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iamqman « Spectacular »
Published on 03/25/11 at 10:53This pedal was demoed at Namm this year and it will be a huge hit for MXR. It is modeled off that hot rodded tone coming from 1978. Well they don't go into too much detail why they picked that year but I have a theory. One of the most influential guitarists and band came out that year running with the devil.
Let me start by saying I'm not a huge distortion box guy. I like to get my grit from the amp overdriving the tubes. So when I heard this pedal I was pleasantly surprised at how natural sounding this pedal was to a real tube screaming high gain amp. This pedal is about to make a huge impact on the overdrive pedal scene.
MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion Features at a Glance:
* Hot-rodded classic circuit
* Roars with huge amp stack tones and old-school distortion
* Delivers soaring leads and rich, saturated rhythms
* CRUNCH button boosts harmonic content of distortion
UTILIZATION
Really simple operation with only three controls knobs and a crunch mini button that beefs up the tone. Like most distortion boxes it has an Output, Tone, and Distortion controls. The Output will control your volume level for the unit, while the tone will control how bright and how dark the overall tone will get much like a tone control on a guitar, and then the distortion knob will give you the gain you desire. The mini button called Crunch will basically beef up the tone and add rich thick harmonics to the tone.
SOUND QUALITY
In my opinion most distortion boxes sound like garbage. And there are even MXR pedals that sound like garbage and I'm a huge MXR fan. This thing really shine in the lead category. The lead are smooth and silky while giving a huge midrange frequency bump that cut through the band mix extremely well. This pedal will be great as a solo boost as well with how well it responds to lead lines. The rhythm is no joke either, in that it has a tight warm gallop to the tone good for mixing in the lead with the rhythm and chugging away.
Use this with a Les Paul or a single coil guitar like a Strat.....it doesn't matter at all. Any operation you through at this pedal sounds great.
OVERALL OPINION
Well there is something to this pedal that many other distortion boxes don't have and that is being as authentic as possible. I don't used OD boxes anymore that much unless I find one like this one. This is a great pedal and for the price it is a no brainer. At new they come in at around $80 which is a steal for something that sounds this good.
I would recommend this pedal to any guitar player who needs a solid built OD box and who is on a budget. Even if you're not on a budget this is a great sounding pedal that rivals the best of them out there on the market.
Let me start by saying I'm not a huge distortion box guy. I like to get my grit from the amp overdriving the tubes. So when I heard this pedal I was pleasantly surprised at how natural sounding this pedal was to a real tube screaming high gain amp. This pedal is about to make a huge impact on the overdrive pedal scene.
MXR Custom Badass '78 Distortion Features at a Glance:
* Hot-rodded classic circuit
* Roars with huge amp stack tones and old-school distortion
* Delivers soaring leads and rich, saturated rhythms
* CRUNCH button boosts harmonic content of distortion
UTILIZATION
Really simple operation with only three controls knobs and a crunch mini button that beefs up the tone. Like most distortion boxes it has an Output, Tone, and Distortion controls. The Output will control your volume level for the unit, while the tone will control how bright and how dark the overall tone will get much like a tone control on a guitar, and then the distortion knob will give you the gain you desire. The mini button called Crunch will basically beef up the tone and add rich thick harmonics to the tone.
SOUND QUALITY
In my opinion most distortion boxes sound like garbage. And there are even MXR pedals that sound like garbage and I'm a huge MXR fan. This thing really shine in the lead category. The lead are smooth and silky while giving a huge midrange frequency bump that cut through the band mix extremely well. This pedal will be great as a solo boost as well with how well it responds to lead lines. The rhythm is no joke either, in that it has a tight warm gallop to the tone good for mixing in the lead with the rhythm and chugging away.
Use this with a Les Paul or a single coil guitar like a Strat.....it doesn't matter at all. Any operation you through at this pedal sounds great.
OVERALL OPINION
Well there is something to this pedal that many other distortion boxes don't have and that is being as authentic as possible. I don't used OD boxes anymore that much unless I find one like this one. This is a great pedal and for the price it is a no brainer. At new they come in at around $80 which is a steal for something that sounds this good.
I would recommend this pedal to any guitar player who needs a solid built OD box and who is on a budget. Even if you're not on a budget this is a great sounding pedal that rivals the best of them out there on the market.