Ibanez AD9

The Ibanez AD9 is an analog delay pedal, part of Ibanez's 9 Series, first produced from 1982 to 1984 and reissued from 2005 onward¹. The original circuit was made by Maxon as an OEM manufacturer for Ibanez², and it is built on bucket brigade device (BBD) chips: Analog Man notes the original Ibanez and Maxon versions used Panasonic MN3205 4096-stage bucket brigade chips with an MN3101 clock chip³. Guitar.com counts it among the classic BBD delays, alongside the Boss DM series and the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man⁴.

With three knobs and a warm, filtered repeat, it is the kind of delay a player reaches for when they want echoes that sit behind the note rather than reproduce it exactly. Pedal of the Day's reviewer put it plainly⁵²⁶:

What it does and how it is controlled

The AD9 is a straightforward three-knob delay. All three versions Analog Man has examined, the vintage model, the Maxon reissue and the Ibanez reissue, share the same basic control set¹:

The two published figures for maximum delay time disagree: RockBoard's product page describes a 300 ms time effect with a wide range of delay times and repeat settings⁵, while Pedal of the Day's review states the Delay Time knob goes up to 500 ms, enough for doubling, echoes and slapback⁷. Both agree the whole range is covered by a single knob.

The pedal also appeared as the delay section of the Ibanez UE 305 multi-effect unit, so players sometimes encounter the same circuit outside a standalone box⁶.

How it compares with other analog delays

The AD9 sits in a family of closely related pedals. The vintage circuit was originally made by Maxon for Ibanez, and Maxon later built its own AD-9 reissue alongside the Ibanez one²¹. In a 2004 shootout published by Legendary Tones, David Szabados compared the two directly and found real differences in behavior:

• The Maxon AD-9 comes set up for self-oscillation from the factory⁸.
• The Ibanez AD-9 reissue, stock from the factory, is set to decay after a given number of repeats, even with the feedback control at maximum⁸.

Self-oscillation is the runaway feedback loop where repeats build into their own pitched howl; players who want that effect from the Ibanez reissue have to adjust it themselves. Pedal of the Day notes that while you can adjust the self-oscillation on the new ones, the reissues lack the separate bias trimpots for the internal chips and the balance trimpot that the older models have⁷.

Analog Man's comparison is blunt about the reissue's build:

The same page adds that Analog Man offers no mods for the reissues, while the vintage and Maxon units use what the site calls very expensive, rare Panasonic chips³. The reissue is not without its own improvements, though: Analog Man's reissue page notes it sports a new design compander circuit for lower noise over the original unit⁹. A compander compresses the signal going into the delay line and expands it on the way out, a common trick for quieting BBD noise.

Where it came from

The AD9 is an analog delay built on BBD (bucket-brigade device) circuitry, the same technology behind other classic analog delays such as the Boss DM series and the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man¹. Of its sound, one reviewer wrote that "you can sound like you own your very own tape echo machine, and very few people would be able to tell the difference"⁷. The same review summed up its appeal as "super simple, wicked tasty, great prices, small pedalboard footprint"⁷.

Ibanez unveiled its plans to reissue the AD-9 at the NAMM show in January 2004, and the reissue has been in production since 2005¹⁸. The reissue is manufactured by Ibanez itself rather than Maxon².

What reviewers said

Published opinions on the AD9 line up around its simplicity and sound. Pedal of the Day's 2015 review summed it up in four short verdicts⁷⁶:

The same reviewer emphasized the analog character, repeating "Analog, analog, analog" and describing the tape-echo impression noted above⁷. On the vintage side, Analog Man's David Szabados wrote that "the character of a good analog delay is thoroughly enjoyable and difficult to capture from anything other than a genuine" analog circuit², and Guitar.com's echo history places the AD9 among the BBD classics that remain popular with players⁴.

The main criticism in print concerns the reissue rather than the concept: Analog Man's view that the reissue is not true bypass and uses cheap delay chips, and therefore does not sound as good as the Maxon or original Ibanez versions³. Players comparing an original against a reissue today are effectively comparing two different parts of the pedal's history: a 1982 to 1984 Maxon-built unit with rare Panasonic BBD chips, and a 2005-onward Ibanez-built unit with a quieter compander circuit but fewer internal adjustment options³⁹.

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