Are the Ibanez Soundtank dirt pedals any good?

[friendship]

Every equinox I get an interest in them, since there are several types. Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences and deepest desires

[friendship]

Here's a list of the ones I'm aware of:

BN5 Black Noise
CD5 Cyberdrive
CM5 Classic Metal
CR5 Crunchy Rhythm
FZ5 60's Fuzz
MF5 Modern Fusion
PL5 Powerlead
SP5 Slam Punk
TM5 Thrashmetal
TS5 Tubescreamer

[onyxrhino]

I had the Powerlead when I was a kid. It was basically my only dirt pedal throughout high school and college. It worked for me. I got some great sounds out of it when paired with the right amps. These days, it doesn't sound as great compared to all the dirt pedal options out there. But it doesn't sound bad either. And back when I didn't know any better, I was perfectly happy with it.

Since I got older and alot more pedals are out there and I've had the time and money to try a bunch out, I've tried a number of other soundtanks too. The Slam Punk is awful and worthless. The 60s Fuzz sounds really really good, a nice crisp muff, though they could have probably given it a bit more gain/volume. I like it with all the controls maxed as is. The Tubescreamer is okay. I'm not really a TS kind of guy, but as they go, this one sounds fine and does a pretty good job of pushing other ODs (which is pretty much all I ever use a TS for). The Black Noise is one I'm sort of on the fence about. I kind of like the texture of it, but as a distortion, it's not really heavy or thick enough for me and the texture isn't as nice as a good fuzz. The Cyberdrive is cool if you want a really ugly nasally OD sound. It's actually pretty fun to have around, but I rarely use it and I can't imagine many folks finding a need for that sound often.

[oldangelmidnight]

The Thrashmetal was my first pedal. I don't know why... I didn't really like metal. I wasn't very discriminating back then. I don't know whatever happened to it.
Looking back on it - it was probably a piece of crap. And certainly built like crap.

[Seizurema]

Cyberdrive!

I've never heard of the Black Noise before. Wuzzit do?

[jrmy]

I had the Thrashmetal for the longest time (it was my first pedal, too). It was supposed to be "high gain," but it was just a trebletastic bass-suck. I actually used it for a long time to obnoxiously accent harmonics, or as a dirty accent EQ pedal.

[chuckjaywalk]

I've always lusted after the Cyberdrive and Black Noise because the names are so Mondo 2000.

[friendship]

Cyberdrive!

I've never heard of the Black Noise before. Wuzzit do?

I used to lust after this too back in high school because I really liked industrial sounding distortion.

I just found a pretty cool resource that talks about the Soundtank series and it says that the Black Noise "seems to be a variation on the Powerlead as they share the same board layout and component numbering," but that the Black Noise has "some stages [that] are left out of the circuit."

http://www.dirk-hendrik.com/ibanez.html

[Jero]

I've been considering making a run of the cyberdrive. Shhhh.

[friendship]

I've been considering making a run of the cyberdrive. Shhhh.

You should do this but add a knob to control the frequency of the wah tone notch thing and also a dry blend. If you do this I will rub a body part of your choice (sensually).

[Gone Fission]

I've had a TS-5 since they were newly out, something like $30 new in 1990 or so. It's a Tube Screamer, for good and bad. A while back I preferred a MXR Bad Ass Overdrive I got for the holidays last year, but a week ago I found I liked the TS more.

I think the Classic Metal is a Distortion +/OD250 variant.

The switching in the Soundtanks get dodgy a lot of the time, not reliably switching on and off. Cleaning the switches out can help get them back to normal. The other thing is increasing the value of the debouncing cap in the electronic switching circuit.

[friendship]

I've had a TS-5 since they were newly out, something like $30 new in 1990 or so. It's a Tube Screamer, for good and bad. A while back I preferred a MXR Bad Ass Overdrive I got for the holidays last year, but a week ago I found I liked the TS more.

I think the Classic Metal is a Distortion +/OD250 variant.

The switching in the Soundtanks get dodgy a lot of the time, not reliably switching on and off. Cleaning the switches out can help get them back to normal. The other thing is increasing the value of the debouncing cap in the electronic switching circuit.

nice. I have no idea what the last sentence means, but yeah the 7 Tone Lok series has some great pedals that also have switching problems. I guess that was one of the ways Ibanez cut corners for a while.

I read that the 60s Fuzz is a Muff variant, also.

[Gone Fission]

Rather than mechanical bypass switching like the typical blue triple-throw double-throw for hardwired true bypass, like most Boss and Ibanez pedals and a fair handful of DOD/Digitechs, the Soundtanks use an active circuit for bypass that is toggled by a single-pole single-throw momentary switch. Part of the circuitry includes a "debouncing" cap that is basically there to not over-read what the switch is telling the bypass circuit to do. It just happens that the stock cap in the Soundtanks isn't really up to the job for long-term use. I'm imagining the 7 series might have the same flaw. I think they use the same switch, which can have problems with grime but otherwise tends to be hard to do in.

[misterstomach]

they sound like shit.

[sonidero]

Mudfuzz likes 'em so they must be good... Ugly as shit but maybe good, BLACK SLAM NOISE PUNK!!!