Maxon RTD-800 Real Tube Overdrive-Distortion pedal

General

The boss-grade Maxon RTD800 stompbox is home to no-less-than four independent circuits: an overdrive, distortion, a boost and even a noise gate and, at the heart of this potential-bomb of an effect pedal lies a living, breathing vacuum tube. Basically, you're looking at an endless list of drive-based options, from your traditional valve-amplifier-style drives and distortions to thick, tight and mighty metal-worthy distortions. Via the Bass, Mid and Treble pots, the tone can not just be moulded to shape but, because the frequency bands don't overlap, can cover an immense range of distortions. When the mini-switch is set to overdrive, this pedal gives you an immediately warm and dynamic sound, backing up the full array of playing techniques with excellent definition. Flip the switch to activate the distortion channel and unleash high-gain output that invokes the spirit of old Marshall amplifiers with the settings opened all the way up. While the distortion gets pretty heavy, the dynamic response remains brilliantly articulate, and when the gain is pushed up really high, everything can easily be tightened up via the noise gate. In fact, the Maxon RTD800 can also serve as a solid clean boost, which is placed after the overdrive and distortion circuits, so the effect can be toggled separately via dedicated Boost footswitch mounted on the left.

Maxon

First born in the '60s, Maxon was initially busy producing pickups, but by the end of that defining decade, had already started dipping into the dynamic world of effects pedal development. Since they were mostly making pedals for other brands, when the '70s arrived, Maxon were building stompboxes almost exclusively for Ibanez. As such, many legendary Ibanez pedals are actually Maxon designed and made. The most renowned pedal from this period has to be the Ibanez Tube Screamer (also known as the Maxon 808 Overdrive). This partnership carried on well into 2002 when Ibanez and Maxon finally parted ways. Ever since, Maxon have been producing their own gear, under their own name, and some of their fresh pedals include versions of older Ibanez stompboxes - reissued, and re-stamped with the now-independent Maxon name.