Ibanez SD9M Reviews

4.1/5.0 based on 4 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Dom
from Baltimore, MD
March 11, 2012Music Background:
Gigging Musician, Recording Engineer

My New Favorite

This was everything I was hoping for and more! I have been looking for something I could really push my practice rig with and picked one of these up. Well I was so impressed this has replaced my DIrty Bomb on my board. I Have owned plenty of distortion pedals over the years, and this one by far blows the rest away.

Jeff H
from Twin Cities, MN
November 27, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist

Lots of tonal options; a good update on a vintage pedal

Just received this pedal from Sweetwater and, no surprise, their customer service and delivery time were top notch! I gave a rating of 4.5 starts to the new Sonic Distortion Mod pedal because it does everything it says it does, and is built well. The original Sonic Distortion has been around since the 80's from either Ibanez or Maxon. This reissue mod adds a "boutique-like" switch set to add more gain, or add more mids. These switches can dramatically change the character of the pedal. The GAIN switch adds considerably more gain - enough to cover classic rock, 80's rock, and even some grunge and lighter metal. The tone is full, smoother than a Boss DS-1, and has a nice scooped mids sound for rhythm work.

Flip the MIDS switch up, and you get something akin to a distorted Tubescreamer. The tone becomes considerably brighter, but really pushes through. The MIDS "up" setting makes this pedal more capable for soloing than many other distortion pedals.

Ultimately, I gave the score a slight markdown because while the tones are all good, they aren't necessarily anything special. At $99.99, you're getting a solid piece of hardware, but you'll ultimately need to set upon one purpose for it at time. There's no "boost" footswitch, so while it's cool to have the different options, you'll likely just find one setup and keep it there.

Perception of distortion pedals is highly subjective, and while I was hoping this pedal might blow me away a little bit more, I can't fault the pedal for being what it is. As I play with the settings some more, I am confident that I might have found a pretty good pedal here. It has "enough" bass without ever getting muddy, and could handle a lot of different playing styles. See if you can try one out first, but if you're interested, I do think the SD9M is a pretty intriguing new pedal!

craig andrew newton
from United States
December 15, 2012Music Background:
PRO MUSICIAN/SONGWRITER

IBANEZ SD9M DISTORTION PEDAL

THIS IS LIKE A MODIFIED PEDAL WITH A MID BOOST & GAIN SWITCHES WHICH BASICALLY SOUNDS ALMOST IDENTICAL TO THE TURBO TUBE SCREAMER. THE PEDAL IS MUCH MORE NOISY, SO YOU NEED A NOISE GATE IN FRONT TO CUT THE NOISE OUT. IT'S VERY GOOD PEDAL IF YOUR ALREADY USING A HIGH GAIN AMP, BUT YOU NEED SOME EXTRA SUSTAIN FOR YOUR SOLO'S, THEN THIS IS YOUR PEDAL. I THINK PERSONALLY IT ALTERS YOUR TONE A BIT. OVERALL, A GOOD PEDAL WITH MODS ALREADY BUILT IN.

Billy Pope
from Houston, TX
May 15, 2013Music Background:
Pro Musician

Ibanez SD9M - Sonic Distortion w/ Mods

I quickly found out after putting it thru it's paces that this pedal sounds much better for humbuckers than for single coils....my single coils are very high quality but when I went into the heavy gain mode, it was just too much and the gain was all the way down. I still needed to be able to cut back on the gain a bit for it to sound just right for my sound, but had no where to go. The pedal sounds really great with humbuckers but I use single coils 99% of the time so I just returned it for a different pedal that I feel would work better for me and my set up.

Ibanez SD9M

Heavy Tube Screamer style Guitar Distortion Pedal with Gain and Mid Boost Switches

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