Friday, August 9, 2013

1981 MXR Distortion + Effects Pedal

Vintage top-quality stomp box, made in the USA and used by Guitar Gods Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads


A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I hadn't really played with many effects in 20+ years of strumming guitars, but much has changed since then. This was the first piece that was acquired after that beautiful Cry Baby Wah and it's another classic boutique-type pedal.

MXR pedals were among the best in the business back in the late-70s, Eddie Van Halen changed the face of rock guitar with help from the Phase 90 pedal on the first two VH albums and Randy Rhoads gave it another makeover while using this model Distortion + unit with Ozzy Osbourne a few years later in the early 80's.

Like most distortion pedals, it's a little noisy and on it's own, it's a little dirty for my taste and doesn't quite have the amount of gain that I like. Another weird thing is that the distortion seems to have a small amount of flange built-in to it, not sure how to tone that down yet. I've paired it with a vintage overdrive pedal, which will also be featured soon, and that got closer to the tone that I like.

This is vintage, the old ones don't have LED lights or AC adapter jacks. They are very expensive too. The Phase pedals generally go for $150+ and these D+ units usually can't be had for anything less than $100. Like old guitars, these vintage pedals contain higher-quality parts and generally give off better tone.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

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