MXR Saturation effects pedals

Zakk Wylde has always been known for having some sort of boost in his arsenal. For decades, he used the old school Boss SD-1 to boost his Marshall JCM800s loaded with 6550 tubes. However, since he's gone on his little binge of signature gear, he decided to get his own signature boost pedal. In reality, this is pretty much the same as the standard Boss SD-1, but it might be a tad thicker in tone. It's close enough to where either one works if you're looking to get his tone. UTILIZATION The housing on this is fairly sturdy, but I've heard of a few switches failing on these. I never personally experienced that, however, so take that with a grain of salt. The housing seems like it would be able to withstand heavy touring. The graphics on this are kinda dumb with the whole bullseye theme, but that's what he likes, so I can't criticize it too much. The knobs are easy enough to get at, and if you've ever used an SD-1, or any boost, you'll know exactly how this thing works. SOUND QUALITY The pedal sounds like a slightly thicker SD-1, but the difference isn't too huge. You'll hear people on the internet arguing about this pedal all the time. If you have an SD-1, you'll pretty much know how this will sound once you start boosting your amp with it. I like to run the gain low with the level cranked and the tone at roughly noon. That delivers a solid tone if you already have a gainy amp. If you have a lower gain amp, such as the JCM800, you'll probably want to add more gain and a little less level to help even everything out. OVERALL OPINION The pedal is solid, but SD-1s are so cheap that I just recommend getting one of those instead. I see SD-1s going for like $25, which is awesome. The only real reason to get this pedal is if you absolutely need all of Zakk's gear. You can easily mod the SD-1 to sound like this pedal with a few parts, so I'm not sure how much this pedal is worth getting, but it's solid on its own.

Dimebag 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.

- Output knob (aka volume) - Tone knob - Distortion knob - Internal voicing switch - LED - External 9 volt power connection - Internal 9 volt battery connection UTILIZATION It really does not get much simple than this. The Output knob is your volume, the distortion knob controls the amount of gain, and the tone knob control the equalization of the signal. Turning it up gets brighter tones, turning it down gets you darker tones. SOUND QUALITY This pedal basically sounds like juiced up Tube Screamer. I’ve found that with some amps it sounds phenomenal and on other amps it sounded dismal. All of the amps I have tried it on were tube amps. I'm not sure what causes the huge disparity in tonal quality other than the preamp design. It has a fair amount of gain on tap. When mated with an amp the pedal likes the EQ knob is quite useful. When mated with an amp it doesn't like, it goes from bad to worse. Similar problems occur with the signal volume. This is basically the same review as the Classic Overdrive. Why? Because, to me, they sound almost identical. The Classic Overdrive has a slightly more midrangy sound where as the Classic Distortion is slighty more scooped, has a little bit more bass, and is a little more compressed. It has a little bit more gain on tap, but nowhere near what someone would consider to be a lot of gain. There is a reason they call it a "Classic" distortion pedal. OVERALL OPINION MXR sold these pedals on a limited basis through Guitar Center only. Then Guitar Center ending up blowing them out at $30. It's a steal for $30 and worth the gamble to see if it will create magic with your amp. The prices on the aftermarket are starting to creep up. If you can find one cheap ($50 or under), it's probably worth checking out.

This is one of those Dunlop manufactured, Way Huge designed MXR Dual function either/and/or boost/overdrive pedal. 0-20dB boost control, level, tone, and gain control for the overdrive section. I/4 inch input and output jack, 9 volt dc power supply jack. And of course 9 volt battery compartment. UTILIZATION You can either use it as an up to 20dB clean boost, or an overdrive, or both together. Manual is not needed, this is as simple as chaining a clean boost into an overdrive pedal. Personally I likely would prefer it if you could assign whether it's boost before overdrive or overdrive before boost. SOUND QUALITY The clean boost side is great for sending stuff over the top, like in a high gain situation. My preference is to use it on a vintage amp that is cranked and starting to break up for a bit of extra "muscle". The overdrive side reminds me of a smoother, less noisy version of MXR Distortion plus Script logo era. It reacts okay to single coils but used with humbuckers is where this pedal comes to life. Into a high gainer like a Soldano Avenger with low output humbucker the overdrive side alone will give you a very smooth liquid Allan Holdsworth type legato lead tone. Using it together with the boost will tend to fuzz out the input of high gain amps, at least it does for my taste. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, just look at what amazing gain tones have been gotten with Fuzz boxes. With single coils or guitars with low gain humbuckers into a clean amp it'll get the notes to pop and sing. OVERALL OPINION What I like is the overdrive with high gain amp, and the boost with clean amps. I would've loved to have the boost after the overdrive on clean amps. This way the boost could have been used as a solo boost instead of an additional gain increase. If you're longing for a pedal that will make for super smooth compression however having the additional gain increase of boost before overdrive this will be a pedal you should check out. I believe they also sell a version that is only half the pedal, which if you're using it into a high gain amp with humbuckers might be a better fit.

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.

This is a pretty standard distortion pedal. No frills nothing fancy. It is analog, it has true bypass. There's a simple input and output, as well as a spot to plug in a 9V adapter. UTILIZATION The setup is very simple. It has three knobs. The Output knob acts like a booster. You can set it so that when you turn on the pedal on it not only adds distortion but boosts the sound as well. Very useful if you're using this for solos. The next knob is a Tone knob. This is kind of like a treble knob. This one should usually be cranked most of the way unless you play stoner rock. The final knob is the Disortion. You can just add a little bit for a nice crunch or crank it for solo's or any type of hard rock. Overall this pedal is very easy to use and you don't even need the manual to tell you how it works. All you need is about 5 minutes and you're good to go. SOUND QUALITY This is a great sounding distortion pedal. Not only is it simple but you can get a distortion for whatever you want. It sounds good no matter what you're using it for. If you just turn the Distortion on a little bit and crank the Tone all the way you get a nice bite to your clean tone. Perfect overdrive. Nice and clear with single coils. Dirty and buttery with humbuckers. If you want some power crank it up halfway for hard riffs or a dirty blues solo. With experimentation you could get any type of distortion save for thrash metal. I mainly use this as an overdrive pedal with my Gibson SG Standard through a Fender Blues Deluxe. Sounds great. When I add my fuzz pedal over it I get a great juicy solo tone reminiscent of Brian May. OVERALL OPINION I've had this pedal for about 5 or 6 months now and I love it. When I record I go from the guitar to the pedal to my computer. Works great. I love everything about the pedal. It's simple, very useful, it sounds great, it doesn't break the bank, and you can easily dial in your own tone with it. I tried a few Boss and Digitech pedals but none of them really stuck out like this one. Like I said, its not too expensive either. I got mine for $80.00. I'd buy another but I don't see this one having any problems for a long time.