Maxon 0d808

[jimbob]

From what i understand this is the same as the Ts-808. Is this true? Other opinions say its better..hmmm

Opinions, ideas?

btw- i was thinking about buying a reissue ts 808 but i want a full comparison to DIY, Maxon, ect..before I do that.

thanks,

jim

[STOMPmole]

I'd personally buy the reissue Maxon over the TS-808 Ibanez reissue.  From what I understand, it's the same circuit minus the FET switching and it ships with the JRC reissue Opamp.

Still, if I was you I'd just built my own boutique version for $25 and call it good...come to think of it....I AM building my own version currently!

[MartyMart]

My guess is it would sound better, i have a D&S II from maxon and an original OD855 1979 Ibanez version, ( I'm showing my age! ) the maxon sounds warmer and seems less noisey.
The Maxon has a JRC1458D  and i think the Ibanez is a 4558D.
For an 808, i agree that a self build would be great, what about a "tube reamer" from ROG ?  Great little circuit IMO
Marty.

[brrt]

The Maxon OD808 is mainly equal to the TS808 reissue. It is shipped with the "right" (what is right?) JRC4558 opamp. But is hasn't got the FET switching. Just a normal SPDT swith, which can be easily modded to 3PDT...
The output section is somewhat different:
Output resistors are still "wrong" (470Ohm and 100kOhm).
The 470Ohm resistor is placed between cap and output, just after the 100kOhm, so it's not placed between the transistors emitter and cap!
Maxon has noted on their site:

"It should be noted that the Reissue Series OD808 uses different output resistors than the original version. After the unit's initial release it was discovered to have a high susceptibility to noise due to static electricity buildup. To improve performance, the positions of the output resistors on the reissue OD808 were reversed and their values increased in order to reduce noise levels. This circuit change has no audible affect on the sound of the unit, save for reducing the noise levels."

Don't know if changing the resistors to 100Ohm&10kOhm makes a difference...

[jimbob]

Thanks for all the input..I was shopping for the commercial version as a collector..Ive built 3 tubescreamer so far and nearly every distortion from GGG, Tonepad, ROG, J Davisson ect...But on the side I buy/sell commercial ones.

[Mark Hammer]

I forget the model number, but there is an earlier Maxon pedal in which the same stages are used, but the tone-control stage is placed before the clipping stage.  Never heard or cloned one, so I couldn't say which Ilike better, but the working assumption is that the post-clip version would be "rounder" sounding because it would be better able to take out any fizz, and the pre-clip version would permit some modest "revoicing" of what gets clipped most (but retain whatever fizz is produced).