got my Maxon 820 the other day ... very cool!!
This is my favorite OD, bar none, of new ones I've tried. (I have an '83 TS9 that is my favorite overall.)
The 820 really is terrific ... the first time I plugged in, I just played
for about an hour and it was quite fun, just left the OD on, sounded great
on chords, leads, double stops ...
drive and tone about 12 o'clock, with the level set just above the 'pedal
off' volume - 9 o' clock. kept the definition nicely, a quality pedal. I'll
have to give it a couple more workouts and vary the settings just a bit.
it's a fairly large pedal - 'bout 4 x 6", but light for its size. $210
with the adapter included.
Well, as far as pedals, I may not need to buy any more OD's for a while, since
I'm very happy with my Maxon 820. I did exchange a few nice emails of appreciation
with Kevin Bolembach of Godlyke, Inc., the US distributor for Maxon.:
"The 820 is a great unit, it's a shame that more people don't know
about it..... "
anyway, the pedal gave new meaning to transparent, but has gain to spare.
At $200 - $210 with the adapter, I think it's actually priced about right.
They are hand made in Japan, so really on a par with any of the boutique stuff.
Despite Maxon's great reputation, lots of players probably don't realize that
the Vintage Series pedals are basically custom made pedals.
I had been considering getting this pedal for a while, but wasn't really convinced that I needed another overdrive pedal. However, a thread on the Seymour Duncan Forum regarding the Klon Centaur included a link to a review on Legendary Tones site that compared the Maxon 820 head to head with the Klon, and that finally convinced me to go ahead and get the 820.
One thing that I feel words and clips can't convey is the feel of this pedal ... it just feels very organic, and to me, actually becomes a part of the amp, making it sound better, rather that just enhancing the basic tone.
If you read the ad copy on Maxon's site for the Vintage series, it sounds very convincing, but this is one case where the pedal lives up to the hype.
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"While many consider the OD808 to be the greatest overdrive ever created, Maxon is not a company to rest on its laurels. Instead of basking in the glowing praise, Maxon has focused on the user's feedback to come up with an all-new overdrive circuit that addresses the key shortcomings of other units - the result is the OD-820 Overdrive Pro. "
The OD-820 was designed to provide a wide range of tube-amp overdrive tones as well as a transparent, hi-gain clean boost. As the name implies, the OD-820 was intended for use by professional guitarists with advanced playing techniques. The OD-820's expressive tone reproduces fingering and picking nuances with haunting precision, making the best use of any guitar or amplifier's character. With a full-frequency response, minimal compression and zero tonal coloration, the OD-820 won't mask a player's performance weaknesses like other overdrives can. One of the key ingredients to the OD-820's amazing sound lies in its power section. While the OD-820 accepts 9 volts coming in, it then uses a DC-DC voltage converter (#MAX1044) to bump this up to 18 volts. This higher voltage allows for a more accurate, full-frequency reproduction of the input signal than other units can provide. This higher voltage also allows for more balanced powering of the circuit, providing stabilized positive and negative DC voltage to the overdrive, blend, and tone sections of the circuit. Overdrive and Blend? That's right the other secret weapon of the OD-820 lies in it's blending of distorted and non-distorted signal to create its massive tone. The OD-820's Drive knob does double duty, controlling both the amount of gain and the balance between distorted and non-distorted signal. Note that we said non-distorted signal rather than dry signal this is because this signal is still processed through the tone section of the OD-820's circuit before reaching the output. So, at the lowest Drive settings only non-distorted signal is sent to the output, providing the OD-820's stunning clean boost tone. Like the OD808, the OD-820 distorts signal in the amplifier section of the circuit rather than having a separate clipping stage, which provides a smoother, more realistic tube-like overdrive than other methods. The higher voltage supplied to the amplifier section provides slightly more clipping than the OD808 or OD-9. The OD-820 uses only JRC4558 op amps for the warmest overdrive tone possible.
Analog Elegance Maxon Vintage Series Stompboxes
The five pedals in Maxon's Vintage Series ($289 - $450) are all-analog renditions of classic, 70's era effects. These hand-assembled pedals offer sterling sound, stellar workmanship, and designer price tags. The AD900 Analog Delay, CS550 Stereo Chorus, and DS830 Distortion Master receive Editor's Pick Awards. By Joe Gore It it's true that there's virtue in simplicity, then Maxon's Vintage Series effects are candidates for stompbox sainthood. There's nothing freaky or particularly innovative about these pedals, but each makes a serious stab at being the best-ever of its type. The Maxon name is storied in Stompbox lore. The Japanese company, which shared corporate parenthood with Ibanez, produced some of the cooler analog pedals of the late 70's (in fact, the two companies sometimes made near-identical pedals under different names). But the Vintage Series boxes, hand-assembled in Japan, and marketed in the states by Godlyke, are best thought of as boutique analog pedals and they have the price tags to prove it. The new pedals are gorgeous, with 6" x 4" cast-metal housings finished in cool metallic-pastel colors (Maxon says the larger-than-usual casings reduce noise, and the pedals are, in fact, dead quiet). All include power supplies an important detail given that the delay, chorus and phaser pedals require AC power.
As you might have guessed, the OD820 ($299) is a variation on the Ibanez Tube Screamer theme (Maxon's old OD808 was a near-identical twin of Ibanez's TS808). Like the DS830 Distortion Master, the OD820 offers plenty of gain, a super-musical tone circuit, and an uncommon transparency that lets you hot-wire your tone without desecrating it. There's some sonic overlap between the two pedals: The DS830 ventures farther into clean-toned territory than most distortion pedals, and the OD820 is capable of heavier-than-usual overdrive. The single Tone control also has more range than a Tube Screamer's. There are highs to spare even a dark-hued Les Paul can sizzle with the right settings. The clean-toned solo boosts are stunning, as are the buttery, light overdrive flavors. Again, the dynamic response is amazing. Even at maximum gain settings, you can coax a clean tone simply by rolling back your guitar's volume control. The OD820 is the only pedal in the Vintage Series to feature true bypass switching.
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Recording equipment:
The guitar is a custom Warmoth strat with Seymour Duncan APS-2's neck & mid/ Hot bridge; the amp is a Blues Junior with JJ power tubes and a Reissue Jensen C12N speaker; the overdrive was set at Drive, 12 o' clock, Tone 11 o' clock, and Level at 9 o' clock.
