MXR M142 Distortion II Vintage

The MXR Distortion II is a distortion pedal designed for electric guitar but suitable with any electronic instrument.  it has 1/4 inch connections and requires 9 volts of power.  It is an analog piece of gear that isn't rack mountable because it is a stomp box.

UTILIZATION

The make up of the MXR Distortion II is quite easy to follow as everything is clearly labeled and easy to understand.  It simply has four knobs for drive, resonance, filter, and output and that is all that there is to the pedal.  Even if you don't have much experience with distortion pedals, using common sense I don't think that you will have much of a hard time understanding how to use the MXR Distortion II.  A manual isn't necessary for using this pedal at all and I can't speak to how well put together it is because I haven't seen the it.


SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality of the MXR Distortion II is quite good overall.  The pedal has a certain tone to it no matter how you set the parameters, which is part of what I like about it.  This doesn't mean that it isn't possible to get a wide array of sounds, it just means that all of the sounds have a certain tone to them.  I usually use the pedal for recording with a Fender Strat and a '76 Fender Twin Reverb and I'm able to get some pretty awesome sounding distortion tones within this configuration - both for lead and rhythm parts.  The distortion tone can be described as chunky and fat overall and is definitely something that is good for playing classic rock, among other genres.

OVERALL OPINION

I've been using the MXR Distortion II for a number of years and it has always been a pedal that I come back to now and again because I like the way it sounds a lot.  It has a cool look to it and gives you a really thick distortion tone in a compact pedal.  The price of the pedal varies depending on when it is from but it isn't all that expensive for a nice distortion pedal like this even at the highest possible price.  MXR makes qualities pedals and the MXR Distortion II definitely fits right in with this.  This is definitely a distortion pedal to try out and consider if you are looking for a great sounding distortion pedal.