Analog Man SD-1/808 Mod

Gain, tone & volume settings. Most difficult part was deciding where to put it in the chain. Originally had it after a clean boost, since the stock unit doesn't have enough volume to really boost without a lot of drive, but the modded unit has much more volume to work with. I now have it before the clean boost, and it is a little less compressed-sounding with the gain up this way. I really like the extra volume this unit has over the stock SD1.

I play a lot of clean Strat lead stuff a la Gilmour/Garcia/Knopfler, etc., but also need to get a little crunchy at times. It does the SRV thing very well. Compared to the stock SD1, the modded version is much, much smoother and I'm cranking the gain a lot higher than I used to. Now I tend to go to about 2:00 on the gain, while before I only went up to about 10:00 max. Much more in control crunch, more musical sounding. Slightly less mid hump, but enough to be a Tube Screamer OD. Sounds very similar to my old 808 with the brown option, perhaps barely more crunchy.

The tone knob is more usable, although I'm still keeping it around 9-10:00, but only because of the type of crunch I'm needing for the
acts that I play out in. You can actually use this with the tone knob at 12:00, which I would never have done with the stock unit.

I have the silver option with the recommended symmetrical clipping, and it is easily the best bypassed OD pedal I've ever used! Amazing, actually.

What really impresses me is how well the clean sound is improved with this unit in the chain. A much bigger, 3-D, fuller, musical sound. I've tried some so-called true bypass OD's, as well as other modified units with buffers, and they all affect the clean sound negatively just by being in the chain. This unit has set the standard! Despite having buffers. Perhaps it's just my setup (Strat->Mini Bi-Comp->SD1/808->Modded BD2->MXR Carbon Copy->Korg Pitchblack tuner->Fender ProSonic amp -- all Evidence Audio cabling).

If you play clean at all with an OD in the chain, the silver option is definitely worth it! I'd like to see this as an option on other units, like the BD-2, as well.

I've used it for a few months now, and seems very reliable so far. I've played hundreds of hours with it. My last stock SD-1 has been through everything imaginable, including spilled beer, underwater outside in a thunderstorm, etc. and still works.

My last true 808 didn't last long, as the darn switch went out during a show. I managed to fix it later, but then one of the pots got stuck. Anything is more reliable than an old Ibanez, in my experience.

Mike is great to work with. The pedal was shipped in less than a week from order, and arrived in great shape. I've bought a few pedals from Mike, and never had a problem.

If you want the most reliable form of Tube Screamer OD around, that sounds a LOT better than the stock pedal, and has the best bypassed sound, I haven't found any better than this! I've played out and recorded for many years, and have gone through a lot of pedals.

No brainer, if you can't figure it out, go back and repeat 3rd grade.

It's good, but definitely not a 10. I probably would have given it a 9 before I heard the Monte Allums mod. Compared to the Analogman, the Allums mod is much more lively and responds better to the dynamics of your picking. It's also less compressed. If you can follow instructions and have some patience and free time, save yourself $50 and get the $20 DIY kit from Monte.

It's a Boss.

Very responsive and timely with emails.

Again, it's good, clearly better than a stock sd-1, but the Allums mod is better, cheaper, more transparent and alot of fun.

Same controls as a TS, Volume, Drive, Tone. Easy as pie! The controls are nicely NOT interactive so it makes it easier to tweak.

My setup is:

Custom Kelly Strat (very nice) --> Ibanez PQ-9 --> Pigtronix EP-1 (great phaser/envelope follower/LFO) --> AnalogMan Bicomprossor --> SD-1/808/Silver --> Stephenson Stage Hog --> AnalogMan Mini Chorus --> Keeley TR-2 --> Boss DD-5. I primarily use the Stage Hog for mild tube distortion (best on the market) but I needed something to do the smooth over the top sustain kinda thing and the SD-1 does exactly what I wanted. Not only did it perform the function I bought it for, it actually started competing with the stage hog for about 50% of the distortion I use! I am hugely impressed with the pick sensitivity; also, the tone knob really works! If you like the straight 808 thing, just put the tone at about 11:00 and you get a good mid hump. turn it up and you get some good bite (still very smooth). With the bicomp before the SD-1 I can get some great lead tones a la Anastasio. Over all, I have to say that I haven't heard a better solid state distortion. I could easily get through a whole gig just using this pedal.

Well, it's boss casing and analogman wiring. This pedal is not failing any time soon.

Mike's always great.

I've been playing for 22 years, and have owned alot of gear in my time. Most of what I own now comes entirely from the boutique market, and have heard/played/owned probably 98% percent of the effects out there - I say that only to qualify my opinion as one you can trust.

This is a great pedal. For the price, you can't find anything even remotely as good. If I were rating it solely on bang for the buck I'd give this rating a ten. But in the world of distortion as a whole, the Stage Hog takes the ten spot (it actually is a tiny amp with a preamp and power section; both tube) so I have to give the SD-1 a 9.

It's an SD-1: three knobs. Very easy to use, though I will admit the modifications make the controls a little less familiar than the other SD-1 mods out there. The tone control is very sensitive, I find it usable for my tone from about 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock. This is the SILVER upgrade version with the push-pull clipping mod.

I play two main guitar setups: Fender Ash Tele or Warmoth H/S/H -> Boss GE-7 -> Doobtone Boss BD-2 -> Barber Direct Drive -> Indyguitarist Boss TR-> Boss DD-20 -> Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. This pedal was in the Direct Drive's spot until I got the Barber. In reaching this point, I've also tried the Keeley 5-Star mod and the Doobtone Super mod. The Analog Man version beats the Keeley and Doobtone just slightly, because it has a little more clarity. The other SD-1's have a slightly less focused sound. I can't honestly say how this compares to an 808 but it does match the mid-hump description associated with the 808. The Analog Man doesn't seem to cut bass like the 808 though. I find it works well with the tele and the warmoth (which is in the Les Paul end of things). It's average for noise, no more, no less than others. And it plays well with other pedals. The asymmetrical clipping doesn't sound that good (Analog Man doesn't recommend it either) and I wouldn't recommend the extra $25 to get the push-pull. So if the mid-range type thing is what you want, then this is perfect. Get it and don't doubt it.

The push-pull broke: the shaft came right out, so the clipping option doesn't work anymore. The pedal still works and is just stuck in symmetrical mode, which is better anyway. Since the pedal is used and really couldn't be prevented (it's not like his soldering fell apart or something) I don't really hold this against the pedal. Mike didn't hesitate to send a replacement one (I prefered to fix it myself to avoid shipping across borders) and was friendly about it. I bought mine off ebay and he still helped me out (none of this original owner crud).

Top quality! There is a reason Mike is doing so well. His customers like him because he likes them. Although I bought mine off ebay, he sure did answer all my questions before I went this route. I'd had a DD-6 modified by him and he had no problems having it shipped from the ebay seller to him and then on to me after modding it. Fast and friendly = happy customers = happy review.

Overall, I really like this pedal. I find the Direct Drive is a little less mid-humpy than this, which is more up my alley. But it definitely does what it claims and Analog Mike's site doesn't lie about it from sound wise. You can bet that having the Keeley, and Doobtone models, I compared all the modifications. Please don't email me for the specs, these people have worked hard to make distinct sounds, and I can assure you they are all different mods. I will say that in terms of Analog Man, for the silver option he changes more than Keeley but a few less than Doobtone. In the end, I wouldn't hesitate recommending this to someone who likes the tubescreamer style of sound. This does it sweetly and is wrapped up in the reliable Boss container. However, if you prefer flatter EQ, this pedal won't quite cut it for you.

Really easy to use only three knobs how much easier can it get.

My setup is this Charvel(strat style)---Boss-Sd/808----Fender BVlues Jr. Perfect for what I use it for Blues/rock. Gives you that SRV crunch and it can also be used as a clean boost.

Its Boss so its built like a tank and I would use it without a back-up.

I sent them a few emails about differnt stuff they answered every single email within 24 hours.

As I said before I play Blues/Rock and its a perfect match.
Ive been playing for 6 years, I also use a Boss-ds-1 and a Vox V-847 which I will be getting modded by Analog man later on when I can come up with the money.If it were stolen or lost I'd definatly buy it again. I love its overall tone. I wish I would of come up with the extra 5$ to put the green LED. It definetly helps to make beautiful music.

Same as the Boss pedal. Three knobs.

I'm writing this review because I put my AnalogMan SD1/ts808 overdrive pedal side-by-side with an actual ts808, and I could NOT tell the difference. At every setting, with every pickup, they sounded EXACTLY the same. Amazing. If you are thinking about buying a reissue ts808, you should consider Analogmans boss mod version. The sound is the same, and Boss is very sturdy.

Used as my primary OD pedal for 2 years, never had a problem.

Analog Mike rocks. He always answers emails, and his mod turn around is fast.

As I said, the whole purpose of this review is to tell everyone that when I put the Analogman SD1/ts808 mod next to an actual ts808, I could not hear any difference between the two.

3 knobs - No waiting

I am a big fan of overdrive pedals. My Rig is an American Strat through a silverface bassman with an Indyguitarist modded Boss MT-2, an Analogman Boss SD-1, an Analogman Ibanez TS9 brown mod, a Rick Gram woman tone, an old Boss CE-2 and an MXR Phase 90 (with R28 mod). The I really like the combo of these pedals together other than the MT-2 is WAY louder than the others and doesn't play well with Wahs. The SD-1 is my main rythem overdrive. When I want a heavier sound, I play the woman tone on top of it. I adds a lot more low and and boost to it.

I have only had it for a few months but boss pedals are built to last and Mikes work is always solid.

I haven't had to use customer support for this product but I did write to him regarding questions I had about my TS and he responded within a couple days with the answers to all my questions.

This pedal is great. It is my fav overdrive. I am not a soloist, so I tend to use it more than my TS9. They both have the 808 mod but the SD-1 has more hair on it.

Easy to get good sounds. Just don't have the "tone" up too high, unless you like Punk (like my son).

I use a bunch of different guitars with this and multiple amps, including tube and solid state and direct recording through a Boss ME-50 and I am absolutely floored every time I play this pedal! When I first got it, I didn't really understand it, and it ended up sitting in my music room with my dozens of other pedals, unloved and unused. After a while, though, something clicked and I understood it. It has now become my #1.
I admit that I haven't played this pedal in a band situation -- I broke up my band a year ago because I was having vocal problems, but I can tell that it will work great in a band setting. Plenty of midrange so you can hear yourself (and be heard by others) without cranking up too loud.
I feel badly that I took so long to write a review on this. I've had it for six months or so. I have a lot (A LOT) of great pedals, Boss stuff, Keeley modded stuff, Fulltone stuff (including the latest version of the Fulldrive 2), Ibanez, Korg, Hughes&Kettner, on-and-on, but the one I keep coming back to is this one. Whenever I first kick it on my breathing sort of becomes slow and shallow. I feel like I've just walked into some beautiful place where nobody else has ever been. It's just breath-taking. Best guitar with this pedal (that I own) is probably the Strat (Am. Standard), although any of my guitars that don't have a heavy midrange sound great. The older Godin with the heavy sounding P-90s sounds better throught he Fulldrive or the Keeley modded BD-2. Old Epiphone with lightly wound humbucks is awesome, too!
Sounds best if you follow it with a compressor (just a tad of compression) and a slight bit of echo or reverb. Goes from growl to smooth grind, depending on the tone/drive settings.
I have to say, though, that every guitar/amp/player needs a different setup. My friend Justin compared this to his Ibanez Tube Screamer and said the difference wasn't enough to justify paying for the Analog Man unit. He's primarily uses a Carvin Holdsworth model guitar through a Hellhound. With my playing style and guitars/amps, however, there was no contest when I borrowed Justin's Tube Screamer and compared it to the SD-1/808. The analogman unit was miles ahead. To each his own.
My son, who is into Punk, cranks up the Drive and the Tone and gets very nice, edgy but well rounded sounds with his cheap Kramer Strat copy. He's into Rancid, Ramones, and others.

Is it reliable? Well, I guess so. There doesn't appear to be much that could go wrong with it. Very yellow. That helps.

I think the customer support is fine. What you'd expect from a very busy guy who wants to keep the customers satisfied. My rating of "9" is not meant to be an insult, but there are others I've dealt with who were EXTREME in their desire to be helpful (like the dude at Visual Sound). 9 is REAL GOOD in my book.

For folks who can play expressively, like me and Trey Anastasio, this pedal is a must have. (Nah, I'm not as good as Trey. Well, I come pretty close sometimes, for brief periods, but to play like he does for hours at a time?? That's crazy good!) Really cool thing about this pedal is that if you decide the pedal is not for you, you can throw it up on eBay and get about 85% of your money back! Great resale value (at least last time I looked--check it out for yourself if that's important to you). Analog Mike: You done good. I hope your business continues to prosper. Oh, and I love my Analogman DS-1 mod, too, but I'm too sleepy to review that tonight. Maybe some other time...

I ordered a new analog man Boss super-overdrive (SD-1) modified to a tubescream (TS808), with the push-pull volume pot that switches between the tube screamer OD and the SD-1 assymmetrical clipping. The pedal only has 3 knobs. Volume, tone, and gain. doesn't take a B.A. in communications... err...

I use a cheap OLP MM1 with Dimarzio super distortion pickups, and either a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe combo or a Marshall Valvestate 8040. As a young "entry level" guitarist I tried to use this pedal in front of the clean channel on my Marshall amp, hoping for a nice smooth overdrive. As should be obvious, this only yields a solid statey type distortion with ugly atonal harmonics... its difficult to built a stomp box with tubes in it. As a more experienced guitarist I use this stomp as it is meant, in front of the overdrive channel on a tube amp. It wails! This is what the TS808 is meant for, and the analog man mod of the SD-1 does it beautifully. This pedal gives you more range in the gain than the tubescreamer, and the switch between TS clipping and Boss asymmetric clipping gives this pedal a lot of versatility. The Boss clipping gives a nice Angus Young OD, and the TS clipping is classing bluesy rock. I rate it a 9 though, because sentimental 10 should be god-like and unattainable.

Its a Boss, which is built "Ford Tough," (my grandpa used to spit on Fords though...), and Analog Mike does excellent work with electronics.

Analog Mike is excellent with customers. He's very interested in helping, and as I mentioned earlier, he does great work with electronics. You'll never get that kind of personal attention from Boss.

I only own two pedals. A stock Boss Metal Zone, and this modded SD-1. I only use the MT-2 for metal songs. For all boosted leads I use the SD-1/TS808 in front of overdriven tubes. I love the scream and the versatility. IMO this is a great affordable way to obtain a vintage TS808, but in a new pedal, and from a company that is still active and able to fix it for you, send replacement parts, etc... Analog Mike has sort of a cult following, I wish he were more mainstream, I bet his modded pedals would become a standard among serious guitarists, and a must buy.
I have to rate the pedal a 9 because there is some inherent value in the vintage TS808, and while this pedal is excellent, it's the same as comparing a 2004 Les Paul with a 1968 LP all else being equal.

Three knobs - Gain, Level and Tone.

I purchased the SD-1 locally and played it for a couple of weeks. I'd seen it appear in rigs of Eddie Van Halen, Zakk Wilde and others so I got one - heck it was only $50. I took it home and primarily was using it only to push the preamp tubes in my gain channel - level way up to overdrive the input a bit. For this single purpose, it worked reasonably well. However, on the clean channel using the SD-1 alone it was flat and muted. I did a bit of research and found AnalogMan. $45 in the battery box and a week later I received my modified pedal back.

WOW!!! This pedal now is absolutely vibrant and alive! I play in my church contemporary band and we play stuff that's musically all over the map. I need sounds from the cleanest of cleans to some stuff with a big Marshall type roar. With this pedal and my Traynor YCV40WR amp (see that review) I can get it all. Running the AnalogMan pedal into the clean channel I can get anything from a straight clean boost to a really rich gain sound, and all points in between. Crunchy gain for some rhythm work - I can get it. Solid drive sound that retains single note clarity within chords - I can get that too. This pedal really provides a lot of options. Change over to the gain channel and this pedal takes a bluesy sounding tube amp into another rhelm of gain. With the level up a bit to push the preamp tubes, my amp now can transform from a rich lower gain sound to a huge 80s metal type sound.

In either case, providing a nice overdrive through the clean channel or pushing the gain channel into the next level, this pedal allows the tone of your guitar and amp to really shine through. The gain is very organic and musical. You get very rich tone without washing out your sound. I played Sunday at church with a very simple rig - Guitar -> compressor -> SD-1/808 -> amp - and I had the best tone I've had in years. We played a couple higher gain sound songs and a couple very clean songs. In all instances, this pedal really helped to get the sound I wanted.

I've only had this pedal a couple of weeks, but I don't forsee any problems.

I emailed Mike at the AnalogMan site and he responded promptly. He's knowledgable and great to work with!

I've been playing guitar for 20 years, the last three on a personal crusade for sweet tone. I've tried different amps, modeling amps, modeling pedals in front of amps, modeling pedals straight through the effects loop of amps... this single pedal allows me to boost my clean sound when I need it, get varying degrees of crisp, natural, clear and musical gain from the start of breakup through a modest and medium amoung. Flipping into the gain channel it provides whatever level of edge you want to go from just adding some richness to your amp, or pushing it into high gain territory - it does that too.

I have to caveat my comments with the fact that I've only used this pedal with a tube combo with the volume at 4 or higher, so the tubes are working.

I tip my hat to AnalogMan. He's worked magic with this pedal! I also have the DS-1/Pro AnalogMan modded pedal, but that's another story...