Maxon designer Susumu Tamura retires from Nisshin Onpa

April 1, 2025 · 2 sources

Susumu Tamura of Matsumoto, Japan, turned 60 in April and opted for early retirement from the Nisshin Onpa Company, the manufacturer behind Maxon¹. Nisshin Onpa made the original OD808 circuit, an OEM project for Ibanez that went on to be branded as the TS808 Tube Screamer¹.

Tamura was hired in 1974 and worked continuously and exclusively for the company for 40 years, he said in an interview¹. Nisshin Onpa was originally established as an electric guitar pickup company; it began manufacturing pedals as OEM projects for other companies and then, from 1971, under its own Maxon brand¹. His first complete design was the Phase Tone PT999; before that he had only redesigned PC boards for the company's booster and wah pedals¹.

Asked about the 808's concept, Tamura said the aim was a pedal that was not hard clipping like fuzz or distortion, but more like the overdrive obtained from tube amps, with a midrange-emphasized tone that worked with a wide variety of guitars and amplifiers¹. He said the initial product concept was not viewed as special, and that between the promotional sales power of Godlyke and Hoshino and the musicians who used the pedal, "we were able to ship 350,000 units of the various 808 models over the years"¹.

Among the projects he named as most memorable were the PE3248 programmable switching system, custom-made for guitarist Masayoshi Takanaka, which led to the basic idea for multi-effect products such as the UE400 and DUE400; the BBD analog delays including the AD80 and AD9, which originated with the AD230 series; and the DCP analog programmable effect pedal series, including the PDS1¹. He said he hoped to redesign the discontinued DCP¹.

Tamura also took part in Maxon's 40th anniversary OD808 project, in which he retrofitted the original circuit with his own take alongside four outside designers, according to Delicious Audio².