Maxon SD-9 Sonic Distortion

Easy to use. Good manual with lots of information.

Ok I tried it with a Kramer Baretta with a Seymour Duncan JB. I also used it with a B.C. Rich Gunslinger with an EMG-81. I also used two different amps. One Marshall TSL602 with a 1960A cabinet and a Marshall Lead 12 solid state micro stack. Ok I didn't like the sound of this thing. It gave me a muddy tone in the bass frequencies through my TSL even with the gain turned down to .5!. It seemed as if the boost was way too much. I'm not sure. Maybe it's defective. I don't know. I thought it would sound better than it did. It seemed to sound better through my solid state amp. The distortion wasn't the quality that I expected. I've come to the conclusion that nothing sounds as good as my own amp's all tube signal path distortion. I'm convinced of that and so I won't be buying anymore distorion/overdrive pedals from here on out.

It's probably reliable. I don't know. I'm taking it back for a refund if I can.

Never delt with them. I like their website though. Lots of information including specifications etc..

I play 70s and 80s rock and metal type of tunes. I've been playing guitar for 28 years. I have about 6-7 electric guitars, 2 amps, and 2 acoustic guitars. No I wouldn't buy it again. I love the paint color of the effect. That's about it. I think the Boss metal zone sounds much better. This pedal gets in the way of my tone. It hampers my amps tone. It doesn't improve it at all.

Anyone who gives this thing less than a "9" in this category needs to ditch his crappy Line 6 or solid state Crate. I mean, you can't polish a turd, so if you think getting a good distortion pedal will make your ghetto setup sound decent, well... better yet, he should sell his SD-9 for $20 to a real player with common sense. Gain, Tone, Level... duh!

Absolutely brilliant. Thanks to the reviewers on Harmony Central I was able to choose a good distortion pedal without wasting my time at some stupid strip-mall guitar store which is bristling with... Crate and Line 6 products. I have a Soldano HR50 and I wanted to dial in a nice, sweet, slightly overdriven sound for chunky funk / rhythm work and then have a killer distortion pedal to step on when I need to knock the fillings out of peoples' teeth. No signal coloration, true bypass, very nicely engineered. Awesome tone. Awesome. I like the ProCo RAT, and all the classics. I LOVE this pedal. Noise-free operation, and when I strike a note / chord and then turn the "gain" control I get a nice, smooth, even increase / reduction in drive. Same goes for the other controls; no spikes, surprises, mud, or dead spots. I noticed some other reviewers commenting that this pedal is good for rock, not metal; I can achieve BOTH, no sweat. (Depends on your amp, I suppose.)

This thing is built like an old Volvo. I would feel safe driving it off a cliff. Maybe I'll try it sometime.

Practically new pedal so I have had no issues. However I will kick them down a "10" because I feel they are directly supporting my cause (i.e. rockstardom and eventual world domination) by providing such a kick-ass product.

Yeah! I might have to go ahead and buy another one. Anybody got one for sale? You, with the Marshall Valvestate! This pedal sucks, right? I'll give you $20 for yours...

this is an addendum to an earlier post on this same pedal- when i initailly got it i was so excited about it that i made a posting just two days after purchasing it. in retrospect maybe that was a bit premature seeing that i hardly had any time to REALLY, REALLY get into what it can do. well, now that ive had about three weeks to do that in live and rehearsal band situations, i can only sing its praises further. if you are looking for a boss- metal-7 string kind of sound, this is not your peadal. dont bother with it. however, if you want a versatile low to mid gain distortion box with tons of character this may be what you have been looking for for quite some time. the best thing about this pedal may be the tone dial. very, very responsive. it can bet super bright, but somehow not harsh. if you have a dark sounding amp, this will brighten it up without overshadowing its character. on the other hand the tone dial allows you to creat useable tones from top to bottom. the people who designed this pedal really did their homework...i love it

i gave it a 9, im now upgrading it to a 9+

still havent dealt with customer support and the pedal seems pretty rugged, so i cant definitively say

see above

kick ass, kick ass, kick ass

maybe if i had this pedal for more than two days id give it a five. you really do have to experiment with it to find the gems buried within...and let me tell you when you do, you will not be dissappointed.

having amassed a serious collection of distortion/ overdrive pedals, i recently decided i hated all of them except for my fulltone fulldrive, my fulltone ultimate octave (irreplaceable) and my ibanez ts-9 (original)...i have two rats; an original which i absolutely loved, but has completely died, and a reissue with that annoying indicator light that doesnt really go completely out when you turn it off- and on top of that, its a harsh, brittle, nasty sounding lead tone that has become all but useless to me, a boss metal zone that i bought on the street from some homeless guy for $8 only because i was curious...after 2 minutes i realized that i have no use for this pedal, and im still trying to sell it, and a boss ds-1 which i can get one decent sound out of. i have heard this compared to the sd-9, and i can see how one can see some similar characteristics, but over all, especially in terms of versatility, the sd-9 completely blows the ds-1 out of the water and then bitchslaps it twice...my setup is pretty basic- my main axe is a very sweet swamp ash G&L Legacy with a paf single coil size humbucker in the bridge, two stock single coils and a phase switch for a bit more versatility. i run this into a vox wah, fulltone deja-vibe, fulltone ult octave, the sd-9 and an original mxr phase 100. all of the pedals are connected with george l's and the other leads are monster cables. all this runs into either a mesa studio 22.+ or, a mesa IIb amp. but, we are not here to talk about my other toys, were here to talk about that little lime green blessing, the sd-9. all i can say is;"ahhhhhh"...this pedal simply kills...like i said you really have to mess with the tone control in particualr as it can get very, very bright, but with the right combination of tone adjustment on the pedal along with treble and presence adjustment on your amp, you will find something you are VERY happy with. this pedal is very sensitive to nuances in your picking and cleans up very nicely when you back of on your guitar volume. it has stunning definition with fairly complex chords and can totally go from a snarl to a purr depending on how you dig into your strings...i recommend this toy without reservation. if you have a good clean tube amp, this pedal will really impress you as it has me...just get it, get it already....

it seem rugged enough and i try to take good care of my equipment in general, so i dont expect any problems

dont have anything to say here because i havent dealt with them

i play everything from funk to blues to hip hop to alt-indie hard rock. this pedal is extremely versatile

Very easy to use, just play with dials til you have found your sound. There is a manual and a warranty. 3 years for transistors one year for pots and jacks. -

the sd 9 sounds great. I play a gibson les paul into a marshall jcm 800. the sd 9 has a true bypass feature so when the unit is off, the sound you hear is right from the guitar. If you crank the vol. on your guitar to about seven the tone from this pedal is a real target classic.

It seems reall strong. I had an old Ibanez when I was a kid and the thing was indestrucable. Somewhere along the way, the pedal vanished. I finally found the Maxon sonic distortion and that was it, the same thing different brand name.

Sent in warranty. Do not anticipate any problems/

The sd-9 is a keeper

Three knobs in a TS type format; how much easier can it get? However unlike a TS it requires a little more tweaking to get a awesome sound but once you hit pretty close its gives you a lot of room to play around in. It is pretty bright so you might need to turn down the Treble a tad but other than that Ive had no problems.

I run an American Tele into a TB'd Dunlop Wah (with several other mods) into a PE Yardbox then the SD-9 and finally into a Line 6 DL-4 which goes out to either a Mesa Boogie Mark III or a Fender Bandmaster with a 2x12 cab. I pretty much leave the SD-9 all the time now even though it is True Bypass. The Bypass as far as my ears dont add or take away extra brightness so it earns a A in my book. For its best sounds I have found that the tone knob must be past 12:00. For a Tele/Fender Amp player this can over bright and even harsh so you have to roll back your tone to around 5 or 6. When you roll back the tone its becomes so rich and fat it has become my main distortion.
The sweet spots are around 9:00, 12:00, and 2:30. At 9:00 I can get a pretty good TS copy with a little more presence that sounds perfect for my neck pickup. At 12:00, you get a very nice increase in gain which allows really nice crunchy rhythm but still allows you to turn down the volume and get the TS clone and a sparkly clean. At 2:30 (My favorite) you start to take on some of the characteristics of a fuzz with increased sustain and harmonics out the wazoo. You can still turn down the volume on the neck pickup for a dirty/clean tone which has become my slide tone/blues tone. Also what I like is there is not an overwhelming Mid hump and allows more bass than a TS which is a plus when concerning TS pedals.
Because this is a TS pedal with a higher gain its works well to fatten up fuzzes as with my Yardbox. I roll back my volume to around 8 and kick on the fuzz for what I swear can get my 30 seconds straight of sustain for a single note! This combo has become my main lead sound.
In the future I hope to ditch the Yardbox and get a CC2 and a really nice clean boost/overdrive like the Banzai Cold Fusion. After that the world's my oyster.

Its twice as heavy as my Boss Blues Driver and looks like if my Tele was to fail as a bludgeon I could use this instead. The only thing I am worry about is the switch b/c the orginal SD-9's were nortorious for bad switches. However b/c this is a new RI I think the switch will hold. Since I have only had this pedal for about 1 month Ill give it a N/A

Im sure they will help me but nowhere near the quality of guys like Dave Fox or Robert Keeley. So they get another N/A

I mainly play Blues Rock with some twists (ie Funk, Jazz, and Metal) I have been playing for about 5 years and I feel that I have a competant ear for things (I can tell if things sound good or not). Im sure one day like always it will end up on the auction block but at least for now I am happy. If it was stolen I would buy this pedal again in a heart beat but probably not for the price I got it for. Any questions about the SD-9 feel free to email me.

This is as easy as it gets! The same as every distortion pedal,volume,distortion and tone.

This pedal sounds amazing. I just bougth an Analogman Ds-1 and I love it, but this pedal has it beat!! It just lets more of the guitar come through. I play hard rock through a plexi stack with a les paul custom, and this pedal is the meanest by far. It also sounds great as an overdrive at low distortion settings. My favorite so far.

so far so good

The best distortion pedal I own and I have all the good ones.

Very easy. 3 knobs. Level, tone, dist.

The sound is fantastic. Similar to a Boss DS-1, but more warmth, bottom, and fullness. Doesnt lose any bottom end. Keep in mind, the clean channel that you are playing into has a MASSIVE effect on the sound of this pedal, let alone any pedal. especially solid state. Thought a great clean channel on the brink of breakup is the optimum way to use this pedal.

these new maxon effects say there new and improved, and i believe it. its built like a brick, and the switch is a better model than the original ibanez pedals

Great pedal. A great alternative to the standard marshall high gain sound or the boogie sound. This pedal through a warm clean fender is a fantastic set up.