For Maxon lovers...
- Thread starter Vesperado
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Vesperado
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Cool beans
Vesperado
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I updated my amp last week, and since, the OSD9 has come off the board; it was replaced by the VOP9. This prompted a fresh revision of three of my Maxon greenies: they are the TS9, OD9Pro+, and the VOP9. You will find those updated in Post #1. They have been tweeked to render a modern tone and feel, and sound best with my rig overall.
Vesperado
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The OD9 is SUPERB. Its basically a TS9, but with TBS. Wonder if the opamp was hand selected? Why ponder that? Well, because its the best sounding 4558 I've heard to date--it resides in this pedal, and like my DS830, its a NewPro. That'll be the, now, second best sounding 4558, but this takes the medallion. Smooth yet crisp, bass extends evenly down, highs are never shrill. Lovely.
That made my TS9 jealous, so I dug through some old pulls from a Yamaha PSE and came up with a worthy fit: 4558DV. Out of four, one fit the bill that was not shrill or bloated. It's mids are slightly pushed and has a bass which extends downward evenly, in fact, the bass is punchy, which surprised me. Highs are, ok, they are passable. Can't have it all, but it sounds much more like a proper TS9, although the 1458N gets a wonderful juicy mid crunch and sizzly top.
A quick note on opamp rolling, some have more gain than others, which will effect overall output, and somewhat important if employing a TS as a boost. Therefore, if you land on a nice tonal opamp which lacks a little in gain, locate the 1k resistor between pins 6/7 and replace it with something larger, say 3-10k, depending on what you are after. No two opamps are the same, EVER. When I roll, I have a handful of the same chip to audition, for each individual pick reveals a unique character. If you can't tell the difference, give it time, run it through its paces, and somewhere you will pick up on what it does, or does not, well. Ofcourse, if you could care less about tone, and just want to blast the front of your amp with a Tube Screamer, slam it hard with a 22k, then. Metal players, are you guys taking notes here?
Same thing goes for any dirt pedal in general; you can either tame or envigor to your hearts content. Happy tweaking!
That made my TS9 jealous, so I dug through some old pulls from a Yamaha PSE and came up with a worthy fit: 4558DV. Out of four, one fit the bill that was not shrill or bloated. It's mids are slightly pushed and has a bass which extends downward evenly, in fact, the bass is punchy, which surprised me. Highs are, ok, they are passable. Can't have it all, but it sounds much more like a proper TS9, although the 1458N gets a wonderful juicy mid crunch and sizzly top.
A quick note on opamp rolling, some have more gain than others, which will effect overall output, and somewhat important if employing a TS as a boost. Therefore, if you land on a nice tonal opamp which lacks a little in gain, locate the 1k resistor between pins 6/7 and replace it with something larger, say 3-10k, depending on what you are after. No two opamps are the same, EVER. When I roll, I have a handful of the same chip to audition, for each individual pick reveals a unique character. If you can't tell the difference, give it time, run it through its paces, and somewhere you will pick up on what it does, or does not, well. Ofcourse, if you could care less about tone, and just want to blast the front of your amp with a Tube Screamer, slam it hard with a 22k, then. Metal players, are you guys taking notes here?
Same thing goes for any dirt pedal in general; you can either tame or envigor to your hearts content. Happy tweaking!
Vesperado
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Now that the amp is finally where I want it (after years of endless tweaking), I was able to dial in my greenies for the last time. This should be the last time.
Only FOUR greenies remain on the ol' board: TS9, OD9, VOP9, OD9Pro+.
The TS9 managed to receive a NOS JRC4558D which I had buried underneath some pedals in a box in the back room. Forgot I had one left. Lucky me, it sounds just as good as my other two (they are notorious for being hit and miss). Suffice to say it has a new home in the TS9. That pedal has a Mids sw. installed to toggle between a sticky crunch and a bold crunch. Definately felt at loud volumes.
The OD9 I got real lucky with, one off of Reverb, pristine condition with the box. Sound is so glorious I dare not tamper with anything aside from line filtering. Best money spent on a pedal in a good minute!
The VOP9 took some time to reign in, months, to be exact. Now it works wonderfully on both drive channels. It has a defined mid which is reminiscent of a Boogie in my mind, and almost emulates stacked Screamers. The FB circuit makes it oh so fun to strick a chord and let ring. Tremonti vibes, no doubt.
The OD9Pro+, and the most difficult of the bunch to get right; I think it was designed around a Rectifier, so it packed a lot of highs. Like the former, this took many months to get right. It is definately, unequivocally, a Metal-Core pedal. The trick was trying to get that sound over a Mesa out of my Marshall, and without readjusting the amp. Pleased to say that it does a fantastic job at emulating earlier KSE tone over the amp. I set mine to be more useable (not versatile, but functional) in its application; I made the Normal mode spec'd toward OD9 values (but its not as the circuits are somewhat different), whereas the Boost acts as a turned up version of the same. The Boost mode is nowhere near as agressive as it was stock. This is preferrable for a Marshall, for the highs it had packed previously were in the extreme and made it unuseable. Now, it renders itself a Metal cousin akin to the OD9 with an 'agressive mode' that pushes the Mids and raises some hair. In short, the Normal mode cuts and resonates much tighter than the OD9 while the Boost mode gets even tighter and angrier. Perfect for my purposes. What's more, the highs are balanced and controllable, the Tone sweepable throughout its entire range--no ice pick! They are still different in the bottom-end, albeit they share the same values in many places. Its like having two pedals in one.
...........................................
Really would like to put a video out sometime, maybe in a few months or so. Unfortunately, I have to wrap up and stow things away. I've been REAL FORTUNATE to get as far as I have with my rig. Looking back, and many years, I never thought I'd see the day I would have my own tone hashed and hammered out, polished, complete, ready to showcase. I'm amazed I'm still here!
Only FOUR greenies remain on the ol' board: TS9, OD9, VOP9, OD9Pro+.
The TS9 managed to receive a NOS JRC4558D which I had buried underneath some pedals in a box in the back room. Forgot I had one left. Lucky me, it sounds just as good as my other two (they are notorious for being hit and miss). Suffice to say it has a new home in the TS9. That pedal has a Mids sw. installed to toggle between a sticky crunch and a bold crunch. Definately felt at loud volumes.
The OD9 I got real lucky with, one off of Reverb, pristine condition with the box. Sound is so glorious I dare not tamper with anything aside from line filtering. Best money spent on a pedal in a good minute!
The VOP9 took some time to reign in, months, to be exact. Now it works wonderfully on both drive channels. It has a defined mid which is reminiscent of a Boogie in my mind, and almost emulates stacked Screamers. The FB circuit makes it oh so fun to strick a chord and let ring. Tremonti vibes, no doubt.
The OD9Pro+, and the most difficult of the bunch to get right; I think it was designed around a Rectifier, so it packed a lot of highs. Like the former, this took many months to get right. It is definately, unequivocally, a Metal-Core pedal. The trick was trying to get that sound over a Mesa out of my Marshall, and without readjusting the amp. Pleased to say that it does a fantastic job at emulating earlier KSE tone over the amp. I set mine to be more useable (not versatile, but functional) in its application; I made the Normal mode spec'd toward OD9 values (but its not as the circuits are somewhat different), whereas the Boost acts as a turned up version of the same. The Boost mode is nowhere near as agressive as it was stock. This is preferrable for a Marshall, for the highs it had packed previously were in the extreme and made it unuseable. Now, it renders itself a Metal cousin akin to the OD9 with an 'agressive mode' that pushes the Mids and raises some hair. In short, the Normal mode cuts and resonates much tighter than the OD9 while the Boost mode gets even tighter and angrier. Perfect for my purposes. What's more, the highs are balanced and controllable, the Tone sweepable throughout its entire range--no ice pick! They are still different in the bottom-end, albeit they share the same values in many places. Its like having two pedals in one.
...........................................
Really would like to put a video out sometime, maybe in a few months or so. Unfortunately, I have to wrap up and stow things away. I've been REAL FORTUNATE to get as far as I have with my rig. Looking back, and many years, I never thought I'd see the day I would have my own tone hashed and hammered out, polished, complete, ready to showcase. I'm amazed I'm still here!
Vesperado
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Ok, NOW the pedals are where I want them. I went ahead and updated Posts 1 & 3.
Turns out I had to change out the factory 4558 on the OD9. Yup. It was pushing WAY TOO MUCH gain. Had one LAST and FINAL 4558 in my pile of scrapped boards, which, fortunately is pleasant enough to leave fitted in there.
And speaking of pleasant, I tunned up me pedals to play along that much better with the TSL DJENTER. I also figured out how to get the TS9 to True Bypass with ONE PRESS of the switch, and with ZERO tone suck. Yippie. So its now back up top, cascaded, along with the other three Maxon 'greenies' upon the board. You will need to find a 4PDT button switch from somewhere to make the true bypass a reality. I pulled mine from a nuked FL-9 R.I., so that's how I am able to keep it stealth. But, hey, there ya go!
That DJENTER clean and Maxon Compressor Pro+ pair up, as Gump might say: like peas and carrotts. Hard not to play anything clean/clean+effect without it. Board is pretty darn 'professional-grade' at this point in time. So happy with the results
marshallforum.com
Turns out I had to change out the factory 4558 on the OD9. Yup. It was pushing WAY TOO MUCH gain. Had one LAST and FINAL 4558 in my pile of scrapped boards, which, fortunately is pleasant enough to leave fitted in there.
And speaking of pleasant, I tunned up me pedals to play along that much better with the TSL DJENTER. I also figured out how to get the TS9 to True Bypass with ONE PRESS of the switch, and with ZERO tone suck. Yippie. So its now back up top, cascaded, along with the other three Maxon 'greenies' upon the board. You will need to find a 4PDT button switch from somewhere to make the true bypass a reality. I pulled mine from a nuked FL-9 R.I., so that's how I am able to keep it stealth. But, hey, there ya go!
That DJENTER clean and Maxon Compressor Pro+ pair up, as Gump might say: like peas and carrotts. Hard not to play anything clean/clean+effect without it. Board is pretty darn 'professional-grade' at this point in time. So happy with the results
20230526_012009.jpg
marshallforum.com
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