School me on Ibanez/Maxon analog delays

[ryan summit]

no ones mentioned internal trimpots
thats the whole point of getting an ad9,no?

its the only pedel i miss on a regular basis
decent little delay
but tweaking it for oscillation is where it shines
so many sounds in there

[Eivind August]

Yeah, the oscillations is part of it's appeal to me as well.

UG: Haven't ruled the EAR out yet, it's just that it's a big, fancy unit that's twice the price of the cutie AD9. Not sure that I need that, even though it's obviously awesome. But hey, if you buy my Copilot, it might be possible.

[D.o.S.]

Apropos of nothing -- I really hate the way EAR pedals look because they remind me of the concept for the Console.

[frigid midget]

^Never noticed that...Untill now Thanks a lot

Seriously though, if they werent so damn expensive I'd have a dozen of em around to use as paper weights or whatever. They're just pure win in terms of design/aesthetics, about the same classy mojo level as moog pedals, if not more.

Im sure they sound great too, the spec list alone is pretty impressive. For that kind of money though, I'd sorta expect a max delay time somewhere closer towards the 1s mark

[Eivind August]

So, I'm getting an old Maxon AD9 for christmas from my parents. But don't tell me, I want it to be a surprise.

[ryan summit]

oh hell yeah
good choice
it'll hold its value too
if you decide to get rid of it someday
but don't ever do that cause you'll regret it
unless its to me
theres a thread about ad9 internal trimpots somewhere

[Eivind August]

Yeah, got it for $160, which to me sounds cheap? I saw that Analog Man/Mike/whatever had written a column about it on his site. Apparently he had got an old Maxon past 500 ms without much noise/degradation. And I even like noise/degradation. Shouldn't be harder than to mark were the trim pots were set, and then just start fiddling until it's right, right?

[ryan summit]

yeah i marked it with a sharpie fine pen
then cranked that fucker and closed it up
i never tried to find a balance though
where i could make it nuts
but dial it back and use for normal delay stuff
thats what i want to try if i get another one
it was cool with a thirdhand on the time knob
do any of the mod guys add expression jack to it
that would be killer
freakin nucleargodzillacycle in there

[Mudfuzz]

School me on Ibanez/Maxon analog delays

The AD900 lives up to ALL the mojos and myths, they really sound that good, I've used them in the past and my guitarist runs two of them and they just sound huge and clear.

[rfurtkamp]

Mark it, make a note of the settings (and a photo), stash it.

How much delay you can get out of it will vary by the individual pedal - the max range is largely determined not just by your personal need for clarity but the components themselves, which vary widely by modern standards in terms of +/- viability ranges.

[Eivind August]

Ok, thanks for the protip. First I need to unwrap it on christmas eve, act all surprised, and then play it. For all I know it sounds exactly like I want it to already.

Also, I think it might be from the 2003-2004 run? As far as I've read the vintage ones were all labeled Ibanez and made by Maxon, this is Maxon by Maxon. Doesn't really matter, as the Maxons apparently use all the mojo parts and whatnot for their reissue. If it's the Maxon reissue, I get that sweet trve bypass that everyone seems to love for whatever reason. Mailed Maxon with the serial number just to be sure.

[rustywire]

Assuming you're talking about pedals and not rack/tabletop units...

AD9: 3* (mn3205 original preferred but the reissue is good too)
AD80: 4* (best use of a single mn3005 chip other than Boss DM-2)
AD900: 4* (both 2chip and 4chip versions are aces)
AD999: 3.8* (uses 8 custom chips for a true 900ms analog delay with loads of character!)

The others that are good but not as good:
AD99: 2.5*
AD10: 2*

Pretty hard to go wrong, whichever your choice...all of them have something going on.


Some thoughts on the EAR:
Had an AD4096 for a few months in 2012. The Delay knob sounds great all over. The Echo knob sounds like it has great potential but there was too much transient for me and it got clicky/chirpy really quick even slightly above minimum settings. Speaking of clicky, the momentary oscillation switch had to be clicked to activate it. At first it feels like a softswitch but there's a little click at the very end, creating a difference in the switch's travel which always felt awkward to me. The ramping effect was also a bit clumsy and functioned at a fixed rate dependent on the delay time. Long time between repeats = more echoes it took to get LOUD, while short delay times got LOUD very quickly...and without any other way of tuning them (that I know of). The best feature of the pedal is the O/OO toggle, which creates a cusp-of-oscillation haze of faint repeats in the OO "infinity" mode, Trails are available from the AUX output. I had high expectations and they just weren't met.

Too expensive for what it does and for that much money (got it secondhand though) I'd rather have another DMM.
But man, that design aesthetic is top notch. And it was my first pedal with nylon jacks...which I have to say I'm a fan. They fit plugs very snug but don't require a crowbar to pry them apart.

Anyway, I'm still personally curious about the DMB Lunar Echo and am sure I'll prefer it to the EAR. Someday soon...
Check it out yourself if you haven't already.

[rfurtkamp]

Yea, to make rampup on an analog work on a warp-type switch it needs to have switchable/swappable resistors - mine I had built came with 3 taped to the bottom plate and you can just swap them into a socket.

They need something to adjust the relative speed of the ramp.

[Meta-]

Thanks for info dump rusty. My EAR curiosity has been somewhat assuaged.

Btw the AD9 is my one and only for short delays.

[Eivind August]

So, I've had my old Maxon AD9 for almost a month now, so here's some thoughts:

At first I was a bit underwhelmed. Maybe I had hyped it too much in my brain, it was like, "this is just a boring old delay". But then I started using it regularly, experimenting with different settings, and just playing. Never tried a delay that sits this well in the mix, the glorious dark repeats seems to just linger under your guitar, never interfering. It creates space, and has almost reverb-like qualities. Short delay times, but I have other delays for lengthy stuff. Coupled with the longer delay for the PS-2, it really shines. Shoegaze bliss. Also, it looks rad. Sounds beautiful. Easy to dial in. My judgement is that it's awesome.