Maxon OD-808 Overdrive

The Maxon OD808 Overdrive - Provides the natural, mild overdrive of a tube amp without sacrificing your guitar's original tone. In addition, it can be used as a clean booster to provide increased gain without compromising the sound of your amplifier.

The Maxon OD808 uses a signal-distorting diode (Panasonic #MA150) that is located in the amplifier stage's negative feedback loop (which also contains the JRC4558 IC chip). Therefore, the OD808 distorts signal in the amplifier circuit itself which yields a smoother, milder, more natural sounding distortion than a separate clipping stage. This is also the reason that the IC type used in the circuit has such a large impact on the unit's tone. Maxon developed this unique design more than 20 years ago, and while it is commonplace nowadays, back then it was an industry first.

It should be noted that the Reissue Series OD808 uses different output resistors than the original version. After the unit's initial release it was discovered to have a high susceptibility to noise due to static electricity buildup. To improve performance, the positions of the output resistors on the reissue OD808 were reversed and their values increased in order to reduce noise levels. This circuit change has no audible affect on the sound of the unit, save for reducing the noise levels.