original and reissue ibanez ts-9 pedals were manufactured by maxon until 2002. current reissue ibanez ts-9 is not made by maxon but the original ibanez ts-9 used in this test is made by maxon.
Maxon invented the tube screamer. They just licensed it to Ibanez, until they recently started reissuing the original. So i dont know where that puts the TS9 now. There is a slight difference in the fuzziness of the overdrive. And if your playing with another drive or a driven amp, it may or may not make all the difference. It depends...
Thanks for putting these shootouts together. It helps me to understand music better. I liked the Maxon a little more. It sounds like it has a bit of distortion with the brighter sound, more bite. I did like the Ibanez for its cleaner sound though. Maxon bright distortion sound, Ibanez clean dark dark sound.
@jimmis100gr The ibanez is a more natural distort sound that is great, versatile and liquid feeling. If your wanting metal sounds or hard rock, they're both very different, with humbuckers and a tube screamer (that thing used there) you could get hard rock, for metal you'll need a heavy distortion pedal, fuzz can work too.
Doesn't matter much...they are the same thing. There are so many other factors to consider (guitar, pickups, what kind of amp you are using, etc.) than to worry about subtle differences. They are great pedals though and Gearmandude always does a good job. Cheers.
The tuber I used to have had a flat top and not the steped shape as well as I can recall. Set me straight on this. It sat for so long that the caps got stale as far as I can remember.
If you put the tone of the Maxon at about 10 o clock it sounds identical to your TS9 A/B comparison ... like you said it is a tad darker. One thing I did notice about the Ibanez in my own test is that it seemed to sustain a bit longer and keep a sweet note when bending a bit longer if that's possible duno maybe it was just in my head but I like the Maxon for note clarity in rhythms and riffs.
Definitely !!! I think he just doesn't want people writing or asking stuff offtopic and that's why he didn't use his real name. So the guy is either Jack Black or his tech twin. Anyway I find the reviews very useful.
@thricex05 Actually, given the sound quality of youtube videos, I would tend to hink that if you hear a subtle difference, maybe in front of the amp you would hear a bigger difference. Also, using the clean sound can give you an idea if the pedal fattens, mudds, thightens or makes a signal more harsh.
Both pedals were made by Maxon. I am not sure what this comparison is doing. Compare the Maxon with a current Ibanez that was made by Ibanez.after 2002.
They both sound the same only that I hear the TS9 working a little better at higher gain settings with chords. The sustain and spank in the TS9 is a bit more noticeable.
Hey GMD, pretty sweet review! The only thing is that unlike your Maxon, the Ibanez pedal was never plugged into an AC outlet...In my experience at maximum gain, these pedals sound a lot better when plugged into an outlet, so that might have given Maxon some unfair advantage. In any case cool review! bspoka
im curious of what you think of the maxon real tube pedals and as for price between the ibanez and the maxon i looked it up there just about the same price :/ and i refuse to shop at guitar center any more since they got bought out.. people would go to guitar center to get a deal, now there owned by the same people that own toys'r'us so now i have to do all my shopping online to find a deal. most musicians are not rich even if they are they still want a deal, but let me know what you think.
it is fairly common knowledge among guitar players that maxon is the company that designed and manufactured the TS9s for ibanez. much like how eminence makes OEM speakers for other amp companies, maxon made pedals for ibanez to label as their own. please read the History section of the wikipedia page for Maxon Effects. it'd probably help you to take 10 seconds to think before you write something.
One detail that is very important here that I'm sure a lot people are missing is that the comparison here is presenting a Vintage (more period correct) Ibanez to a modern Maxon OD-9. That being said it is very important to now that the modern Ibanez TS9 is less like the Vintage TS9 than the Maxon is. If course it is also important to note that part of that difference is the fact that Maxon made the original, vintage Ibanez TS9 as an Ibanez branded version of their Maxon OD-9. The modern Ibanez TS9 is no longer made by Maxon and as anyone who has had both can tell you that the Maxon is a higher quality construction both inside and outside. A better comparison would have been: Vintage Ibanez TS9 to modern Maxon OD-9 to modern Ibanez TS9. Their Buffered/True Bypass implementations should only be noticeable when's stacked but truth be told the Maxon will be more like yet still improved to the vintage Ibanez.
@samathanwataguan Agree. Don't we buy amps because of their sound? If the sound doesn't satisfy you then why did you buy that amp? And what's the point in buying a tube amp if you are not going to use its drive channel because isn't the tube drive sound what people are after? So if your amp has a good drive channel, why would you use some metal distortion pedal through your clean channel when you could just boost your drive channel?
yes, i agree with the gentlemen in the video, the ibanez sound a little bit darker and smoth, the maxon i'ts a bit tighter, bright, ..sharp really , just a little, ...but there are a diference, the ibanez sound more vintage, and that'scool by selfnature, i imagine that , maxon can be covered by a couple of other new era pedals ...so ..'i would take ibanez .......
Gearmanndude: you say it's a 1983 ts9 but that it has a black label. They went to the silver label in 1983. I can't tell by the video so what are your first 2 digits of your serial #? (I'm guessing the first digit is a 2 but maybe you determined it was a 1983 by the dated capacitors or that you are wrong and its a 1982). Analogman has seen a ts9 with a silver label he dated as a 1983. (
@ElectricSkyProject What you're hearing is not 1983 new. You're hearing 28 years of dried out electrolytic capacitors that have left the "original" pedal crippled.
@1ndguitar i want a bullet for my valentine sound , do you know them? i have heard that they use that pedal u think that i can succeed their sound with that pedal? if u dont know them listen any song of them and tell me only if u want :)
Analogman will mod those new Maxons to old Ibanez specs. Ibanez seemed to have better frequency response at high gain, but wtf its just youtube eh? Bad Monkey does it for me.
Well I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert on guitar crap because I'm not even close. I looked a few places and found they use the MXR Zak Wylde Overdrive pedal too. They probably combine the 2 and/or use the pedals to just boost the distortion from their amps.
I was after a TS-9 so popped into Denmark St (Londons famous guitar street) and was informed by everyone that Maxon made the original tubescreamer pedals (the OD-9) and when Ibanez came and split off with their TS-9 pedals, they used different chips. Maxon however continue to make pedals as they always did, with the original chips. But Ibanez don't use the same chips that were originally used. This is not to say one is better or worse than the other - sonic beauty is in the ears of the strummer
@godlikecharacta Either. To get a good metal sound you do not use any of those shitty Boss Metal Zones/Digitech Death Metal pedal. You get one of these or a ProCo Rat, turn the ts gain down, and plug it into a proper tube amp on its own distortion channel.
samathanwataguan metal zone is only a shitty pedal to you because you don’t know how to dial it in or use your guitars volume to make it sound better...lol:) You newbies just dome everything out and don’t understand the effects of volume, gain, frequency, or distortion.
Wow my fault I never heard of one. Sound kinda strange but why would they do that to a Les Paul. That is such an amazing guitar . S uch a piece of art . But to each of their own. maybe they play better . Thanx Paul
Paul Gill the SG les Paul was Gibson being an asshat by using Lester Paulfus's sig without asking permission. They 'upgraded' the classic LP shape and just simply slapped Lester's sig on it. A few legal issues later and it is simply called SG. Mary Ford used to play a White SG LP. Recognisable by the Les Paul sig cover between the neck hum and neck pocket. It is now a rather valueable guitar for collectors.
Gibson discontinued the les paul body style in 1960 and changed to the SG body style. They continued to call it the Les paul until 1962 OR 63 when it was renamed the SG
Does it make me a bad gearhead that I'd rather have the Maxon largely b/c it's true bypass and has a brighter LED?? 0:) They might sound the same, they might sound different, but weighing those features against things like price tag and constant worrying about the vintage one, and I gotta' go Maxon on this one~shrug~ (And yes, I know the potential drawbacks of true bypass, so don't bother bringing it up lol)
the ibanez sounds transparent, and the maxon sounds like "ceramic" and louder, this is maybe the op amps... I think the maxon is a little boring sounding... compared to the consistence of the ibanez
I just think the Maxon was brighter, and since it had a brighter sound, created a better compressed sound to the overdrive (but that's just me). I think the Sabbath fans and Doom Metal/Queens of the Stone Age fans would like the Ibanez more, and thrashy/death metal and hardcore bands would like the Maxon more. But if money is tight, there is no reason to not get the Ibanez TS9!
if you wanna play blues, your gonna wanna sound different than someone playing metal. Different distortion/overdrive sounds different. Also most guitar players care a lot about how their guitar sounds.
well considering that they are both made by maxon they should sound VERY similar, if not identical. i think the obvious difference is that the newer pedal, maxon, uses modern parts which will change the tonal characteristics. it's really not much of a huge difference. also, the OD9 are truebypass. i'm not sure about the old TS9 though. anyone that says they can hear a HUGE difference is an asshole. the sound quality of the youtube video is not even good to determine such subtle differences.
original and reissue ibanez ts-9 pedals were manufactured by maxon until 2002. current reissue ibanez ts-9 is not made by maxon but the original ibanez ts-9 used in this test is made by maxon.
Maxon invented the tube screamer. They just licensed it to Ibanez, until they recently started reissuing the original. So i dont know where that puts the TS9 now. There is a slight difference in the fuzziness of the overdrive. And if your playing with another drive or a driven amp, it may or may not make all the difference. It depends...
Thanks for putting these shootouts together. It helps me to understand music better. I liked the Maxon a little more. It sounds like it has a bit of distortion with the brighter sound, more bite. I did like the Ibanez for its cleaner sound though. Maxon bright distortion sound, Ibanez clean dark dark sound.
I love this video - I have a TS9 and love it! Has to be hands down my fav pedal in my entire setup!
I bought the ibanez ts9 today, thanks for your video, it sounds amazing with texas special pickups!
@jimmis100gr The ibanez is a more natural distort sound that is great, versatile and liquid feeling. If your wanting metal sounds or hard rock, they're both very different, with humbuckers and a tube screamer (that thing used there) you could get hard rock, for metal you'll need a heavy distortion pedal, fuzz can work too.
Totally agree with LGP123, you may also only want overdrive for specific parts of a song, or have different pedals for lead or rythm etc.
Doesn't matter much...they are the same thing. There are so many other factors to consider (guitar, pickups, what kind of amp you are using, etc.) than to worry about subtle differences. They are great pedals though and Gearmandude always does a good job. Cheers.
The tuber I used to have had a flat top and not the steped shape as well as I can recall. Set me straight on this. It sat for so long that the caps got stale as far as I can remember.
If you put the tone of the Maxon at about 10 o clock it sounds identical to your TS9 A/B comparison ... like you said it is a tad darker. One thing I did notice about the Ibanez in my own test is that it seemed to sustain a bit longer and keep a sweet note when bending a bit longer if that's possible duno maybe it was just in my head but I like the Maxon for note clarity in rhythms and riffs.
Definitely !!! I think he just doesn't want people writing or asking stuff offtopic and that's why he didn't use his real name. So the guy is either Jack Black or his tech twin. Anyway I find the reviews very useful.
your reviews are very helpful! thanks man!
@thricex05 Actually, given the sound quality of youtube videos, I would tend to hink that if you hear a subtle difference, maybe in front of the amp you would hear a bigger difference. Also, using the clean sound can give you an idea if the pedal fattens, mudds, thightens or makes a signal more harsh.
thanks for your time in making this shootout..
this vid helps alot!
kinda agree with what you think, the Ibanez kinda has a darker tone to it..
Ibanez was run on 9v toward the end. Should have kept it consistent and run the Maxon the same way.
Both pedals were made by Maxon. I am not sure what this comparison is doing. Compare the Maxon with a current Ibanez that was made by Ibanez.after 2002.
its just to demystify
They both sound the same only that I hear the TS9 working a little better at higher gain settings with chords. The sustain and spank in the TS9 is a bit more noticeable.
the TS9 sounds a bit thin, while the Maxon sounds nice and bright, and thick and creamy. more Vintage also. Maxon wins!
Hey GMD, pretty sweet review! The only thing is that unlike your Maxon, the Ibanez pedal was never plugged into an AC outlet...In my experience at maximum gain, these pedals sound a lot better when plugged into an outlet, so that might have given Maxon some unfair advantage. In any case cool review!
bspoka
I couldn't tell the difference. I own both, but use the Maxon a lot more, since it's cheaper to replace if something happens to it.
im curious of what you think of the maxon real tube pedals and as for price between the ibanez and the maxon i looked it up there just about the same price :/ and i refuse to shop at guitar center any more since they got bought out.. people would go to guitar center to get a deal, now there owned by the same people that own toys'r'us so now i have to do all my shopping online to find a deal. most musicians are not rich even if they are they still want a deal, but let me know what you think.
great video! you just helped me save so much money by not buying a vintage ts! getting a maxon now! cheers.
tell the world of builders...I love doing the demos...i love buying the pedals...but it would be nice to get them on the cheap!!!
BEENIE ROCK!!!
GMD
Hi!my Ibanez ts9 (japan) with silverl botton!!!what is the different?thanks
@DylanBStringer91
of course he's not jack black
but working at a guitar store (or owning one?) brings you close to all that stuff
Pool Hall Richard by the Faces, it's not on any of their albums you'll need to find a compilation
@samathanwataguan Oh and why did you buy the amp if it doesn't satisfy you? So I agree with you completely.
does the distortion is good at ibanez pedal i wana buy one too whats your opinion for a hard rock - heavy metal sound ? pls answer
It still provides a nice, less harsh mid boost right?
The ibanez sounds fuller. While the maxon is cleaner. Maybe the maxon is good as a boost for a nice distortion to make nice solo tones.
What this song's in the intro???
Thanks for th shootout man!
can u upload that song that was at the end? that sounded really cool
will the ibanez ts9 drain my tone a little? is it ok to combine with a distortion pedal to really boost the sound or will it sound clogged?
it is fairly common knowledge among guitar players that maxon is the company that designed and manufactured the TS9s for ibanez. much like how eminence makes OEM speakers for other amp companies, maxon made pedals for ibanez to label as their own.
please read the History section of the wikipedia page for Maxon Effects.
it'd probably help you to take 10 seconds to think before you write something.
Hey,
Awesome demo as always.
Btw, where did you get the owl strap? Liked it alot!
At 1:13. That's the perfect tone for playing Day Tripper :)
One detail that is very important here that I'm sure a lot people are missing is that the comparison here is presenting a Vintage (more period correct) Ibanez to a modern Maxon OD-9. That being said it is very important to now that the modern Ibanez TS9 is less like the Vintage TS9 than the Maxon is. If course it is also important to note that part of that difference is the fact that Maxon made the original, vintage Ibanez TS9 as an Ibanez branded version of their Maxon OD-9. The modern Ibanez TS9 is no longer made by Maxon and as anyone who has had both can tell you that the Maxon is a higher quality construction both inside and outside. A better comparison would have been: Vintage Ibanez TS9 to modern Maxon OD-9 to modern Ibanez TS9. Their Buffered/True Bypass implementations should only be noticeable when's stacked but truth be told the Maxon will be more like yet still improved to the vintage Ibanez.
so waht if it was pluged in an ac what does that mean .some od's run sweeter on a batt anyways
From what I hear, there is only a SLIGHT difference, which is just a little bit more distortion on the Maxon.
Mesas, Fenders, Marshalls - damn near everything sounds BETTER with a Tube Screamer pushing it.
@samathanwataguan Agree. Don't we buy amps because of their sound? If the sound doesn't satisfy you then why did you buy that amp? And what's the point in buying a tube amp if you are not going to use its drive channel because isn't the tube drive sound what people are after? So if your amp has a good drive channel, why would you use some metal distortion pedal through your clean channel when you could just boost your drive channel?
@jimmis100gr for heavy metal you shoudl get a distortion pedal not an od. You should try the Boss Metal Zone or Metalcore.
yes, i agree with the gentlemen in the video, the ibanez sound a little bit darker and smoth, the maxon i'ts a bit tighter, bright, ..sharp really , just a little, ...but there are a diference, the ibanez sound more vintage, and that'scool by selfnature, i imagine that , maxon can be covered by a couple of other new era pedals ...so ..'i would take ibanez .......
I like the Green one ....
cheers for the demo man, helped me out big willy style...p.s are you Jack Black??
maxon od9 sounds better.. cleaner.. but still, both are good.. love the "vintageness" of the ibanez..
@Swifty2893. How arnt they when BOTH of August Burns Reds guitar players use them lol
Maxon. More articulate. Less hump. And those screaming double note bends sound way better with the Maxon!
nothing beats the ibanez for some strange reason....good clipping so I hear
Maxon produced the original Tube Screamer
hey everybody, whats the reason to have a overdrive pedal honestly. like why dont you just use your amps distortion? thnks
Gearmanndude: you say it's a 1983 ts9 but that it has a black label. They went to the silver label in 1983. I can't tell by the video so what are your first 2 digits of your serial #? (I'm guessing the first digit is a 2 but maybe you determined it was a 1983 by the dated capacitors or that you are wrong and its a 1982). Analogman has seen a ts9 with a silver label he dated as a 1983. (
oh my god! after i read this i totally was convinced! you have a good ear my friend!
ps i'm going to see tenacious d on nov 1!
well in 83 maxon made the ts9s so they should sound the same
@ElectricSkyProject What you're hearing is not 1983 new. You're hearing 28 years of dried out electrolytic capacitors that have left the "original" pedal crippled.
Yupp..Maxon OD9 sounded more brighter and the vintage TS9 sounds warmer.
What I want to know is how a Maxon compares to a newer TS-9.
maxin wuns because is the original tube screamer
Thanks man. cool video.
What the name of this song???
thank's
@1ndguitar i want a bullet for my valentine sound , do you know them? i have heard that they use that pedal u think that i can succeed their sound with that pedal? if u dont know them listen any song of them and tell me only if u want :)
to me the TS-9 sounds a bit creamier/softer, but really not a big difference...
Cheers jack Black. Goin for the much cheaper Maxon now as cant justify the extra money for an Ibanez.
Even with this Vintage UA-cam Compression you can tell the Maxon has a lot less treble cut than the Ibanez.
Analogman will mod those new Maxons to old Ibanez specs. Ibanez seemed to have better frequency response at high gain, but wtf its just youtube eh?
Bad Monkey does it for me.
THOSE BOOTS!!! ROCK N ROLL !!!
geeez..you tonerangers are so hard to please! gonna have to do another
ROCK!
GMD
Well I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert on guitar crap because I'm not even close. I looked a few places and found they use the MXR Zak Wylde Overdrive pedal too. They probably combine the 2 and/or use the pedals to just boost the distortion from their amps.
it is jack black
MAXON WINS!cause thats what i have! i honestly dont hear much if any difference -i bought a maxon because it was cheaper than buying a vintage ts9
Maxon Hands down.
I was after a TS-9 so popped into Denmark St (Londons famous guitar street) and was informed by everyone that Maxon made the original tubescreamer pedals (the OD-9) and when Ibanez came and split off with their TS-9 pedals, they used different chips. Maxon however continue to make pedals as they always did, with the original chips. But Ibanez don't use the same chips that were originally used. This is not to say one is better or worse than the other - sonic beauty is in the ears of the strummer
i think the maxon is a little brighter
6:17 after watching the whole video, right at the end i thought Jack Black was talking haha!
thanks
Ibanez it's more smooth, warm and balanced than Maxon
Maxon it's more ''gainner'' than Ibanez.
nice pedals, both of them!
mostly to boost the amp
i like the maxon best!
@godlikecharacta Either. To get a good metal sound you do not use any of those shitty Boss Metal Zones/Digitech Death Metal pedal. You get one of these or a ProCo Rat, turn the ts gain down, and plug it into a proper tube amp on its own distortion channel.
samathanwataguan metal zone is only a shitty pedal to you because you don’t know how to dial it in or use your guitars volume to make it sound better...lol:) You newbies just dome everything out and don’t understand the effects of volume, gain, frequency, or distortion.
the maxon od9 sounds like it has more volume...
Nice shoes!
i think he is jack black too
Classic
What is Gibson SG Les Paul? Lol its one or the other lol. Its a Epiphone lol. don't tease me hell it might be a Jackson Dean Paul Reed Smith today.
It's a vintage les paul in an sg body when they used to do in the 60s
Wow my fault I never heard of one. Sound kinda strange but why would they do that to a Les Paul. That is such an amazing guitar . S uch a piece of art . But to each of their own. maybe they play better . Thanx Paul
Paul Gill the SG les Paul was Gibson being an asshat by using Lester Paulfus's sig without asking permission. They 'upgraded' the classic LP shape and just simply slapped Lester's sig on it. A few legal issues later and it is simply called SG. Mary Ford used to play a White SG LP. Recognisable by the Les Paul sig cover between the neck hum and neck pocket. It is now a rather valueable guitar for collectors.
Gibson discontinued the les paul body style in 1960 and changed to the SG body style. They continued to call it the Les paul until 1962 OR 63 when it was renamed the SG
+Paul Gill have you been enlightened yet,there are les paul sg's
there really wasn't a noticeable noise difference....
ROCK
GMD
good vedio thx
Is that gum your snakeskin boot?Maxon,Maxoff...The Maxxer Lol
But anyway thanx for the effort I did get something out of it...
i like more the ibanez... its more screamer... good video GD
You sound a lot like jack black.
Not really, but the guy saying he wants to tie people up sounds like a cutie
He shoulda done a demo with both the maxon and ibanez REISSUES. of course the 1983 ibanez is gonna kick the 2008 maxons ass
Without the white coily cable the tone just is not there.
maxon has the correct jrc chip and true bypass...
wins.
Does it make me a bad gearhead that I'd rather have the Maxon largely b/c it's true bypass and has a brighter LED?? 0:) They might sound the same, they might sound different, but weighing those features against things like price tag and constant worrying about the vintage one, and I gotta' go Maxon on this one~shrug~
(And yes, I know the potential drawbacks of true bypass, so don't bother bringing it up lol)
the ibanez sounds transparent, and the maxon sounds like "ceramic" and louder, this is maybe the op amps... I think the maxon is a little boring sounding... compared to the consistence of the ibanez
@Sloomer25 THINK THE SAME !!!
JACK BLACK!!! haha AWESOME
I just think the Maxon was brighter, and since it had a brighter sound, created a better compressed sound to the overdrive (but that's just me). I think the Sabbath fans and Doom Metal/Queens of the Stone Age fans would like the Ibanez more, and thrashy/death metal and hardcore bands would like the Maxon more. But if money is tight, there is no reason to not get the Ibanez TS9!
all the way noon hahaha
if you wanna play blues, your gonna wanna sound different than someone playing metal. Different distortion/overdrive sounds different. Also most guitar players care a lot about how their guitar sounds.
well considering that they are both made by maxon they should sound VERY similar, if not identical. i think the obvious difference is that the newer pedal, maxon, uses modern parts which will change the tonal characteristics. it's really not much of a huge difference. also, the OD9 are truebypass. i'm not sure about the old TS9 though.
anyone that says they can hear a HUGE difference is an asshole. the sound quality of the youtube video is not even good to determine such subtle differences.