Maxon OD-820

Three sensible knobs, very easy to use

My Setup: Ibanez S370 - jim dunlop cry baby wah - electro harmonix phaser- mxr flanger- Maxon Od-820 - mxr distortion+ - Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde - Voodoo Lab Proctavia - to an TSL 122 MArshall combo or to an H&K Tubeman (for direct recording) . This pedal is not noisy and every sound you get from it is so amazing. I couldn't believe it when i began to use it. It keeps the sound of your amp intact. It's super warm and organic sound. You can get the warm blues Sound , AC/DC sound..etc, etc, but when I record harder music I also use this pedal in the background to give the warm punch I always need to hear. Very cool bass sounds, andwith the tone knob in combination with the drive one you can give your ear a pleasant feeling.

A very solid pedal. I can give this a monster to eat and I cann be sure it will continue working

Didn't a need support

I've been playing for six years and have experienced a lot of pedals and professional studio recordings . This is my favourite overdrive pedal. I like it more than my ibanez Tubescreamer(sounds good , but when I compare both sounds I prefer the maxon one). I play hard and soft music. This pedal suits perfect for brit-rock, alternative, blues, everything that needs a warm and defined color of sound. It gives my Marshall TSL tube amp a totaly new sound.

With just three knobs things things is very simple to use, anybody can get a good sound out of it with ease.

I use a moddified fender american strat and a 76' fender starcaster. Guitar>>>Teese wah>>>Line6 Delay Modeler>>>Analog man Silver modded TS9 turbo>>>Dyna Comp>>>OD 820>>>origainal 64' Twin Reverb. This thing really sounds great, not noisy at all. I use it at the end of the chain mainly as a boost. It's so transparent and warm with no compression. As an overdrive it sounds really great, warm and expressive. But it can't beat the clarity of the analog man TS9 turbo. But it's a slighly different beast, and I like both equally. As a boost it just kills, sends your overdriven tone into madness, rich with overtones and sustain. With the strat I use it only as a boost with the drive almost all the way down and the level up. With the starcaster though (which is semihollow with humbuckers) I set the drive higher for overdrive heaven. With those two overdrives the starcaster howls with incredibly smooth, fat screaming tones overflowing with harmonics. the OD 820 is your basic TS9 sound but grown up and mature. It makes the best use of the beautiful tones from my old twin reverb. Great pedal.

It working fine so far. It seems to be able to last the test of time

This really is a fine pedal if your after the old TS sound. you'll be satisfied

Has the usual three knobs found on most tubesceamers- volume, tone and gain.

Good solid clean boost or overdrive- with the gain down and volume up its a clean boost, and if you begin turning the gain knob up it kicks into overdrive. Sounds very clear and responds well to playing techniques (assuming you have any).

Nice large solid heavy metal box.

Maxon is cool!

Im a blueser. I wail with Strats or Pauls (real vintage guitars from Gibson and Fender and NOT some Epiphone or made-in-Mexico Fender crap).
Im fully qualified to give an opinion, and since Im the one playing the guitar, in my mind my opinion is the only one that counts. This is a pro pedal and wannabes are well advised to look elsewhere- perhaps that Danelectro Cheese Cake Egg Salad Whipped Cream Distortion pedal is right up your alley.

As easy to use as any stompbox overdrive pedal. Features are common to 3 knob TS and OD lines by Ibanez or Maxon. Manual was in Japanese. New pedal with true bypass, they should all be made like this! Overall easy to get good sounds out of.

Beautiful. I'm kind of biased when it comes to Maxon gear, since I bought and sold so much of it and have every Vintage series effect I could get my hands on but again this is the best of what it does that I have come across! Not noisy, used with ton of pedal (Maxon, CC2, teese wah) through Victoria amp and MIJ strats and Tokai LP's. Great sound, better than my modded TS9DX! Smoother overdrive, same SRV tones in there just more organic and warm. Best OD I've used to date.

Don't know, but should be as good as all my other pedals?
Don't gig, just annoy my neighbors with horrid whale noises, sometimes I like to make tones that resemble cat's in heat.

None that I know of? Don't know again, and don't speak Japanese so?

Overall happy I got it, still use my TS9DX, sometimes with it to get crazy sounds. I've been playing around 13 years, still suck but having a ton of pedals keeps it enjoyable, fresh and fun! Own and have owned a ton of sh*t! Good pedal for SRV, blues, fuzzy overdriven tones! Organic, true bypass and non tone destroying pedal. If your into overdrives this is probably one of the best versions, I highly recommend it!

It's a three-knob overdrive pedal: Level, Tone, and Drive. Hopefully everyone can figure that one out.

The primary reason I decided to put a review up for this pedal. I can't say enough good things about it. For one, it doesn't sound like an overdrive pedal. It sounds like an overdriven tube amp. It's also incredibly dynamic. It never compresses my tone. I'm a Tele-through-Fender Amp guy and my dynamics are important to me.

I play at home in my basement, so I'm probably not the guy to discuss reliability. I can tell you that it's built like a tank. Very heavy-duty.

Never dealt with Customer Support.

I rarely give anything an absolute 10 rating, but this is an exception. I've tried just about everything else green and tube-screamer out there and this guy is the best, period.

Three knobs for volume tone and drive. Cmon people, its easy to use, its easy to use, its easy to use. Repeat after me, its easy to use. Dont be afraid.

Gibson Les Paul into JCM 800 baby!
With the drive knob at zero its a totally pure clean transparent boost, approx 15 db boost to be precise. When you turn the drive knob up the overdrive circuit engages and I perceive a slight loss of bass as the pedal goes into its tubescreamer mode and does its thing, and does it well. Sounds like flat mids and smooth highs, better bass than the Maxon OD 808, but I prefer the OD 808- I find that the 808 cuts through better and has a more vintage sound to it than the OD 820. The OD 820 is very airy sounding, like some modern pop sound. Lots of dynamic headroom but not the kind of punch I expect from what I thought would be a blues pedal- its more of a pop pedal.

Heres where it shines. Tuff little mother!

Pretty darn good here in the U.S.- Maxon has their shit together and is a survivor because they dont compromise on quality. The Maxon OD 820 is BETTER then the Klon! Yes it is. I know it, and now you know it too.

This pedal came with an a/c adaptor which works with all of my other pedals! Pretty hip, huh? Runs on a 9 volt battery also. Well I bought it because Im kind of nuts about IC chip distortion, and this pedal has at least one if not two of the chips I crave- good ole IC chip distortion at its best, using ultra modern components and designs- this isnt some antique 1970's circuit with bad parts- this is BOUTIQUE, baby! I have so many fine pedals that I boxed this thing and will spring it out as NOS (new old stock) in about 20 years when its worth about $2000.

3 KNOBS VERY SIMPLE TO GET GREAT SOUNDS.THE MANUAL THAT CAME WITH IT HAD 3 PRESETS.SET IT TO ONE PRESET TWEAK TILL YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT.

I'VE TRIED THIS WITH A TELE,LES PAUL,STRAT,MCINTURFF THRU A MARSHALL 50 WATT W/412 AND A TOP HAT CLUB DELUXE.I ABC'D WITH A KLON AND A REVEREND OVERDRIVE.ALL THREE DO A CLEAN BOOST WELL THE KLON SOUNDS VERY HI-FI.THE REVEREND IS KINDA GRAINY AND HAS A MID BOOST.THE OD820 IS REAL TRANSPARENT.DOESN'T CHANGE THE TONE OF THE AMP,JUST BOOSTS IT.OVERDRIVEN THE REVEREND DOES THE TS9 MID BOOST GRIND VERY WELL WITH MORE!THE KLON DOESN'T OVERDRIVE AS MUCH BUT IS VERY SWEET.THE OD820 IS JUST AS SWEET AS THE KLON BUT YOU CAN GET MORE OVERDRIVE OUT OF IT.KINDA OF A MIX BETWEEN THE REVEREND AND THE KLON.ALL THREE PEDALS ADD SOME NOISE FLOOR TO THE OVERALL AMP SOUND BUT ALL ARE REALATIVELY QUIET COMPARED TO OTHER PEDALS.THE OD820 WORKS VERY WELL WITH THE TOP HAT AN AMP THAT IS A NOTORUIS PEDAL HATIN MACHINE(OK IT DOESN'T LIKE SOME PEDALS).THE OD820 ROCKS

IT SEEMS TO BR BUILT WELL.USE THE POWER ADAPTER IT EATS BATTERYS.I'D USE WITH ANOTHER PEDAL AS A BACKUP.I NEVER GIG WITHOUT BACKUP BEEN BURNED BEFORE.

I PLAY BLUES ROCK AND FUSION IT WORKS GREAT TO ENHANCE A GOOD TONE OUT OF YOUR AMP.I'VE PLAYED FOR 25+YEARS.YES I'D BUY ANOTHER.ITS GOT MAYBE THE BEST CLEAN BOOST TONE(THATS SUBJECTIVE)AND A GREAT OVERDRIVE TONE.IF YOU WANT TO SAVE A $100 OR MORE GET THIS OVER A KLON.

Drive, tone and level. Pretty damn simple.

It seems to get along well with the other stomp boxes. Best of all, it cured my amp problem. I have a Fender deVille (4x10) which has a lousy overdrive but a great clean channel that sounded even better with distortion. I use the Maxon ODP full time to drive the clean channel and use a distortion pedal for leads or extra presence. It sounds great now. Lineup [this week]: '73 Gibson L6S [and sometimes a fat strat] > Boss suppressor > Marshall Guvnor Plus > Maxon ODP > Marshall Supervibe Chorus > DOD eq > deVille.

Well, its brand new but seems solid so far.

Hasn't come up.

I play old skool punk and hard rock. Not cranium splitting modern metal, so I don't need huge distortion. This pedal does a great job of maintaining a great overdrive foundation to build other effects on. I drove the guys nuts at the local guitar shop trying out overdrives. This one seemed like the cure. So far, it works great.

Very easy. It is intuitive and similar to other TS type 3 knob units. Manual not necessary or useful really. My unit was bought used, stock and in good condition.

I use an old Strat with 40 year old regular PUs or a tele clone with a B-bender and sometimes a big Korean hollowbody with P-90s >>>> compressor (Carl Martin) >>>> Maxon >>>> Boss EQ box >>>> Rexer tape echo >>>> Gibson goldtone or sometimes vibrolux. The bottom line is that it has an excellent Tube Screamer like tone. Best results are with the drive up about 25% - More than that and you lose definition (just like any good TS type unit)

It is obviously well made.

no dealings with the company

I have played 35 years - pop rock, rockabilly, funk, R+B. This is the right kind of overdrive for my music. I have owned many overdrives and I'm a tone nutcase fanatic. I can compare it to my 12 year old TS-10, Buddha PHATMAN, tube driver, Carl Martin Drive n Boost (yuch) It is very much similar to the TS-10 - very woody and organic. They should be similar since they use that same chip. The bottom line: it is a little more "sterile" sounding compared to my old TS-10. The Maxon is a good unit but it will be my backup.

The suggested settings in the manual are pretty vague, 'cause everybody has different gear/set-up/ears/taste etc. So you just have to play it by ear, and use the old "trial and error" system, which will probably take some time 'till you get it right for yourself.

Great SMOOTH bassy liquid overdrive! I've used (and love) my Fulldrive 2 'till now, but the OD820 has more balls. It really is a subtle thing, but after A/B tests, you do hear the difference. No mid bark, more bottom, smooth highs. Please realize, that if the reviewer below, with the SG, had more patience, and more sense, he would have probably found much better sounds from it. To this end, I don't give a hoot for his review of this fine piece of gear. To call it "junk" is just a reflection of his anger,from not being able to adjust it correctly.

Solid box construction, eats batteries though, recommend lithium 9V batts. Will be changing to Switchcraft jacks, one of the standard jacks has a loose contact. Otherwise, no back up needed.

Bought through www.musictoyz.com ...Shipped to Germany via UPS, got here intact in record time. What a service!! Never tried to contact Maxon, Never needed to. Max. points for musictoyz.

I use this for Texas Blues. Mesa Blue Angel, (heavily customized) Warmoth strat w/Rio Grande Vintage Tallboys, Fulltone-'69,Clyde,FD2,Deja-Vibe. Belden 8410 Cables throughout. Weber speakers ordered for the "Angel". Been playing for over 30 years. Would buy again if needed, if stolen, I'd break the thieves fingers, cause I would find him.....I purchased this after the reviews here. This pedal is as rare as "Rockin' horse shit!!" here in Germany. No one had ever heard of Maxon (including me). Great Pedal, give it a try if you're lookin'for smooooth overdrive.