What is it? Boss MT-2 Metal Zone Distortion. Made in Taiwan in january 1999. While the design seems to be quite a standard for metal players, it doesn’t move me that much. The eq section with half parametric mids is well designed and definitely the best part of this pedal. The schematic shows that the…
Month: December 2013
Ibanez OT10 Octave
What is it? Ibanez OT10 Octave from Power series. Made in taiwan around late 80’s. The most interesting Ibanez boxes are the couple of designs that only occur once. There are more examples where the designs have lived on in different series with slightly different names or very slight differences. For example, all the different…
Monkee Music Satan Distortion
What is it? Monkee Music Satan Distortion, made in japan in 1989. Ok. It has super cool font saying “Satan” on it. It is made of plastic and it is apparently japanese 1:1 clone of Rocktek DIR-1 Distortion. When i say it’s made of plastic, i do mean that. Even that the outer shell is…
DOD FX69 Grunge
What is it? DOD FX69 Grunge, made in USA around 1995. Board revision is “B”, but the box is per 1993 version. The DOD engineers were probaly after the sound of Kurt Cobain’s Boss DS-1/DS-2 and the Mudhoney fuzzes that were taken over the top. Or then it was just a plan to make a…
Ibanez SP5 Slam Punk
What is it? Ibanez SP5 Slam Punk distortion from later Soundtank series. Made in taiwan, mid to late 90’s. One of the soundtanks that i had a pleasure of being in contact with before acquiring one. I did a rehousing job with true bypass for a friend and played with the circuit before letting it…
Danelectro DDS-1 Sitar Swami
What is it? Danelectro DDS-1 Sitar Swami “Sitar Emulator” from 60’s series, made in china in late 90’s. I noticed one for sale for a very good price, and the Danelectro enthusiast i am, i just couldn’t let the opportunity slide. These are quite rare and special too. Forget the “Sitar Emulation” part. If you’re…
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
What is it? Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive. Made in taiwan, january 2010. One of these boxes that i knew i had to have, no matter if i like or not. And the answer is not. Must be one of the most sold Roland Boss pedals ever. The design has been on the market since 1981….
Colorless writings, part 5 – The Bypass Surgery
Bypass surgery? Are you referring to bypass systems found in pedals? You got that right. True-bypass seems to many as a something that will make them play better. I thought i’d like open up and let you know what i think about different bypass and switching methods. From outside, sort of generalizing, there are just…
Pearl OD-05 Overdrive
What is it? Pearl OD-05 Overdrive. Made in japan, early eighties. This must be one of most desired overdrives on the planet. And for good reason i might add. I don’t know how many units were made, but the amount must be a lot. There’s almost always one for sale on eBay, so this ain’t…
Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer Classic
Ah. Back to the old tricks with yet another Tube Screamer. What is it? Ibanez TS10 Tube Screamer Classic. Later version, made in Taiwan late 80s or early 90s. So it is TS9 with one resistor added before the inverting input of the opamp. These taiwanese units tend to sell for less than current TS9…