Maxon OD-808 5-stars Reviews

A must-have

If there is one pedal that you NEED, it is the Maxon OD-808.

You can use it for various things and in each category it just makes your guitar sing like never before.

Use it as a lead boost or overdrive: get a thicker more controlled distortion rather than cranking up the gain on your amp

Every guitar player I idolize uses the Maxon OD-808 and that should suffice as an explanation to why YOU should too :)

Best pedal, ever!

The original and best overdrive pedal.

Great overdrive pedal using the same chipset as the original Tube Screamer from the company that originally manfactured it! A truly versatile and pedal for simulating valve amp overdrive that retains the clear guitar signal without developing into mush! A must have for Blues, Funk and Rock. A1 quality product made in Japan.

Standard pedal for Metal and not only!

If, like me, you play Metal and you especially play on down-tuned guitars or 7/8/9 string guitars and your tone is too muddy, this pedal is the solution.

This pedal is the classic pedal that has nowadays become a standard, just like the Ibanez Tube Screamer TS808. In fact, Maxon was the original manufacturer of the TS808 until Ibanez started to produce these pedals themselves.

So it is virtually identical to the TS808 but the price is lower!

There is practically no effect on the tone. It does not add more bass or more treble or mids. What it does is gently cut the ultra-lows and the ultra-highs to give a focused, tight sound. No mud or harshness.

The construction is super; It's made from metal, not plastic, and also comes with a free battery.

Also present is a tone knob to adjust for your own taste. I leave mine in the middle position.

The 'secret' to using this more as an eq pedal than an overdrive, thus using your tube amp for the gain, is to set the level knob to max and the drive knob to minimum. This gives you the eq part of the pedal and leaves the gain for your tube amp.

Very happy with this pedal although it doesn't overdrive my amp as much as other pedals, so I have to turn up the gain all the way on my amp. But it's no big problem. Overall, excellent pedal and very good price.

Maxon OD808 Overdrive - THE OVERDRIVE

Let's face it: there are like one million clones out there of the famous Ibanez Tube Screamer. Made by Maxon in the 80s and now really rare and expensive. But can the OD808 as good as his old companion from the 80s? Let's check this out!

First of all, this pedal is build like a tank. And it looks pretty cool. I needed something to kick my Marshalls butts and this little baby does it pretty sweet.

Three controls - Drive, Tone and Balance - control the amount of gain, the highs and the level of the effect. It doesn't feature a true bypass switching (check out the Maxon OD-9 if you need one) but I personally think this whole TB discussion is way overrated. A buffer at the beginning of your chain is a great way to keep your signal fresh and full of highs.

Like I said before, the OD808 was bought to bring these chunky metal tones out of my DSL Marshalls. I tested it in front of my home amp (Marshall DSL 401) and on stage (Marshall DSL 100) - damn the OD808 rocks! The knobs control do something on every millimeter of their range - didn't have a TS clone like that under my feet before! I turn the Drive down to minimum, Tone around 3 o'clock and Balance nearly at maximum: that's exactly what I searched!

A nice chunky boost who cuts the bad, bad bass frequencies and turns my Gibson SGs into real metal machines! Of course you can have some nice texas blues sounds with drive turned up in front of a clean amp but I prefer the nice mid-boost and cut through the mix. Also on stage - what a sound!

If you play metal (it doesn't matter what genre) - don't waste time to find the perfect Tube Screamer - here is it: the Maxon OD808 Overdrive.

This is the orignal tubescreamer

I was looking for a pedal to make my amp sound tighter and to get more sustain for my solo's.

In the 1970's Maxon build the first tubescreamer for Ibanez. There are many overdrive pedals on the market. This one is mid priced and of very good quality.

The case is very well build and made of metal. The knobs are easy going. In this pedal the orignal chip, called IC 4558, is build in.

I us this little frog in combination with my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. The OD-808 makes my amp tighter in the base. So the whole amps sound more agressiv and right in you face.

For me the best tubescreamer I ever played.

It is the pedal, I will always keep on my pedalboard.

Worth it!

I bought this pedal in hoping it would tidy up the tone of my amp and add that extra kick that is needed for a heavy band, and it did it perfectly. I have a Framus Dragon Head and a Peavey Valveking Cab. They are a good combination. i bought the Framus second hand and it clearly wasn't looked after. it was at least 4 years old with stock tubes. so with it being a high gain amp and heaving low end tubes in it didnt do it any justice. my funding itsn't brilliant so i only bought a replacement set of power tubes which had a massive impact, but it still didn't have that kick to it. so after watching reviews i picked up this jem and it just works fantastically. i had comments off people in the crowd at live shows saying how good it is. When messing around with it, it shows its versatility.

Worth every penny!