Maxon D & S Distortion/Sustainer

yeah three knobs as said before by other reviewers. very simple to operate.

Currently I have running a Fender Tele Deluxe through a Fender Vibrolux Custom Reverb, with much success with other pedals (MI Audio Blues Pro and Crunch Box, Line 6 DL-4, EHX Holy Grail Reverb, and Ernie Ball Volume. I originally bought this used before I borrowed the MI Audio Crunch Box from a friend. It just paled in comparison to the Crunch Box (and also to some of the other distortion pedals i've played) The ProCo Rat and the Big Muff even sound more clear than my Maxon D&S. I really wanted it to work and sound good. It's not the worst pedal in the world- not the best- and I don't think it muddies up my signal in the chain.

RIght now the only thing I use this pedal for is cranking the distortion to get feedback. I play a lot of modern music (electro-rock and indie-ish) and this just doesnt cut through the mix enough to matter. Yeah, i thought this would be cool because i've never met anyone who has played it (originality factor) but i can see why people don't play it.

I think its construction is pretty solid but what do I know, really. Six because the insides rattled when I bought it, which could be the reason it sounds so awful.

It's not worth 100 bucks. It's not really worth much. Maybe my taste in music just doesnt agree with this pedal. I dunno.

three knobs -distortion, tone, & "balance"- that would be self-explanatory if the balance knob said "level". maxon claims the d&s1 is more of a copy of a fuzz (early 70s big muff) than distortion. i would agree. hard to get a bad sound out of the unit.

set-up: any of my three guitars (gibson marauder, gibson s-1, epiphone les paul) does just fine plugged into the d&s1. that said, the p-90s & humbuckers seemed to drive the pedal harder & make it really growl in a beautifully nasty way. other observations: the d&s1 interacts well w/other pedals (wah, phaser, univibe, etc). not all fuzz/dist/treb boost pedals do, so this is not a trivial matter. in addition, the d&s1 can be a little noisy; add your fave noise reduction unit (mine's the isp tech decimator) if you MUST HAVE SILENCE WHEN THE PICK IS NOT MAKING CONTACT WITH THE STRINGS! otherwise, relax and enjoy life. & as a final note, the d&s1 sounds awesome w/both tube amps made by hand AND solid state amps made by the thousands that retail for the price of a happy meal. i know some readers out there will just flat-out refuse to believe this can be true; that's okay, we can still be friends.

between the "re-issue" series, the "9" series, & finally the top-o'-the-line "vintage" series, you might say i've owned a bunch of maxon pedals. most of 'em have been the proverbial rocks of gibraltar. however, a couple in the (lowest-priced) re-issue series have developed quirks or malfunctions that will keep me from giving the highest grade here.

just like the last reviewer, i was thinking of selling the d&s1 on ebay & was merely testing the pedal out to make sure it worked when i rediscovered the joy of the PURE SONIC MAYHEM this lil focker can dish out. gibson s-1 w/lindy fralin p-90s > d&s1 > bcrich bcl10 transistor amp. d&s1 settings: dist-1:30, tone-1:30, balance- 3:00. what's the sound? the stooge's first album, only MORE violent, MORE immediate, MORE willing to burn the high school gymnasium to the ground. one of the boulders on which the house of rock n' roll laid its foundation. fuh!

Can't get easier - three knobs, and you start with all of them centered.

Planned to sell this on ebay and was testing it to be sure it still worked, but it sounds too good to part with. I gave it the acid test - clean Strat into a Roland Jazz Chorus - figuring that there's nothing coloring the distortion sound. Not a whole lot of versatility, but it does what it does exceptionally well. Think of the first Boston album and you've got the idea.

Bought this at a garage sale for $5, as it was broken. Turns out that the prior owner had tried to tighten the nut on the input jack, and in the process twisted the wire off the jack's terminals internally. Simple re-soldering was all it needed, and a proper tightening of the jacks, but I can see how that can happen again.

Haven't dealt with Maxon at all.

Bought this at a garage sale for $5 - have never spend my money more wisely. I planned to sell this on eBay, but like it too much to do so. I use it as another trick in the bag, rather than rely on it, so if were lost or stolen I would watch eBay for a deal, but wouldn't drop $130 on a new one.

This unit is really quite easy to use...If you can't get a decent sound out of it, it's probably your playing that's F'ing up the sound.

I'm using the pedal w/ a Mesa Boogie studio 22+ combo amp that's been sitting in my studio for about 3 years now. I've only been using this amp for clean tones because every distortion pedal I run thorough it just sounds like absolute crap. Oh and the overdrive on this particular Boogie is also a joke and unusable. I ran my maxon today through it and....Holy Shizzz...This is what I've been looking for! This distortion is clean yet deep, clear yet heavy...It's truly amazing and I'm in absolute w/ this pedal after 1 day

N/A...I just bought it used....

n/a

I play all styles...Not really too heavy, but a bit of reggae/rock/hip hop....

I should start by saying that this pedal is easy to use. My only qualm is the volume knob which is labeled "balance". Most overdrive/distortion pedals can't seem to label this knobwith a simple "volume", but this is a total misnomer. Balance what? It's not a blend knob...it doesn't mix a dry signal with a effected signal. Admittedly I was not confused by this for a second, but it was a little disapointing (a real blend control might have been cool). On the other hand I got great sounds right away and a "perfect" setting in five minutes.

This pedal is the bomb as far as sound goes. I play in a street metal band (dirgey, Sabbath, the Obssessed, no Satan...who has time when we live in such a f**ked up society) and my rig consists of a Gibson '61 SG reissue, a Marshall JMP MK II 100w (bass and mid on ten, treble flat, and presence all the way up)thru a Marshall 70's 4 x 12 cab. This gives me a chunky Sabbath Volume 4 type sound...chunky and heavy but still tight on the low end. I use the D & S for solos as this setting doesn't cut it for leads. The "balance" is set to give me a little boost, the "distortion" is a 12 o'clock and the tone is at 9 o'clock. This gives my lots of sustain and awesome bite but seems like it still maintains the character of my guitar and amp. Honestly, it's the closest to a Leslie west sound as I've ever gotten. Very rockin', very inspiring. I've tried alot of pedals. The Big Muff was to fuzzy (dude, where's my guitar?), the MXR Dist+ was shrill and gritty, and the Boss and Ibanez pedals made me feel like I was a teenager in my first grunge band. I tried the D & S II and it was cool but too distorted and over the top. The OD808 was both not enough and too much some how...maybe it is more a Fender amp sound?

I've gigged totally heavy with this and haven't had any problem. I thought I did once but it turned out to be my cord.

When i thought it was broken I called them up to get it repaired. The guy there ("Reilly" I think) talked me through some things leading us to figure out it was my cable. I'm glad I didn't have to send it to them to figure that out...plus he didn't embarass me about how stupid I was being.

I love this pedal! The price seemed a little high to me at first, but after using the Boss and Ibanez pedals i guess you get what you pay for, so I would buy it again. The "balance" thing pissed me off a little, but whatever. This pedal never sounds overpoweringly pedal like, it's like my rig but heavier and louder....awesome.

I tried one out at the local music store with an old (vibrosonic?)fender amp.
I got a great sound!

Its a unique little pedal in that it might give you that tone your looking for...the one that is just distorted but adds a little metalic bite...not buzz...bite and a bit of 3d.
I wrote this review because the sound is not disapointing compared to what most pedals sound like.This is one of the better ones and Ive tried too many.I really give it an 8 but I want to counteract a prevcious review that gave it a 1 for sound quality.

Its a pedal...pedals never do what real amp distortion can.Thats o.k
This pedal does what a pedal is for and does it well...actually better than most.Gives you a decent trade off between volume and gain with a little uniqueness thrown in.Fair price as well.

Very easy to use. I have the original version, not the reissue. I aslo have the original D&S II, and surprisingly the latter has far less gain is more like an overdrive pedal, than the former which is more on the distortion continuum.

These pedals sound FANTASTIC. Normally, I only like a subtle overdrive (TS-808's, etc.) and do not like heavier distortion. But the distortion on this pedal is so musical and natural, I can't help loving it. It's perhaps the best distortion pedal I've come across.

Reliable.

N?A

If you like a really musical, natural sounding distortion, grab one of these pedals if you can find them. I've never tried the reissue, but the original is fantastic.

Fairly simple to use. It has three knobs, tone, distortion and volume set in a MXR type setting. My only gripe is that the volume knob is the little one. Usually the tone knob is the little one. This makes it somewhat hard to udjust the volume on the fly (maybe this is a good thing?).

Set-up is as follows:
AS strat into Fulltone FullDriveII, Fulltone Fat-boost, Ibanez AD-9 analog delay, Fulltone Supa-trem, Ernie ball volume pedal, Dr. Z Carmen Ghia head into Mesa/Boogie ported cab with 12" Celestion vintage 30.

I also tried this pedal with a Bogner Ecstacy into a Marshall 4x12 cab with 25 watt Greenbacks as well as a Budda dual stage 30.

This pedal was extremely disappointing! The distortion is lifeless and extremely dry! I think that I could probably make a better pedal. I could hardly get a decent sound out of it. I compared this pedal to other distortion (not overdrive) pedals and I was happier with the Boss DS1 that I bought for $20. It was painful to play this pedal. Whatever I did, I could not get rid of the shrill high end except when the tone knob was turned completely off, but then it was too muddy sounding.

The worst thing about this pedal is the switching. Most non-true bypass pedals will effect your signal when they are off but this pedal is really bad. If the distortion is maxed you can hear it very clearly when the pedal is off. Not a good thing! It sort of reminded me of this old Maestro phase shifter that I use on occasion. If you run enough gain through it you can hear the effect even when turned off. This pedal was worse.

I couldn't find any use for this pedal whatsoever.

Very lightweight. It seems really fragile but who knows. I will not own it long enough to really see if it lasts or not. The switch could lead some one to be concerned. Especially a heavy footed person like myself.

Luckily I got a great deal on this pedal by using ebay. Maybe I will be able to get my money back. I have heard really great things about the other Maxon pedals. I heard that their analog delay is one of the best as well as their compressor and the 808 knock-off. Well, I guess that you win some and you also lose some.

Three knobs a la Boss DS1 - Distortion and Tone are the two big MXR-style knobs, with 'balance' (actually output level) a small knob in the middle. On most other pedals the little one in the middle is tone and the big one on the right is level... so i'll give it just a 9 cause it confused me for a second *LOL*. but pretty darned easy to use.

Teeeeeeerrrrifffic! I can't believe my ears with this pedal. I only tried it in the store with their equipment, but i'm gonna take my Lindert and possibly my boogie amp in to try it with that setup (can't ever be too sure)... But it's a seriously smooth distortion, not over-the-top shred (see my review of Dano's Fab Tone if you want shred) but as a result every single note you play comes out clear as a bell. complex chords are pretty well handled and flip to the neck pickup for solo tones that are round and sweet. a little history just for the record: i usually like a hollow scooped-mid sound, but with less gain, so i traded my FabTone in for a Daddy-o overdrive last year. i find that pedal to be perfect for about half the stuff i play - this Maxon just filled in the other half! it's not scooped, but not mids-spiked like i feel the tubescreamers are, with a nice subtle tone control that just adds teeth to the tone on the far end of the spectrum. I had been looking for a fuzz to complement the dano's great overdrive, but all fuzzes i tried didn't do it for me. the guy at my local shop said "hey, just got these new maxon things in, wanna peek?" and i grabbed the D & S out of the case... i hadn't been looking for a fuzz at all! i really should have been hunting down another distortion! This one!

Now, this doesn't mean i dont use my boogie's drive.... the big heavy sound i get out of the boogie, though, i reserve for the heaviest of jams, while the daddy-o and soon the maxon d & s will take care of lighter duty crunching...

not sure because i haven't even bought it yet - but it's basically ibanez pedal electronics in an MXR housing. haven't seen too many people destroy an MXR pedal before. (but as far as the ibanez guts, i'm not sure i've ever heard any ibanez distortion sound this great!)

godlyke distribution also does Guyatone pedals, and if i remember correctly my local guy says they're nice to deal with....

giving it a 9.... It's at least one of the best distortions i've heard in a long time, but i cringe at paying 130 bucks out anytime. the pedal, however is worth all that dough. i can't believe list and retail prices on Boss pedals when for pennies more you can have something new, different, and wonderful.

my style goes all over the map from industrial and metal to creepyweird jazz and space rock and even techno. every project i do is different lately. i'm picking pedals out for a pedalboard to use with both my guitar and soon Chapman Stick, which i'm learning to play... the Stick's range is too low for my Boogie to handle at high levels, so a keyboard amp will have to suffice and i'll need good distortions... enter this cool little Maxon D & S.... great pedal!