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Hatsubai « Buzzy and over the top »
Published on 11/22/11 at 17:52Dimebag has long since been known for having a very...unique kind of tone. It was generally a very heavily distorted tone with very little midrange. This is a pedal that was modeled after his tone, but I don't think Dimebag actually ever used this exact pedal. I could be wrong, however. The pedal has knobs for output, bass, middle, treble and gain. There is also a small push button that can switch the voicing of the pedal if you want something different.
UTILIZATION
This pedal is built fairly tough. I can't say I've tested this thing on tour, but it seems like it can withstand some strong abuse. Pretty much all MXR pedals are built tough as nails, and I don't doubt this one for a second. The small switch might wear a bit, and the actual switch on the pedal might go flaky, but this is after probably decades of hard usage. The pedal is fairly easy to set up and go, but there are some example settings in the manual. In fact, they even have lots of videos about this pedal on YouTube if you want to check them out. The manual itself describes everything in clear detail, so there should be no real confusion as to what everything does.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound is where I'm really iffy on this pedal. For one, it has lots of gain. I'm not really a big fan of getting all my gain sounds from pedals as I find them to be a bit too harsh and not really natural sounding. It sounds like a "pedal," as cliché as that sounds. The range on the tone stack is pretty nice, and I was able to get some different sounds out of it, but I was never able to dial in a nice, subtle distortion with this thing. Then again, I'm pretty sure this was meant to be a balls-out distortion pedal and not an overdrive like I was attempting to use it as.
OVERALL OPINION
If you need lots of gain in a pedal, this might be what you're looking for. However, I can't help but think that, with today's amps, you really shouldn't need to get a lot of gain from a pedal. I was never a fan of running a completely clean amp and using distortion pedals for gain, but some people can pull it off. This thing just wasn't for me, but I'm sure there are people out there who will adore this thing. I just wish companies would stop exploiting Dimebag's name in an attempt for marketing more gear.
UTILIZATION
This pedal is built fairly tough. I can't say I've tested this thing on tour, but it seems like it can withstand some strong abuse. Pretty much all MXR pedals are built tough as nails, and I don't doubt this one for a second. The small switch might wear a bit, and the actual switch on the pedal might go flaky, but this is after probably decades of hard usage. The pedal is fairly easy to set up and go, but there are some example settings in the manual. In fact, they even have lots of videos about this pedal on YouTube if you want to check them out. The manual itself describes everything in clear detail, so there should be no real confusion as to what everything does.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound is where I'm really iffy on this pedal. For one, it has lots of gain. I'm not really a big fan of getting all my gain sounds from pedals as I find them to be a bit too harsh and not really natural sounding. It sounds like a "pedal," as cliché as that sounds. The range on the tone stack is pretty nice, and I was able to get some different sounds out of it, but I was never able to dial in a nice, subtle distortion with this thing. Then again, I'm pretty sure this was meant to be a balls-out distortion pedal and not an overdrive like I was attempting to use it as.
OVERALL OPINION
If you need lots of gain in a pedal, this might be what you're looking for. However, I can't help but think that, with today's amps, you really shouldn't need to get a lot of gain from a pedal. I was never a fan of running a completely clean amp and using distortion pedals for gain, but some people can pull it off. This thing just wasn't for me, but I'm sure there are people out there who will adore this thing. I just wish companies would stop exploiting Dimebag's name in an attempt for marketing more gear.