cleans up my playing tremendously.

Maxon: OD808

This is good stuff. I'm not seeking a Tube Screamer tone/clone regardless if Maxon is the name responsible for putting the Tube Screamer on the tone map. The OD808 is a simple pedal, it has lots of Tube Screamer goodness on board & it's not ashamed to churn it out. However, it's a little jaded if it sounds like its Ibanez counterparts but not this one. It's nothing too different but it has that fatness that adds kick in both bottom end reinforcement as well as saturation. So what you get is a thick drive, nothing distortion-like, mind you. This is especially helpful when you think your single coil pickups are sounding too treblish for their own good.