Gear Hunter
Maxon - D&S II
Description
With its mild drive, smooth sustain and high output, the D&S II sits the fence between an overdrive and a distortion. This unique split personality makes it perfect for players that seek a natural drive sound with more saturation than an OD generally provides. The D&S II features a Tone control that allows you to dial in the low end thats typically lost when the Distortion knob is turned up.From subtle crunch to intense saturation, the D&S II provides a wide range of useful, tube-like tones.
Rather than using the silicon diodes commonly found in modern circuits, the D&S II uses germanium diodes in its clipping stage. The threshold voltage for clipping with germaniums is 0.1 - 0.2V, and 0.7 - 0.8V with silicon. This means that germaniums can distort even low-level notes, providing a smoother overall distortion. In addition, the germanium's rectifier characteristic is inferior to silicon - this shortcoming ironically works favorably for the D&S II, creating a somewhat rounded waveform of the clipped signal that contributes to the units warm, natural distortion. Also unique to the D&S II is its tone control. While most other overdrives and distortions feature hi boost/hi cut tone circuits, the D&S II tone control uses a low-range boost/cut circuit for added bottom end. The D&S II features a JRC4558 IC; typically regarded as sonically superior to other Op Amps.
It also features buffered, JFET bypass switching with a low impedance output, allowing it to drive long cable lengths or other effect units without loss of signal.
