Ibanez SD-9 Distortion

I saw one other review about this pedal, and I had to put one in, too. I bought mine original, which had to in 1983. I was in 8th grade and had just bought a '69 Fender Dual Showman Reverb amp, but I couldn't get the distortion, so I went out and bought the first distortion pedal I saw - the SD-9. Its been my standard ever since. Three knobs (Distortion, Tone, Level) make it easy to get a number of sounds: from blues crunch to, well, SONIC.

Excellent distortion sounds from this unit. I use a Digitech GSP-7 effects processor, but rarely use any of the distortions included in it. Why should I with my Ibanez Sonic Distortion?

Excellent. As the original owner, its got dents, missing paint, etc. but it has held up well and I've never had a problem. Still standing up after 13+ years.

Never had a problem with it: just took it out of the box and have played it almost daily since I got it.

This is a great distortion pedal. I'm keeping my eyes open for another just in case this one ever dies... Let's hope not. I consider this pedal a major part of my sound and style... whichever setting I use it for.

This pedal has three knobs. Level, Distortion, and Tone. Kind of a staple in todays guitar effects world The level is your basic volume knob. The rest is pretty self explanatory.

The volume knob At 50% it makes your distorted signal = to your clean. The distortion knob at 10-25% gives you a nice dirty crunch. Ideal for blues men. Around 50 or so It gives you a nice crisp overdrive. At 100%, can we say pure sonic meltdown? Even when my amp is at minimum volume, it sounds like it's going to burst from the energy. I love it. The tone could be called somewhat of a nasal knob. Depending on how your amp is set, it can add that over the edge tone, But sometimes it is a little to green dayish. i prefer it at around 75 or so. At times the distortion can be nice and tight, but when it gets loud it gets a sort of jangly quality at the low end With the distoion at about 50-75% it does wonders for rhythm players. But if you peg the pedal, it turns your solos from great to incredible. Does a miracle job of adding that extra tone that makes everyone just say yeah! that the sound.

Well, This catergory is simple. This pedal was stopped being made arounf the early to mid 19 80's. When i first bought the pedal it was already fifteen years old. it was $25 bucks and i figured what the hell? well, it sounds immense, after all that time. It looks like a tube screamer knock off or something, it even has that same paint. But i've heard it against ts reissues, and it beat it out. (I think). I say that if your gonna buy a used vintage ibanez, instead of shelling 250 for an original ts-9, pay the 25 bucks and go with the better pedal. I dont know about the guy before me, but this pedal has already survived a house fire, as well as a good 20 hours a week of use.

used\no comment

I wish i was a guitar god, and everyone who was a good little guitar playing wanna-be would find one of these monsters in their stockings. I am a distoriton nut, and this is the best box ive ever heard. end of story