Ibanez AD-80 Analog Delay

easy monkey knobs

this pedal is a gem! lush, warm outer space delay. the only problem i have with it is that sometimes when i turn it on or off, it clips my signal. does anyone else have this problem or know how to remedy it?

as long as you have a good supply of 9 volts--

n/a

beautiful tone, a 9 because of the clipping, otherwise a perfect analog delay pedal.

Easy to get an incredible sound out of this.

Hands on organic.

I never had the manual since I bought it 20yrs ago. Easy I tell you, easy.

There is no upgrade path for this, but just be gentle tweaking the trim pots for longer delay, very gentle, and it will pay you back in cups overflowing with sweet fat repeats.

I have both the Maxon and Ibanez versions... What versions? They're exactly the same!

I had no trouble buying an 18v supply in the 80's. I don't know what all these other guys on this forum are on about. If you want lesser quality sound, get a 9v delay unit. If you want to use it a lot (and you will) buy an 18v power supply. Batteries last for 2 gigs and make no sense.

I use my two in the studio as my analog delay sends.

i do dance music and film music.

It's got noise and distortion but it's kinda hard to explain how welcome it is... don't allow yourself to veto this until you hear one, then you'll understand the top rating it receives from every owner. It's exactly like having a top shelf valve amp. Distorts and noisy just right.

The repeats are the closest I've ever heard to tape echo. I use it side-by-side with the Boss RE-20. It's all a dance and dub maker's dream. I used to use a Roland RE201 but we all got sick of the maintenance. (That's why there's so many vintage Space Echos for sale, they're good but no one my age wants to spend time with the thing on the blocks every few months.)

It gets a 10/10 because it sounds exactly like what you hear on records. Go figure.

Never broken down. It's Maxon disguised as Ibanez. They never break. You should see the prices the beaters get on ebay! They do not break. Incredible.

Someone else here said his dad's was broken and his friend fixed it, without a manual I'll bet. 1st time I heard of one breaking was on this forum.

Built like a brick ****house.

It's been out gigging with me but now they're too small and too valuable. One fat coat pocket from a passing stranger...

I have never called Ibanez for anything.

The Japanese are proud and they are true craftsmen.

(How can you upgrade a Rolex?)

The company is helpful in that they make gear that doesn't break. Now that's what I call Customer Service!

I play and record and release dance, dub, latin, production & film music.

I've been playing for over 20 years.

I have just bought a backup unit from a seller in Japan and it makes my analog delay sends a stereo heaven. This is the only delay you should own, get as many as you can afford (this is not b/s).

It feels just right, my ears like it, my clients love it. My Colombian dub artist client thinks it sounds beyond belief, he tweaks and tweaks and makes long songs out of 4 bar phrases.

I bought the first one in the 80's for $300 and the 2nd one on ebay last week for $269. Both 2nd hand. Australia is expensive. But so is cheap equipment, if you know what I mean. My local 2nd hand music shop sells them starting at AUD$350. that's $340 US at today's rate.

I have 2 other Ibanez delays, the AD-9 and AD99, plus the usual Alesis and tc electronic NR-1. Except for the tc, they're all a bit less musical than this one. I take them to gigs now because they'll never be as valuable. They're good, no doubt, but not like this one. This one stays home. (The tc is in another class...)

It helps me make music. Oh, It helps me make music. Yes, it helps me make music.

Don't be afraid to tweak the trim pots. Be careful opening and closing the unit, don't force the screws, no need to. Make sure the Philips head fits without slipping, buy a new screwdriver if it's not grabbing properly. Don't kid yourself. Use a small screwdriver and massage the trim pots, never over turn them, they have gentle souls these little pots. These things are small, well-made, expensive and worth the extra care. You'll need good tools for other projects later.

I wish two of the trim pots were on the outside. Maybe a mod...? Nah, too valuable.

One day you'll thank me.

Mine is actually a Maxon, which is no different from the Ibanez version (except for the Maxon logo on the chassis). Just three knobs - Delay Time, Repeat and Blend. If it sounds too difficult, don't buy it. Sounds great in every imaginable setting, although you should be careful when tweaking the knobs, because too much self oscilation can damage your amp, not to mention your ears.

I use it with an american made Telecaster, through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. It's currently the only stompbox I use. I've bought it specifically for that 50's rockabilly slapback, and for that it gets a 10. I've never heard anything that would sound closer to a tape echo. Setting the delay time knob somewhere between 10 and 11 o'clock, and both the repeat and blend knobs around 8 o'clock gives you that unmistakable Sun Records sound. For longer delays (which I rarely use) it also works fine. It's warm, natural and very musical.

It's almost 30 years old and it still works. I gig with it without backup.

I've never had any problems with it, but I did write an e-mail to Godlyke distributing, asking them about the correct AC Adaptor which I should use with this pedal, and their response was quick and helpful.

I own many diferent effects, but as I've mentioned before this is the only one that I use on regular basis. It's a great pedal and I strongly recommend getting one while you still can. I won't give it a 10 because of how much I had to pay to get this delivered to Poland (where I live), including tax and all other expenses (over $300 in total), but I had absolutely no regrets when I finally got it.

Just having three knobs, it's not quit hard to get a decent tone. The time knob is a bit short, I mean that there's a lot of difference with just a little tweak, but at 5 o' clock it's still a quit short delay. And if you want a relativaly quite delay, you'll have to tweak the level button almost at his lowest.
overall it's a simple pedal, but one complaint: it needs 18 volts and it's really hard to find an 18 volt adapter, so OR you'll keep buying batteries OR you'll have to search a bit longer for a 18 volts adapter.

here's where it gets really nice. you can get those 'empty room' sounds, over an slapback echo to a nice soundcarpet. and those freaky alien sounds, I just love 'em!!

I use a gibson nighthawk tru boss OS-2, a wah-wah and digitech chorus to a H&K metroverb.
you notice how the 18 volts affects your sound, it coulors your sound as you turn your effect on. It inspired me to make a lot of new sounds and even songs, just based on something that came out of this little, pink pedal.

well, it's really old, I got it from my father and when he gave it to me, this pedal was dead. So I went to a friend who does electronics and asked if he could fix it. Few months later he brought me a fine working, nice sounding analog delay. And how thankful I was!!
but just a few weeks ago the adapter input died, so now I have to use batteries.

It's such a wonderful effect, befor this delay I just kind of ignored delay, I thought it was unuseful, or only for solo's, but now I use it in al types of song. It's really warm and coulorful and inspiring. And the alien stuff is really cool.
only matter that bores me is that once in a while when I step on the pedal it doesn't work exactly as it should, so I have to step real carefull, but that's no big deal, not for this pedal

plain easy to use

BRILLIANT! warm analogue echo stuff. always sounding good. i use it with vintage small stone, tuna melt, turbo rat, frequency analyzer, and other FX, mostly at the end of the chain.

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experimental, noise, ambient, drone, dub, trip-hop. i use a roland sh1 and a modded casio sk2 thru many guitar fx..
but i am not a guitarist!
it's brilliant, saynomore! i used to have DM-300, vintage stereo memory man and vintage deluxe memory man, wem copicat, dynacord echocord mini, some digital delays from ibanez 10 n 20 series, carl martin red repeat... well, this one is the best of the stompboxes. it is a little stompbox, sounds almost as good as the tape echo echoes, at least as the old memory mans, sweet self-oscillation=good-old-psychedelic-noise while tweeking the delay time.

I LUV IT!

I think that generally having just 3 knobs anyone can get the grips quite quickly, and there's an almost infinite number of combinations of tone and delay available from this pedal, the only bad point is having to tweak the knobs quite a bit to find the perfect setting you want as they are very sensitive.

Easily the most awesome sounding effects pedal i own, by just hitting a note and then tweaking the delay knob you can get insane psychadelic sound from it, you can experiment for hours with this, and its mindblowing live. the tone is so most better than a digital delay. awesome.

i wouldn't say i depend on this pedal, but id certainly miss it, especially as i gained it from a friend who owed me money for a dragonforce ticket, not knowing of its value :p

i play alot of metal, and use this pedal for alot of chorus style effects when playing clean, generally i dont use it much in my music, but its an amazing pice of kit, if it were lost or stolen id love another but simply wldnt b able 2 afford it.

One important point I forgot to make in my review of 10/26/2006 is that after about an hour & a half of being hooked up, this pedal will start bleeding out a light chorus effect in bypass mode! What's even weirder is that this phenomenon is more noticeable with some guitars than with others. Anyone else have this??

Only three knobs, but minor tweakage can alter the sound quite dramatically so it takes a while to find the most useable settings. I find it's best to keep the Blend knob low at all times, but then I'm a straight-up rocker who only steps on this pedal occasionally to add a bit of ambience. Delay time anywhere below 12 o'clock is pretty unusable IMO. I've had this pedal for a year and I'm still feeling my way around with it. Some incredible sweet spots, but I've never memorized the settings (or only vaguely). Maybe I should (duh)

Fantastic. Totally unique & warm sounding pedal. Like I said, I only use this for an occasional flourish so this is the only delay pedal I need. It's not an integral part of my sound & I could easily go without, but I'm very glad to have it! It seems to sound best without any amp reverb, I've noticed. It can sound swampy otherwise. Sounds best through my Sovtek Mig 100H which is warm, dark & powerful sounding, just like this pedal. Through the Sovtek with blend at 7 o'clock, repeat at 8 o'clock and delay time 3 o'clock to dimed it sounds a lot like the Watkins copy cat tape units used by Thin Lizzy on the Live & Dangerous album. A slightly higher blend setting yields great Ruts/King Tubby dub-style sounds. Lower the delay time and you have the perfect Cliff Gallup-style slapback.
I really don't use the unit much though, as I dislike bands who overuse delay (U-spew & Coldgay both spring to mind)

Definitely dependable. I have an old US plug 18V adaptor with a current converter to make it workable here in Europe. Otherwise it takes two 9v batteries, but will devour them fast (though it takes ages for the batteries to actually die, the sound will start degrading quite soon & get murkier, though that in itself sounds quite cool).
Wouldn't need a backup as I don't depend on delay for my sound. If it packed it in during a show, I'd simply unplug it, finish the show & get pissed off about it afterwards!
It's heavier than a Boss, but probably more breakable, as it's made of zinc alloy. The paint was already pretty chipped on mine when I got it.

This pedal is from 1980 or 81. These days, Ibanez are much more into flogging their line of crappy spandex-friendly guitars most of which are now made in China & I don't think Maxon'd be much help either (they deserve the credit for this gem however, not Ibanez)

A classic! Far more soulful than any digital delay I've ever experienced but possibly less malleable. Who cares? C'mon Everybody!
If lost or stolen, I'd definitely try to find another one, but they're not cheap or plentiful alas. If I couldn't find another AD-80, I'd try for a Boss DM-2 or DM-3, or a Maxon AD-900.
It's not perfect, but c'mon, what is?

One of the best analog delay ever created!It's not just a delay, rather a filtering delays enveloped or something like that.

I made a web page with pictures and some information about this pedal:

http://www.sonicurbs.com/ibanezAD-80

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Great worm lo-fi analog psychedelic sound. Maybe it comes from Mars!

It's unique delay for guitar. I'm definitely addicted.

All the best go down quickly!

check my web page about the AD-80, maybe it could be useful: http://www.sonicurbs.com/ibanezAD-80

I think to use this pedal till the end. Maybe I need an other one to store.

very straight forward and easy to use

to me, and I am an analog delay freak and own most if not all of them, this is the greatest analog delay ever created bar none. The two reasons are: the Chip used: the Panasonic MN3005 chips are no longer produced and for some reason they are far superior than other analog chips produced today. Kind of similar to the tubes of yester-year compaired to the tubes made today. Old stock tubes are better sounding. Reason being is that technology has surpassed the use of the vacuum tube and the applications of the vacuum tube have been replaced by far superior digital and nano-tech products. GE does not even make vacuum tubes any more.
However, for musical applications, we all know that the tubes of yesterday were of a much higher quality.
Second reason for this pedal's superiority is the 18 volts of power. In my opinion, Maxon, the manufacturer of the AD80 created this design and went a little over board by giving it 18 volts. This is why you get a quick increase in volume when oscillation point is reached. And it gets louder rather fast, and if you have ever used this pedal, you know that if not attended to immediately, you can blow speakers and/or ear drums.
However, this gives the creative artist so much more room to create. This pedal just doeas so much more and reaches far beyond any other analog delay. I know of no other analog delay that uses 18v of power. It's the equivilent of using nuclear power in place of a conventional bettery to power your car.
So, to me, this pedal is magic. Not even the highly engineered Moogs, or the AD900 which uses the same chips (but only 12 watts) comes close to this bad boy. They will continue to increase in value and even today a Panasonic MN3005 chip commands $35 and up. I use this pedal combined with other delays, and sometimes have 2 or 3 AD80s hooked up to my rig. There is no analog delay pedal in this one's leauge (sp?). It is the BEST. Get one, it will someday be the most valueable pedal on the used market.

I own about 12 of these. All have been extremely dependable, and the circut boards are easily repairable.

never dealt with Maxon or Ibanez for customer support. But Maxon makes the best pedals in the world and I am sure their support is just fine

I play psychedelic 'Acid-Rock'. This unit is an intigral part of my rig and is a mind blower

very easy to use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
three knobs:delay time, repeat, blend.in my opinion this is the best analog delay that you can find in the word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my setup is: fender mustang '66+ maxon od808+ proco vintage rat+ ibanez ad80+boss ce-2+ fender '59 bassman ltd.
the pedal is clean and sounds good+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i love this pedal.i play classic rock, blues, alternative and the AD80 is perfect for my sound

This is a no-brainer pedal. The knobs are delay time, mix, and repeat. The repeat knob, if turned past 3 oclock goes into self-oscillation. No patches, no edits, this is a tweaker's pedal, not a computer. Analog delay. And, in my opinion, this is the smoothest nicest stompbox analog delay you can find. I didn't have a manual and don't need one.

I just plugged my guitar into the box and into the amp. You can get chorus/flange-like sounds with the delay time set short, and it goes up to around 300 ms of delay time. That isn't much, but you can get a lot of interesting sounds from it. There isn't noise, it is smooth and the repeat function has good range, and a nice slow degrade. A very musical analog delay pedal. As stated, this delay is very smooth, very watery sounding, and makes any signal sound better, even NO signal. The unit can be turned into self-oscillation and you can turn the speed knob and create various spacy effects. As far as the repeat causing damage to speakers, yes, this is possible because it will overdrive the signal more each repeat until it is very loud. But if you just take down the repeat a bit when this happens, it is very manageable.

Very reliable, Maxon-made, almost bullet=proof. The pedal may need replaced moving parts such as pots, etc. but other than that, electronically this will continue to be a collector's item because the sound can't be duplicated. No need for a backup, though.

Never needed customer support, so I'm not qualified to state their abilities on this end.

I play alt-fusion-jazz-blues. I've been playing on and off for over 20 years. If it were stolen I'd keep a lookout for another one. I like the fact that it is a great-sounding pedal. This compares favorably to all the other analog delays, including the Ibanez AD-9, the Boss DM-2 and DM-3, and the DOD FX-90.

OK, I've already submitted one review for this, but I've had a few queries so here's an addendum.

Folks say the problem is that the effect goes into oscillation with the feedback set past 12 o'clock. I say THAT'S WHERE THE FUN STARTS!!

Above I wrote:
"BE CAREFUL - YOU CAN MELT YOUR AMP WITH THIS BABY!"

You'd like to give it a go?
For the crazy, spacey, sweep echo effects you might hear from bands like Radiohead, you can use a tape echo for the thick, squelchy type of sound at the end of 'Karma Police'. This analog delay makes a simpler, more synthy sound with the same principle (like they do in dub mixes).

- Wind up the feedback control to anywhere from about 7-10 (that's on my AD80, others may be a bit different) and the unit produces greater than 100% feedback, meaning the sound level fed back through the delay line is louder than the previous sound, and so it gets louder and louder!
- With this setting, you can move the delay time knob around for great pitch bending and sweeps. Doing this also stops the repeat sound building up too far and melting your amp.
- You'll know what I mean when everyone in the pub starts to look around for the UFO.

- Another great sound with this pedal:
- Set it up up as an effect for a pre-recorded track (slide guitar, synth, voice)
- Adjust feedback for 1 repeat only.
- Turn Blend knob all the way right (100% effect)
- Voila! Your delay time knob is now an intuitive, and spooky sounding pitchbender, where the pitch bounces back after a moment.

Above I wrote:
"Here's the sad part. Mine died one day without warning. Blew the bucket brigade chip. It will suck your 2x 9-volt batteries dry in about 5 hrs. Get an adapter, it takes an 18 volt. I ran mine off a 9-volt adapter for a while and I think that might have helped kill it."

I left it with my repair guy for a few months and eventually he was able to get hold of the bucket brigade chip which had blown.
If that's the problem with yours, it IS possible to find new old stock for these pedals.
It wasn't expensive, just hard to find the part. I'm sorry, I don't know where he got it, but there are a few websites which have that sort of thing.

I have been advised to run it off 12V DC and it's fine now. Don't bother with the batteries - it'll cost you 10 bucks to do a rehearsal and a gig!

Easy to use
Rate knob feeds back/oscilates just before 12o'clock setting, so has no use after that. it requires 18V which is inconvenient.

MIJ 62 Tele Reissue->BD2->AD-80->Fender Super Amp
Unit is not noisy. Sound is a goog match for my gear.Humbuckers give a darker muddier sound. Great Slapback sound, short delay times are long enough for me, but might not suit others.

It is still working and i do gig with it, but the switch is not as user friendly as the boss pedals, it has to be pressed quite hard to ensure it works(this is especially hard when swithching while singing ).
The pots are sometimes scratchy/noisy, and the mix pot has some dead spots.I have a DL4 as a backup.

Not Applicable for this pedal

I use this pedal simply to delay and then feedback.It does this fairly well. Have been playing 12 years. Would consider Boss Pedal in future for ease of switching, or housing the ad80 in a new case.

Really easy to get a cool sound. It may have been dead pots on mine but the blend knob had the delay sound at full at only about 2. I used it for a lot of sci-fi special effects by letting the feedback build and pitch sweeping by changing the delay time. BE CAREFUL - YOU CAN MELT YOUR AMP WITH THIS BABY!

I have an '82 Fender Concert and a '66 Jazzmaster. The pedal is clean and sounds amazingly good. Since mine died I have tried a few digital attempts at 'analog' delay and there is simply no comparison.

Here's the sad part. Mine died one day without warning. Blew the bucket brigade chip. It will suck your 2x 9-volt batteries dry in about 5 hrs. Get an adapter, it takes an 18 volt. I ran mine off a 9-volt adapter for a while and I think that might have helped kill it.

Having looked around a bit, and on advice from my repair guy, it will be very hard to find a part to fix my pedal.

I loved this pedal. It was a core piece of my sound and I really identified with it. If I could find one it would cost me about $500 in Australia today. I am looking for a replacement, but I think I'll end up with something a bit more versatile like a deluxe memory man.

It only has three controls on it, so it isn't that difficult. But the repeat can only go from the six o'clock to the twelve o'clock position before the effect goes into oscillation. As long as you understand that , there is no problem.

I use the pedal with a 1959 Fender Bassman, that amp is noiseless and this pedal is too. AD-80 has a nice slapback setting you can dial in and it is really good for rock-a-billy too. You can dial in some good Pink Floyd settings too. I have a Boss DM-2 and a Carl Martin Delayla; the AD-80 blows away the Boss and is just a hair better than the Delayla; keep in mind that all these are excellent pedals.

It is 23 years old. Looks like crap, but sounds good still.

Never dealt with Ibanez, but Japanese companies never compare in customer service as with American companies.

I play classic rock and this pedal will help you get some of the old sounds. I have been playing for 20 years. I love the clear delay you can get from this pedal; very impressed. It is rich and analog works good with a old tube amp.

Hmmm... three knobs. Delay time controls the delay time. Repeat controls the number of repeats. Blend controls the blend. I don't get it! (But knock one point down because if you dime all the knobs you'll get some unpleasant feedback.)

Gorgeous. Warm, beautiful sound. Dial in a little delay to fatten your sound, or a lot to space it out. Fantastic! And for the real-time knob-twiddling experimenters, you can get some weird robot sounds by changing settings mid-note. Electronic switching means that it doesn't tone-suck like pedals with non-true-bypass mechanical switches can. (See the explanation on www.analogman.com about true bypass.)

It's lived a pretty long life already, so I'd guess it's reliable. I've owned it for about six months of light/moderate use without a problem. Just one warning: Just don't put it in the line-level unbuffered FX loop of your early-80s Boogie (like I tried once), or it'll squeal like a stuck pig. It didn't damage either the pedal or the amp, but be warned. Modern (i.e., buffered) FX loops are fine, in my experience.

Hah! If anyone knows where I can get an 18-volt adapter that'll fit this little sucker, please email me. (The adapter socket is a miniplug-type, not the usual barrel found on most current effects.)

Fan-freaking-tastic!

Possibly the greatest analog delay ever made is also tricky to use because of the control parameters: unlike the later 9 and 10 Series pieces, the AD-80's Blend and Feedback controls have a very limited range for conventional use- set either one past "9 o'clock" and look out- you're drenched in delayed signal, and verging on infinite feedback which can seriously damage your amp. Be careful, pilgrim.

As good as analog gets- this circuit requires 18V, either from a pair of 9v batteries or a wall wart, but the result is excellent signal fidelity even when you're running it at the maximum 300ms delay setting. Great slapback tones, great "following" delay on 8th or 16th notes, and it won't clip out if you show it a Big Muff or Rat.

I snagged mine used about 3 years ago, it was already well worn, I've gigged it all over the East Coast with no problems. The square switches on these pedals aren't easy to replace, so if you get a line on one, grab it- it's got to be cheaper than the cost of a second AD-80!

Ask around, Hoshino doesn't even back up most of the gear it currently has in production.

These circuits have shot way up in price since I bought mine, in part because of 808 Series collectors and in part because the bucket brigade chips they're built around are no longer in production. That said, if you can find one at a reasonable price, they're among the best of their kind ever made.

Simple three-knob operation makes it extremely easy to use while offering all the flexibility needed to get a wide variety of delay sounds. One demerit for only being mono rather than stereo, but this only matters if you have two amps and are intending to run in stereo.

Hands down the best stompbox delay these ears have heard. Sounds better than the Maxon AD-80 reissue, which is supposed to emulate the sound of the Ibanez AD-80. The smoothest, most organic sounding delay short of a tape echo.

Mine's 20 years old and is still working fine -- I'd say that qualifies as reliable. Does eat the batteries, but that's why they sell 9Vs in large quanity, bargain packs.

Never had to deal with Ibanez, so I can't comment on this.

For that slapback rockabilly sound, without the expense, size and reliability issues surrounding a true tape delay unit, this is THE pedal. The Maxon AD-80 rates a close second, but this pedal just has something more natural sounding about it. Would buy another in a minute, but I've noticed that they're continually escalating in price. Some stores are asking as much as $300 for these!

3 knobs...How much easier can it get. I think most people that do have these know what type of echo they are trying to dial in, but a novice could easily dial in great sounds.

I've used this through many setups. My American strat with red lace sensors in the bridge and neck with a stock middle seems to do really well going through this pedal to my friend's 69' Super Reverb. My PRS Custom 24 gets great clean tones through it as well. I really don't like playing distorion units through it though...it seems to really shine with clean to slightly overdriven sounds. I wouldn't suggest using this through a Marshall. When I tested it through my JCM 800 it just didn't seem to do much for it.
I had to really spend some time tweaking inside pots to get mine to perform well (the guy I bought it from had it so that it would do weird sound effects by barely turning the knobs). I set mine so that I can get the weird feedback stuff at only extreme settings. It's not noisy at all and seems to improve your sound when it's off. I really like this pedal, but it doesn't really compare to my Space Echoes. I'd have given it maybe a 6 when I first got it, but now that it's propperly tweaked, easily a 10.

Most of these that you'll find out there have had the 9volt clips replaced. If you don't have a power supply, I wouldn't gig with it if I were you. It seems to suck two 9 volts down in a short time..... Could be trouble on stage just using batteries. Get a power adapter (18v) and you shouldn't have a problem.

I play proggressive rock. this pedal can do great things to a clean sound and if you were to put a good chorus after it, you'd really get into some sweet territory. I've used it with my Small Clone and it really works out nice. As far as delays go, this one beats out a lot of the opposition (other than Echoplexes and Space Echoes of course).

It has 3 knobs - blend, repeat, delaytime. That's very easy. You can't raise repeat knob to max. If you can that, your amp is broken^^

It's very noiseless. Warm and brilliant, clear analog Sound!!
I have maxon AD-80, boss DM-3 (these are very good analog delay, too).
Ibanez AD-80 is more smooth than maxon/boss.

I can depend on it. And I use Ibanez AD-80 with maxon AD-80, boss DM-3 on stage. That's not problem.

I don't deal with Ibanez. But that's Ibanez! AD-80 is TS-808's brother~

I play folk, modern rock, blues. AD-80 is my best effect! (with Diaz texas Ranger, tremodillo, maxon AD-80..)
If it were stolen or lost, broken, I want to buy it again. But that's difficult to buy it cause that's very rare.
Anyway, that's best analog delay. If you want warm and smooth, clear delay, you must buy it!!

very easy to use

the greatest instrument delay ever made! infinate variability due to smooth analouge mixability,....no hard set, switch type delay settings which limit creativity (like on ALL digital delays)!!!

like a rock!

one of the most user friendly,....wacky, mutatable pedals for bass and guitar ever created,.....................buy it at any price!!!

For subtle sounds you have to barely crack on the echo volume ... great for wacky run away stuff.

Nice clear aggressive repeats The Boss DM-2 seems sweeter
Great for Rockabilly slap stuff

so far so good dropped it once works fine

it can be tricky to get accurate delay volume settings on the go. they all seem to have sensitive pots for the delay volume and it can be a case of off or on. repeats go on endlessly with a percussive pulse.bit noisy on loud long delays. with tweaking it can sound fantastic.

Overall extremely good delay unit in such a compact size. this is the best sounding analog delay in a pedal there is. the delay is not as compressed as other analogue delays like the boss and AD-9.you do get a bit of noise as a result but well within tolerance.I like strats and jazzmasters through an ac-30 and this justs adds to the sound. You can get great slapback, echoes that are like reverb and endless repeats which latter analog delays dont seem to do as well.warm as....

the pot on the delay volume is to easy to tweak and i'm always suss on those foot-switches(although i have never had one fail). At home it is really reliable but I gig with my deluxe memory man.

never tried them

This is my favorite analog delay next to my deluxe memory man.the man has chorus and vibrato so is in a different class. this delay is so warm and musical.its uncompressed qualities are what sets it apart from the others.it still is an analog delay with that loveable disintegrating signal into percussiveness. great on all settings except off. you have the ability to have all delay signal or mixed to your taste - the ad-9 just subtracted from a loud delay signal. i could not live without mine....

This is as easy to use as any of the run-of-the-mill analog delays, such as the Boss DM-3 (I also have one of these). Three controls: delay time (how long between echoes), blend (between dry and effect signals), and repeat (number of echoes). It is mono, unlike some of the other available pedals (again, the DM-3). The one page, fold-over "manual" gives about this much info.

Amazing! This is quiet, which is unusual for an analog. The real value is the absolute depth of the echo. The echoes have some real body and tone. It does not overpower the dry signal and does not discolor the original sound. It tends to sound a bit like a tube Echoplex (used to have one, but no more), without the tape noise. There is a reason that these have been going for up towards $200. I've used it with a Strat, Les Paul w/'57 pick-ups, PRS Custom 22, ES-330, and a Rickenbacker 365, through this and a Fender Deluxe Reverb and all sounded fantastic. It has a real vibe with the spring reverb on about "4".
Vocals also sound great through this, and I've used it for some demos. Sound much better than a rack-mount digital delay.

This has lasted me since the early 80s and has worked without fail. The only drawback is that it requires two 9-volt batteries, and it sucks them dry (or drier, since they already are dry cells) in a few hours or less, depending on how much the effect is used. Like most of the small stomp boxes, power is used as long as you're plugged in. Bring extra batteries, and this hot pink box will let you sound like you're in the Alps all night.

That's a laugh. I call Ibanez once a year to see whether they intend to make another 18-volt wall wart available. They never know what pedal I'm talking about. They usually ask whether I'm sure that it's an Ibanez. I think that AnalogMike has a source for repair. Note that the A/C input is a mini-phone jack, unlike the barrel-type jacks on newer pedals. Ergo, the Danelectro 18-volt adapter for the Cool Cat might work, but you'll have to perform surgery on the plug.

I love this pedal so much that I bought the Boss DM-3, so that I didn't have to risk losing the AD-80 at a gig. DM-3s are more plentiful and cheaper. If I lost this, I would hunt down another, or I'd jump at one for around $100 as a back-up. The DM-3 is very close, but the AD-80 is warmer-sounding. The lack of a stereo dual-output on the AD-80 is only important if you want to record it in stereo, but a Y-cable could solve the problem. It's nice.