Maxon AD-999

Three knobs:delay-time, repeat and level. Speaks for itself. The knobs are very sensitive, especially delal-time as it has a huge range (up tp 900 msecs). It is very easy to get a good sound; I didn't find a bad one!

I use this beautifull device with a 1973 Marshall Super Lead, which has been wonderfully wired point to point and hot-rodded by Peter van Weelden here in the Netherlands. My effects are: RMC3 wah,Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe,Fulltone 69, Fultone Ultimate Octave, Analog Man KOT and Maxon AD999. Everything is true bypass and I have almost no noise. The sound of the maxon is the best I ever experienced. It blows away my Carl Martin and Boss dd2. Sure it is a little bit dark sounding but I must say that for a kind of Thin Lizzy-big-sound it is the best. It makes the sound big and ballsy. It oscillates into wild frenzy very easy when all the knobs are maxed. I rate it a 9 as a tape-echo is probably the best. On the other hand it is the best purchase this year (and I'm quite spending).

Had it for half a year, so far no problems.

Never had to deal with them.

I play in a three man band and it is very good at making my sound big. We play classic rock. Especially usefull for soloing. Would definately buy another when lost.

Super easy to use. Only an idiot could fail to get a good sound out of it. I especially like that wide, gradual sweep of the "delay level" knob.. very easy to get the right level.

It's an analog delay, so it's pretty murky sounding. But this one is very very smooth and there seems to be very little deterioration from echo to echo, as they repeat. I was actually a titch disappointed that it didn't degrade more, but overall I'm so impressed with the sound of this thing that I don't care much.

I DO NOT like the switch, however. It looks nice & durable, and it feels great to step on. But people, it makes a really loudass click. I'm often using this pedal in conjunction with a downstream digital delay. When I forget about the click, I end up stepping on this thing, then hearing the damn click repeated a zillion times. Not impressive. ESPECIALLY FOR THE PRICE.

This pedal fattens up and spaces out solos nicely. It may be a little dark for some players, esp those who grew up in the late 80s with all that digital stuff. But I love the sound. I use it with a Fender Jazzmaster guitar and a '69 Marshall Super Lead 100W. Because of that setup, the pedal probably sounds a bit darker for me than it could for some other people. If you used a Gibson guitar and a Fender amp, for instance, it would probably sound a lot more clear.

Just got it really, but seems tough as a brick.

no contact

This thing was ridiculously expensive. I only bought it because I'm an idiot when it comes to boutique-ish rare stuff. Supposedly these are being discontinued because they ran out of the chips for good. ?? That's what the guy at the guitar shop said anyways. Whatever. It's a very cool effect. You pay for the smooth & (relatively for an analogy delay) clear sound quality, and for the long delay time of 900ms. Really because of the delay time, it's in a class by itself. There's really nothing else that does the same thing, except for maybe some digital modeled delay by Line 6 or whatever. But if you're a purist like me and you appreciate the classic technology and can really hear the difference, this is a good choice. If an expensive one. Yikes.

I'm giving it an 8 because of the switch noise and because it doesn't degrade from echo to echo quite like it would in my fantasy.

No recordings of it yet, but if you want to check out my tripped out & rocking style of music, go to http://www.richardbitch.com

Exactly the same setup as the AD-900 Analog Delay, which I also own and have reviewed. Three knob configuration: Delay Time, Repeat, Delay Level.

This is why I am posting this review: I now have both the AD-900 and the AD-999, and although the AD-999 does indeed sound terrific, there is a small but noticable difference in sound quality between the two units. I have tested them side by side under the exact same paramaters and conditions, with the same input signal at exactly the same volume, and have found that the AD-999 has very slightly reduced dynamics and generates a little more noise than the AD-900. It is remotely possible that the difference is because of the Maxon bucket brigade chips being used in this unit(Panasonic has long since ceased production of these chips, the last of which were used in the AD-900, and Maxon in now producing their own chips). However, to me it is much more likely that these differences are due to the reduction in power that now drives this cicuit. (the AD-900 runs on a 12 volt power supply, while the AD-999 uses a 9 volt supply). The drop in dynamics is very small, but the noise floor difference is more noticeable. I have not put the signal through test equipment but I would venture to say that there is at least a couple db reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of the AD-999 as opposed to the AD-900. HOWEVER, please note that I am NOT trashing the AD-999 for these small shortcomings. All things considered, this is still a great pedal in it's own right, it delivers close to the same warm, creamy, hard to find true vintage tones as it's older brother, plus an additional 300ms of delay time, so it has it's plusses and it's minuses.

Same as the AD-900 in my opinion. Very well built. Very dependable.

Great customer support. Other companies should take note.

It all depends on what you are looking for in an analog delay. If you need/want the extra 300ms of delay time, the AD-999 is for you. But if less noise and the maximum possible amount of warm, smooth, pure, to-die-for vintage analog tone are your thing, then the classic AD-900 is definitely the superior unit. Choose for yourself.

Classic, three knob delay controls: Level, Delay, and Repeats. There's a red LED to indicate when it's on. One stomp switch. There are wet and dry output jacks. One huge improvement over its predecessor, the AD-900, is that this pedla will run off of a standard 9V DC power supply, which means it can be used with any of the the pedalboard power supplies on the market (I use the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 and love it).

As far as analog delys go, and despite reviews below to the contrary, I found the repeats to be relatively clean. To my ears they are much clearer sounding than, say, an old Boss DM-2 or Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man. It still sounds "analog" and will kick any digital delay's ass for warmth. I found it difficult to make this pedal overload and distort, even with hot pick ups, so Maxon has done a good job here. This pedal features true bypass, so you can still hear the nuances of your pick attack when the effect is disengaged. What I didn't like about this pedal was the noticeable volume boost when the effect was engaged. This was accompanied by a loud, audible "click" each time I stepped on the switch. I also didn't like the fact that it tended to brighten the tone of my guitar slightly, adding a grainy quality to the original signal that I found unpleasing. This was especially noticeable with my germanium transistor Fulltone Soul-Bender fuzz pedal-- it basically destroyed the otherwise wonderfully thick tone of this pedal and made it unuseable. These negatives aside, compared to some other analog delay pedals I've owned in the past, I found the AD-999 to be somewhat less involving. The Deluxe Memory Man sounded much more organic and involving in my opinion, but had its own set of negatives (no true bypass, easy to overload, etc.).

Casing seems very sturdy. Pots are smooth, well damped, and feel to be of good quality. The switch, on the other hand, feels cheap. Compare this to the Fulltone 3PDT switch and you'll see what I mean. The Fulltone switch feels solid as a rock and actually inspires confidence. The switch on the Maxon feels weak and like it might not stand up to long term use. I returned the pedal right at the end of Musician's Friend's 45 day trial period, so I can't comment on its long-term durability.

Overall, not a bad pedal. I love the fact that it can be used with my Pedal Power 2. So many delays these days require bulky wall-warts that clutter up your pedalboard. The fact that it's true bypass is nice, but they need to adjust the volume level and get rid of that clicking noise in the switch. I hear the old version (AD-900) did not have these problems. I have some fairly high end gear and have come to expect a lot from my equipment. My other pedals are all Fulltone, and for amps I use a Clark Beaufort (Tweed Deluxe clone) and an Allen Sweet Spot (Princeton Reverb clone). As stated above, I thought this pedal was OK, but in the end it just didn't cut the mustard for me. To be fair, I've recently tried four other delay pedals (Boss DD-20, Line 6 DL-4, Danelectro Reel Echo, and T-Rex Replica) and did not find any of these to my liking, either. Of all of them, I found the DL-4 to sound the best, but it's very large, has a lot of features I don't need/want, and if you read the reviews here on HC it seems to have a lot of reliability problems. I'm still on my quest for the perfect delay. I had high hopes for the AD-999, and it's a decent pedal, but ultimately it wasn't my holy grail.

Easy to use-three knobs-turn one way for MORE effect-turn the other way for LESS effect.

Great sound but very dark on the repeats. Night and day in comparison to any digital pedal but that is what it is all about right? Decays rapidly. Using it with a Princeton Reverb and Carr Slant V6. Not noisey at all.

Been working fine for almost two months now...

Here's a hint for those who paid over $300 for these-look around for some Japanese online stores. I paid $235 for mine SHIPPED and it took less than a week to get to me. Forget about US dealers asking outrageous prices for Maxon pedals.

Excellent analog pedal. If you want clean repeats that go on endlessly without any decay buy something else. If you like warm organic sounds this is it. I don't think the stereo function is really useful on this unit given how dark the repeats sound if they are coming out of one amp. I only use it in mono. I don't think it is any better than the AD900 either so if you already have one of those and don't need an extra 1/3 second delay-kick back and be happy.

The standard 3 knobs...delay time, repeats, and level. Could not be easier. Larger than I expected, about the size of 3 Keeley Compressors laid side by side. The manual is helpful I guess for someone who has never owned a delay. It addresses all ofMaxon's Vintage style pedals. No tap tempo, and at this price that would be nice..dropping it to an 8 only for that reason, but I knew that going in...

Sounds very good. My first analog delay so I am easily impressed, but seriously, it just sounds warm, and adds a bit of character as opposed to my DD5 which sounds at it's best exactly like the note, or at it's worst sort of sterile and cold. I had concerns about the new 9v Power Supply as opposed to the 12v that was standard in the AD900. I and others have pondered what this would mean in headroom terms to the new unit. While I do not have an AD900 for comparison purposes, I can say that the AD999 sounds stellar. Upon first hooking it up, I dialed in some mid delays and played some 2112 ala " All the World's a Stage" era Rush...very convincing. On to a Memphis slap kind of thing into one repeat country type Hellecaster runs...stellar. U2 kinda stuff, whatever...it all sounds good. I don't normally write reviews here, but I did'nt see this model up yet on the boards, so I decided to go ahead...have had the pedal for two days. A guy asked me about loss of headroom with a dirt pedal in front of the delay. I have only tried it with a Java Boost in front so far, so don't know if that approximates an answer or not, but it sounds really good to me.

The unit is dead quiet in bypass mode, and any inherant noise when the unit is engaged is masked by an overall low rig volume, so no problems there...I don't hear any degradation of tone.

I have played around with the unit at max delay settings and maybe pickup a little loss in SNR, but again, no problems.

I am using the delay with a Bogner Shiva EL34 model w / verb and assorted effects, mostly Keeley stuff. I tried the unit in the effects loop of the Shiva with the buffered cable and direct. It sounded fine in both places but I will continue to probobly keep it in the loop. The unit was tested with my Strats and a PRS Standard.

Heard good things, but it's my first Maxon, so no opinion yet

None needed so far

If something happened to it, I feel like I would definitely want another. It would be hard to back. I would have been just as happy with the 900, buy hey, ya only live once. I have been playing long enough to be a good bit better than I am. I play a little bit of everything, but find myself dropping the pick more often than not over the last few years and spankin' my Strats that way. I did compare it to other analog delays, from other manufacturers, and to the used Maxons available online from a price perspective. I had pretty much decided on a Maxon based upon the AD900 reviews I read here on the HC. I wish it had a tap tempo feature. Thanks and I hope this helps someone else in their decision making process. This is a really nice sounding pedal that I hope I am fortunate to keep and play through for a long time, and pass onto my son.