Ibanez Chorus Mini

Ibanez
123
August 2016 guitAr ist
VERDICT A chance to own a tiny but original version
of possibly the most cloned model in pedal history
VERDICT As good a chorus as you’ll find in its
size range and its price is pretty good, too
VERDICT A true analogue delay with everything
you need in one superb and tiny package. Cool as…
VERDICT A more than decent rock overdrive
and distortion pedal for the compact ’board
There are plenty of advantages to
having save-spacing mini pedals on your
pedalboard, and there are lots of options
available from companies that offer
budget Chinese-made pedals as well as
boutique manufacturers. Now, one of the
major long-term brands, Ibanez, has got
in on the act with four mini pedals.
The Tube Screamer is such a classic
pedal that it was inevitable we’d see a
mini version eventually. This one offers
exactly the same three-knob control
setup as its larger siblings and features
the same JRC4558 chip at its heart.
Sound-wise, it does what you’d expect
a Tube Screamer to do. We tried it next
to our full-sized TS808 and, although
there were some minor tonal differences,
we didn’t note any shortcomings in
how it did the business in front of an
amp. This is overdrive with a touch of
midrange boost that can kick things up a
notch when you need a little extra.
[TC]
Long after its heyday in the 80s, chorus
still seems to be a popular effect among
guitar players, judging by the amount of
chorus pedals on the market and the fact
that Ibanez has chosen chorus to be the
first modulation effect in its Mini series.
Chorus speed is adjusted with the big
central rotary, while depth gets relegated
to one of the smaller knobs. The overall
effect is controlled by the other tiny knob
and enables you to blend in the chorus
effect with your dry sound from the
sense that ‘something is going on with
the signal’ up to a richly effected sound.
Always musical, even with the
depth control on full, the various knob
juxtapositions allow a great number
of satisfying tones to be coaxed from
the pedal, ranging from classic chorus
through to faux rotary speaker. If you
want stereo, walk away – but for mono
chorus in this size and price range, it’s
pretty unbeatable.
[TC]
While Boss had its DM-2 back in the
day, Ibanez had the AD9 – and this new
mini pedal surely takes its inspiration
from that. It’s a true BBD analogue delay
pedal with a delay time range from 20ms
to 600ms, covering everything from
metallic-toned reverb through to the
range of delays set by a full-size knob.
Two mini knobs take care of the other
parameters: a Blend knob runs from
totally dry to a 50/50 mix between dry
and first repeat, while the Repeat knob
starts with a single repeat and adds more
until you get past about midday, where
(depending on the delay time) self-
oscillation sets in and you can get that
familiar build-up of runaway repeats
until you ease the knob back. The repeats
are nicely voiced, not too clean but not
too mushy, blending naturally with
guitar tone as they decay away. There’s
no modulation like you’ll get on MXR’s
Carbon Copy, but we didn’t miss it.
[TC]
The original Ibanez Super Metal pedal,
the SM9, which first saw the light of
day in the 1980s, was discontinued, and
has never been reissued until this Mini
version. Where the original had five
individual knobs, Ibanez recreates the
same control using dual-concentric pots.
Three of these – Punch, Edge and Attack
– are EQ knobs offering bass, midrange
presence and treble. These are capable of
combining for quite wide-ranging tonal
changes to the basic dirty sound, which
has more to do with a supercharged
TubeScreamer-style overdrive than
high-gain metal. There’s enough output
here for use as a boost with a bit of edge
and EQ shift, but as you turn up the Drive
knob you increase the raunch factor
through a range of driven amp tones to
cranked stack territory.
While the pedal retains its original
name, ‘metal’ is probably a misnomer:
this has a more stack-in-a-box vibe.
[TC]
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Overdrive pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Tone, Level,
Overdrive, bypass
footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard
input, standard output
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 51 (w) x 93
(d) x 55 mm (h)
Headstock Distribution
0121 508 6666
www.ibanez.com
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Chorus pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Depth, Level,
Speed, bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard
input, standard output
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 51 (w) x 93
(d) x 55 mm (h)
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Delay pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Repeat,
Blend, Delay Time,
bypass footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard
input, standard output
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 51 (w) x 93
(d) x 55mm (h)
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Distortion pedal
FEATURES: True bypass
CONTROLS: Edge, Punch,
Attack, Level, Drive, bypass
footswitch
CONNECTIONS: Standard
input, standard output
POWER: 9V DC adaptor
(not supplied)
DIMENSIONS: 51 (w) x 93
(d) x 55 mm (h)
Ibanez
Tube Screamer mini £59
Ibanez
choruS mini £65
Ibanez
analog Delay mini £75
Ibanez
Super meTal mini £75
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GIT409.peds_ibanez.indd 123 6/8/16 3:35 PM