AD-9, vintage or not

[winterheadphone]

I purchased an Ibanez AD-9 recently from a guy who swore it was vintage. I was amazed at the shape it was in. Now, I'm wondering if I got hosed.

How can I tell if he was telling the truth or not?

 

[ajchance]

Pot codes?

 

[analogmike]

see my ts9 history page, the bottom plates in the new ones are different

 

[blackba]

How do the old AD-9's compare sound wise to the new AD-9's? Anyone compared them?

 

[winterheadphone]

see my ts9 history page, the bottom plates in the new ones are different

I've looked on your page( been there many times, actually) and couldn't find anything specific about Ibanez or the AD-9 but, did read about the final numbers in a SN sometimes being the year. My AD-9 has the SN - 0540090. That would mean 1990 if I'm right.

Am I right?

Should I mod it? You're the dude I should ask! hahahahahhaa

 

[todaystomorrow]

The Keeley mod is worth it just for the oscillation switch IMO.

 

[winterheadphone]

Is there nothing about the fact that it's vintage that would make sense to leave it that way?

 

[Bobster]

hmm i've heard that the vintage ad9 has more headroom and "wetness" than the new ones.

Anyone can give any info on the quality of the components? I had a reissue before as well.

 

[todaystomorrow]

Is there nothing about the fact that it's vintage that would make sense to leave it that way?

I guess that's up to you... I see you have a Memory Lane, so if you're just using this for slapback... then maybe leave it alone. If you find that it's not a reissue, I'd send it in for a mod and feel better about getting it. I'm sure it sounds pretty good either way. It does a great, dark slapback.

 

[myTakamine]

You should be able to verify that you have an original by looking at the chips. Analogman has more info, scroll down a bit from this link to read this:

There is also a reissue Ibanez AD9 out now, which is cheaper as it is not true bypass and uses cheap delay chips. It does not sound as good with those chips. The Maxon and original Ibanez use VERY expensive, rare Panasonic chips- MN3205 4096 stage bucket brigade chip and MN3101 clock chip, just like the vintage delays, to get it's awesome sound.

And from the linked article from Legendary Tones comparing the re-issues from Maxon and Ibanez to each other and the originals...

One significant change however in the Ibanez is its use of new-production BBD and clock IC chips made in China by Shanghai Belling.

 

[winterheadphone]

Oh oh!

I opened it up, compared the chips to the ones from the analogman website and found that the chips did not match up.

I don't know much about each chip and what it does but, I'm going to post them in the hopes that someone can confirm.

3208A
52465
(two of those)

BL3102
05 NT
34367

4558D
JRC
5111A

SA571N
CPEK0443

Thanks for all your help so far

 

[myTakamine]

Oh oh!

3208A
52465
(two of those)

BL3102
05 NT
34367

4558D
JRC
5111A

SA571N
CPEK0443

It looks like you have a re-issue, with the Shanghai Belling chips. The 3208A is the bbd, and the BL3102 is the clock.

 

[winterheadphone]

Un-believable!

Thank you for your help. I will be contacting the seller and will be demanding a refund.

Not cool.