Aramat Effects SD-1 Super 808 Mod

3 knobs!

Tons better than stock.
Still not a TS-9 by any stretch.
I know they're kind of the same pedal.
Even with the mod it has too much High-end/treble for my taste.

It's a Boss. It will last.

N/A

Aramat is a very good effects company.
I've heard most of their pedals.
This mod & the TS-9 mod is good as far as mods go.

If you buy a modded pedal you may be unhappy with the tone as I am
most of the time. This mod does make the pedal sound much better &
really doesn't take away from the stock SD-1 tone.

A lot of great Rock guitarist love the old SD-1's.
This is the only mod for an SD-1 that I have liked.

Only 3 knobs, level, tone, and drive. It is very simple to get a good sound. As with all overdrive units, getting exactly the right level in every working situation requires practice.

I would not hesitate to give this a 10 because this pedal can get as gritty and as crunchy as I need it to. It responds very well to picking dynamics and it will make your guitar sing, much better than a stock SD-1. Mine was a made in Taiwan unit. I use a swamp ash body ESP strat with an ebony fretboard and EMG SA active pickups through a solid state Carvin SX-200 2x12 combo. I go through the clean channel exclusively and this pedal sounds great.

I haven't had it long enough to experience any reliability issues yet but I don't anticipate problems with Boss pedals. I would use it without a backup anyday.

Keith was quick to answer all of my emails and he was very helpful to answer any questions that I may have.

I really love this pedal but overall, I'll give this an 8, not because of the sound quality but because I was a little disappointed at the fact that the pedal was shipped in a box barely larger than the pedal itself and therefore, could not be padded sufficiently to protect it from any impact. But in all fairness to Keith, to keep the cost down, one would expect him to cut a few corners. Although I am very happy with the Super 808 mod, I still feel that it could benefit from a better bass end. Even though there are other people out there who claim to be able to improve the bass end on their SD-1 mods, Keith assured me that he knew of no mod to improve the bass. Regardless, I am still enjoying the Super 808 mod and I would recommend this to anyone. I also have a Tonebone Classic but the Super 808 has a more aggressive sound, which is exactly what I was looking for. I am a professional musician with many years of working experience. My styles range from R&B, Funk, Jazz, Pop, Dance, Blues, Classic Rock, and Country. Last but not least, I am happy to say that I got a quality modded pedal from Aramat Effects for much less than the competition.

This pedal is easy to use but like any pedal getting your level right is the trick.

I had Keith mod my TS9DX as well as my SD-1 so that I have two similar yet different choices. First off, these two pedals are great together. Don?t think that you are getting a TS808 mod out of your cheap SD-1 but rather a gritty alternative to the TS9. Seems that the SD-1 can deliver a dirtier crunch than a TS9 and so I like it as main overdrive. I do like that the TS9DX has more low end and volume available, sadly like most Boss pedals the SD-1 lacks in this area. Keith cleaned it up as best as he can. The before and after are not only noticeable but appreciated. Like I said there is more dirt than the TS9 which is better for nastier riffs! By the way, I am using a semi-hollowed guitar through apeavey delta blues tube amp.

Boss pedals are tanks.

Keith rocks! Great guy to work with and works fast, real fast. Forget those other guys below.

If I were you, I would buy a super mod TS9 or one of his Green Machines and pair it with the SD-1, that way you have a choice of tone. I usually have the SD-1 on more than the TS9DX due to its smooth sound. I am in a jam band (i.e. Phish, Widespread Panic, ect?) and we rock. I am the lead guitarist and so I am a tone nut

For the money you can?t go wrong. Forget the bad reviews below. I worked in Guitar Center and have had many pedals, this isn?t a bad deal.

it's pretty easy to get a great sound outta this modded pedal, really does have a massive improvement over the original, much less noise i'd go as far as to say noise free but it's not quite but it's very close, amazing over drive tone so damn smooth!

Im using a Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci sig guitar with this Modded SD-1 into an ENGL Screamer 50 como.

Im using this pedal on the heavy lead channel.. with the heavy lead at a reasonble gain level and the pedal just slightly pushing it more into saturation but this creates a great midrange sound very similar to a Mark IV mesa i think anyway.. and it's got me one step closer to the tone I want.

Yea it's in a boss box it's indestructable.
Yes i'd gig without a backup

Excellent Customer Support, Keith told me everything I wanted to know, when the pedal had arrived, when he'd posted it etc.. great service

Great Pedal.

In defense to the unfair comments made by the person below, although the Made in Taiwan Boss pedals are inferior to the Made in Japan Boss pedals, this is not Aramat Effects' fault =). we do great work in upgrading stock pedals to be the best they can be. A modification will not turn a Ford into a Jaguar, for instance, but it will certainly improve the unit considerably.

Regarding the IC chip...since the JRC4558D sounds identical to the JRC455DD (to my ears, among many, many others), it would not make any sense to swap it out.

This customer received a full refund, which says a lot about our customer service commitment. View our other reviews for more examples of our strong customer appreciation.

thanks for taking the time to hear my side of the story.

keith@aramateffects.com

this is an amendment to my previous review. My initial response to sound quality was that the mod made it sound "better" than my stock MIJ. after a while with both pedals, I realize that I prefer the overall sound and versatility of the stock MIJ. I think this mod would be better for the TS-9's. I think the best thing to do to the SD-1 would be to swap out some of the caps to metal film just for bass response and reducing some of the hiss. I think changing the resitors to 808 specs makes the clarity and definition better and if that's what you're looking for then go about and get the standard mod. However I think it takes away from the original character of what makes the SD-1 a great pedal, namely it's raunchier/dirtier sound in relation to the TS-9

The SD-1 even after modding will not sound like a TS-9/TS-808 or any other Ibanez tubescreamer. I would recommend getting an MIJ SD-1 and making a few minor adjustments yourself. This alternative also has the advantage of saving a lot of money. Boss MIT products just don't have that intangible quality of their MIJ counterparts. It's not as drastic as some people may claim, but definitely noticeable. Oh BTW, search around before choosing who you'd like to mod your pedal. Also if you still insist on getting the SD-1 mod from this guy, make sure you actually swaps the JRC chip, just as a matter of principal for the money your paying. He told me because my SD-1 had the JRC DD he didn't feel the need to swap it out. I don't think that should be done in his discretion. Even if the only difference is the letter D itself, it costs next to nothing and should have been swapped out with the original DD JRC returned to me with the pedal. A basic presumption of the purchase of the 808 mod is that the chip will be swapped out isn't it???

I would just like to respond to the previous review. I answered every one of his e-mails the same day that he sent them. If he didn't hear from me it means that I did not receive the message for some reason. I pride myself in customer service and support (see our other reviews). If he had any problem with service, shipping, etc. he did not notify me. there is no question that there are other mods out there for the SD-1, but ours is the closest to get a true vintage Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-808 tone out of the Boss Overdrive. If he is as disappointed as he states, I would be happy to give him a full refund. thanks for reading this!

Much better than a stock MIT and much better than my MIJ SD-1. I asked Keith to increase the bass response and he did it just right. Best way to describe the sound improvement is that it's fuller yet still retains the pedal awesome note definition. BUT I think it can be improved beyond what Keith has done. This is my first modded pedal and I choose this mod over all the other cuz I thought it was the cheapest and all mods are about the same. Not true. More on this later.....

Keith started out great [why wouldn't he since he want my money and apparently not too many people choose his 808 mod!!]. But after the intitial inquiries his service started to degrade horribly. He only responded to emails he wanted to, or felt compelled to respond to. He charges an additional $8.00 shipping to Canada, yet doesn't insure it. It cost $4.40 USPS to get here. How much do you think it costs to mail within the USA AND he doesn't charge his American customers anything. I know the costs of shipping and I figured he would pocket a lot of the additional shipping charge, but NOT ALL OF IT!!
Also, he didn't have a clue as to when the pedal was mailed out. He originally told me Dec. 26, then tells me Jan. 6 [after finally responding to my third email] I get the pedal today Jan. 22 [got stuck in Customs b/c he declared the item incorrectly] paid another $8.50 and I see that it was mailed out Dec. 29. He was either lying about the mail out date OR he had no clue. Either way that's bad customer service IMO.
Also there's goo from the circuit board that dripped underneath from his soldering. Never read about that in write-ups of other modded SD-1's. Very dissappointing experience.

There's no doubt the pedal is much better than stock. BUT there's way too many other mods avaiable that do so much more for the same amount of money that I ended paying when all was said and done.
Especially for any prospective Canadians, DO NOT get this mod. I should have done more research before choosing Aramat. Oh well, lessons learned. This was a curiosity experiment gone bad. i just had to see what all the fuss was about. I'm sold on the idea of modding and it's sonic improvements. I've got a ton of other pedals that could use modding. Some I'll do myself, the others will be done elsewhere.