NAMM 2020: Maxon Apex808 overdrive – The Ultimate Tube Screamer?
The Maxon Apex808 overdrive was designed by original Tube Screamer creator Susumu Tamura and took three years to develop. Could this be the ultimate TS style overdrive pedal?
It’s all in the IC chips
Maxon teamed up with legendary pedal designer Susuma Tamura to make the Apex808 overdrive. Tamura, of course, is the inventor of the original, and now highly sought-after Tube Screamer 808 circuit. After painstakingly combing through hundreds of vintage and modern incarnations of the Tube Screamer over a period of three years, he decided that the best examples all featured similar IC chips.
Maxon Apex808 overdrive pedal. The ultimate Tube Screamer? · Source: Maxon
Maxon Apex808 overdrive
Tamura discovered that the IC chips from his favourite sounding pedals weren’t just of the same brand, but also from a specific period of production. (Sounds like ‘unobtainium’ to me, but I’ll play along.) When used at lower levels, the Apex808 should generate primarily even-order harmonics. Then, as you crank up the input, the pedal generates a blend of even- and odd-order harmonics.
Maxon says that the hand-selected IC chips in the Apex808 overdrive should provide “transparency, clarity and note-to-note separation“. The idea is to recreate the sonic characteristics that made the original Tube Screamer such a desirable pedal for so many guitarists.
The release date and price have yet to be announced, so we might have to wait a few more weeks to get the full skinny on this information.
RRP – TBC
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