Japanese made Ibanez Sonic Distortion SD9

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:51 pm

I've had this on loan from a mate for like forever, but never considered it my own... despite asking if he wants some money for it. He doesn't seem to want it back, but is always inquisitive to how much it's worth, and I reply to say it's just not a tubescreamer.... Â£80 at best. It's always just resided in a cupboard or garage. I've now adopted it good and proper...

It was always a little flaky but I cleaned it up recently with some contact cleaner on the pots and it seems to have come good.

It has tons of gain and has been described as a tubescreamer on steroids.... but still a TS it wasn't. I bought the Biyang Mad Driver thinking it'd reach this territory, but have more tonal range within the area I wanted to explore. But no...

I put them side by side and the Ibanez is completely owned for the sounds I was after. In all other settings the Ibanez sounds awful but once you find that setting / tone you're after it really works like a dream. The range is crazy... like from one extreme to the other on all respect.

I'll post a video soon showing what I mean.

Ultimately what I'm trying to get at is that a pedal that can sound terrible at first can be tweaked to suit, and really hit the nail on the head. It's multicultural !! Patience pays off.

AaronGuitarDude · Post by **AaronGuitarDude** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:47 am

probably it's like an OCD?

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:21 pm

Sorry that original post was a bit lame & OTT.... I had a few drinks last night.

It's quite fizzy and shrill on most settings, & can get quite thrashy .... and really dark if you want it too.

I use it for the low gain finger picky stuff... like a nice valve amp on the edge of break up... sustains chords really nicely too.

I'll do a vid to show how good and bad this pedal can get.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:25 am

well I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least loosely based on a DS-1. Roland/BOSS and Maxon/Ibanez went back and forth responding to many of each other's designs. see:

OD-1 --> TS-808/9 --> SD-1

or

CE-1 --> CS-9 --> CE-3

Bill Oakley · Post by **Bill Oakley** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 3:43 am

I have one of these. Guy that traded it to me thought it was a Tubescreamer as the name plate is gone. When I got it I noticed it was too light green.
Anyway, it is very similar (schematic-wise) to a TS but some significant changes. If I remember right, the clipping diodes are moved from the feedback loop and moved to ground like the Distortion+.
I think the tone section was different also. Other than that, the rest of the circuit is pretty much TS.

Not that I'm saying it sounds like a TS. Just clarifying that it isn't a DS-1.