Re: The Maxon AD900 Appreciation Thread.....

idiotbear · Post by **idiotbear** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:32 pm

I tried an AD-999 today. Seriously, the greatest delay I've ever heard. I'm getting one.

I love how the repeats break up really warmly and crunchily, and having nearly a second of delay time makes a huge difference. I can totally see how my DM-2 is going to provide texture, and the AD-999 will be there for the longer repeats.

I get the feeling that if I ever decide to strip back, I'm going to go the Yannis route of just Super Duper and Maxon AD. Those two cover the basics as perfectly as I can imagine.

idiotbear · Post by **idiotbear** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:52 pm

Got one. GBP £150 inc. shipping, which is £100 less than it's going for on Denmark St. I'm very excited now.

Post by **i love sharin foo** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:18 pm

idiotbear wrote: Got one. GBP £150 inc. shipping, which is £100 less than it's going for on Denmark St. I'm very excited now.

Nice!

I got one of the old Maxon AD80s a while back and it is one of the best analog delays I've ever used. From what I've heard from others (especially Yannis

), the AD900 and 999 seem to have a real similar sound (and much more delay time). I had a DM-3 that I just sold not long ago. It sounded nice, but it wasn't nearly as thick and dark sounding as the maxon. It was almost too hi-fi. Same thing with the Deluxe Memory Man I just sold. I scaled back to only a Moog Analog Delay, the AD80 and an old Roland tape echo. I'm really happy with those three.

Justin

Pumpkin · Post by **Pumpkin** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:43 pm

I'm still interested in the AD999 but since i heard some demo's of the DD-20 I'm thinkin twice as its a perfect noise machine,

but has anyone got the ad9 and ad999,whats the greatest differences time wise and repeat quality wise....wise?

a reminder · Post by **a reminder** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 12:25 pm

i'm convinced, i sell my DMM !

EnosEmurf · Post by **EnosEmurf** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:33 pm

The AD999 is amazing, ditto what idiot bear said.

However I played a truly strange AD999 today, it had multi-delay switches, three one read 3/8 and that's all I can remember, they all had fractions. None of the AD999s I've seen online have this function

What the hell was the pedal? It appeared to be brand new and the box was just opened.

Post by **zhivago** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:43 pm

that is the updated version of the AD999....it's fairly new...the AD999 Pro...here's a pic...

EnosEmurf · Post by **EnosEmurf** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:49 pm

That's funny, I was just saw that you posted as the Pro page was loading.

That multi-delay function is wonderful!

Post by **zhivago** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:30 am

EnosEmurf wrote: That's funny, I was just saw that you posted as the Pro page was loading.

That multi-delay function is wonderful!

cool!

what did it sound like?

Post by **mezcalhead** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:06 am

Sweet!

Post by **zhivago** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:59 am

cool link!!!!

andtrea · Post by **andtrea** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:30 am

Finally I can give my opinion on this pedal too...
Here's the story: I was very satisfied with my Deluxe Memory Man, but I continued to read fantastic things about old Ibanez and Maxon delays.
So about 3 months ago, I found on an italian forum a "vintage" Ibanez AD80 with true-bypass at a very good price and I decided to take it, and eventually make a comparison and sell the "loser" delay.
Well, just I turn on the AD80 I immediately take apart the DMM and gave it to the other guitarist of my band.
That little pink pedal was warmer, fatter and so WILD... Even with the blend pot at 9:00 o'clock was so powerful, and the self-oscillation incredible...
But there was a little con: pushing the delay time over the "declared" 300-400 ms take a little hiss... I opened it and found that the internal trim pots were tweaked to push the delay time "over the top".

So, after the reading (and the listening) the Zhivago threads I start to thinking that the AD900 (using the same mn3005) would be the definitive choice: same ad80 taste, but with more delay time.
I start to search for an used 2 chips version ad900, (pedal discontinued from many years), but that has been the most long, difficult and unlucky part. I tell you only that I finally found one at Ishibashi, but, differently from some of my friends that bought instruments from the japanese webshop without any problems, my purchase take almost 2 weeks writing continously e-mails about unsolved credit card problem and expensive bank transfer, just while the world economy was falling and the Yen incredibly raising.

So finally it arrived and, after thi slong waiting, I A/B with the AD80 and I was a little disappointed. The different voltage makes the two pedal very very different.
Where the AD80 is a wild spacetrip, the AD900 is sweet, celestial "chocolate flakes falling"...(like Zhivago said), it doesn't even self-oscillate! An analog delay that doesn't self oscillate is like a wine without alcohol...
The AD80 was the devil, and the Ad900 the little angel on my shoulder... and ususally in my life usually I've choose the red one

[...continue later...]

I was very sad and I decided to try a last experiment before to sell it... try to adjust the trim-pots

Post by **zhivago** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:07 am

it's odd that your AD900 won't self-oscillate....mine does it with ease...maybe the trim pots do need adjusting

andtrea · Post by **andtrea** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:16 am

Exactly... (that was the missing part, i was forced to turn off the pc)... with a little tweaking on the REPEAT trim finally I got it! Self oscillation and purest warm together!
With a little more "diabolic" touch, now I have the perfect delay!

I want to thank Zhivago, I found his approach to guitar tone search and his threads very rich of inspiration and useful... Now I got to go to search a Klon and a Ceriatone Tweed

Some observations:
- my AD80 is now available in the Buy and Sell section of the forum

- the AD999 pays all that chips for the long delay time with a worst "depth" sensation, i don't recommend it. Anyway I'm curios to hear the new AD999 pro
- the Memory Lane has 2 NOS mn3005

chips at 15v, it's very expensive, but as the ad900 become "rarer" it's an interesting alternative if have enough room on the pedalboard...

Post by **zhivago** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:26 am

glad to be able to help!

enjoy the AD900!!

OffsetGuitars.com