MXR Distortion+ (Or Is It???)

[Brent Hutto]

This, straight into the amp with just a bit of distortion = bliss!
love it.

View attachment 1082241

Extra bonus points for:

1) A sticker that's almost worn off
2) Mismatched knobs

That's a working man's dirt pedal, right there

 

[Brent Hutto]

I'm liking my Distortion+ and Fuzz Face so much I couldn't help myself. I've done ordered a Phase 90 pedal to stick in there with 'em. One of the script logo models with the LED and power connection (it was like 20 bucks more than a block logo version).

The more I dial in good sounds with the fuzz and distortion, the less use I'm finding for MXR Timmy. Although goodness knows its bass and treble cut knobs are pretty strong, the actual gain and/or diode clipping I'd much rather get from Distortion+.

So I'm picturing guitar into Fuzz Face into Phase 90 into Distortion+, then onward to delays and so forth. I will stick my buffered tuner pedal in between them somewhere because the Distortion+ seems to have a bad case of passive tone-suck when due to its antiquated bypass mechanism.

 

[ahiddentableau]

For the sort of slow, contemplative melodies I spend most of my time playing, I'm usually going for a tone that sounds "nice" or "pretty". So not too bitey or bright, nothing aggressive about it, plenty of smooth sustain if I can get it. When I do play a few chords or double-stops I like to hear the notes kind of blend their overtones together sweetly.

But that's not really distortion+'s thing, is it? I won't say it sounds ugly but it sounds the opposite of sweet or pretty.

You are correct. It's not a subtle circuit in most of its settings. A lot of it is to do with the way the clipping diodes are set up. Germanium diodes wired for hard clipping = low clipping voltage plus hard clipping in a circuit with a fair bit of gain = not subtle. As soon as the circuit goes above a pretty mild level those diodes clamp down hard. The high volume low gain setting you posted about earlier is about as close to sweet and subtle as you can get with a distortion +. It's just not designed for the mild tone shaping thing like a lot of the other standard OD circuits, at least not unless you take some of the piss and vinegar out of it with circuit changes like in the OD250 (and even then it can get ugly if you push too hard).

 

[telemnemonics]

Concerns over the Dist + being crude?
Tube amps are often crude too, the electric guitar is VERY crude with calloused fingertips shoving strings across the frets to raise the pitch by stretching the metal?
Buy & try!

I have several old Dist + and several DOD 250s which are near the same circuit. I vastly prefer the OD250, and like later pedals based on that (250) circuit like the VLOD, OCD and my favorite the Oddfellow Cave Man.

Every guitar player should buy & try bot those classic original dirt pedals used on so many classic recordings we may love but not know the pedal was used for.
Just remember that an OD sound gets further clipped by the amp, and is not a complete guitar tone you run into an interface.
Even if these pedals do sound pretty good at unity gain into a clean amp.
Try the whole gain range too, the DOD 250 in particular makes great sounds at every gain setting, and can easily compete with the Klon for cleans unless you need to cut treble with the pedal.

 

[telemnemonics]

I'm liking my Distortion+ and Fuzz Face so much I couldn't help myself. I've done ordered a Phase 90 pedal to stick in there with 'em. One of the script logo models with the LED and power connection (it was like 20 bucks more than a block logo version).

The more I dial in good sounds with the fuzz and distortion, the less use I'm finding for MXR Timmy. Although goodness knows its bass and treble cut knobs are pretty strong, the actual gain and/or diode clipping I'd much rather get from Distortion+.

So I'm picturing guitar into Fuzz Face into Phase 90 into Distortion+, then onward to delays and so forth. I will stick my buffered tuner pedal in between them somewhere because the Distortion+ seems to have a bad case of passive tone-suck when due to its antiquated bypass mechanism.

Oh you got it!
Cool, I replied to the first page posts...

 

[Brent Hutto]

Every guitar player should buy & try bot those classic original dirt pedals used on so many classic recordings we may love but not know the pedal was used for.
Just remember that an OD sound gets further clipped by the amp, and is not a complete guitar tone you run into an interface.

I've been finding so many cool sounds in my Fuzz Face/Phase 90/Distortion+ classic combo. Not necessarily all three together although that's a cool sound itself. But leaving off the phaser and just going Dist+ or Fuzz Face into Dist+ then playing around with the Volume pot on the guitar and using any one of three different amp settings.

I'm not really trying to replicate specific classic recordings (don't have the guitar chops for that anyway) but of course all those old sounds shaped my musical vocabulary so they're part of my musical DNA.

There's a classic theory in Biology that "ontogeny recapitulates phyologeny" which more or less means that each individual creature's development and growth follows a similar sequence as the evolutionary development of its species. I feel like that's what I'm doing by playing a Telecaster and gradually experimenting with these ancient types of pedals from the 60's and 70's.

At some point I suppose my "evolution" ought to include sticking a Tube Screamer in there, too.

 

[user name]

My conclusion about obsessing over subtle nuances in pedals is that no one but you is going to care or hear the difference. We like to immerse ourselves in these things because it matters to *us* - and there's nothing wrong with that- I do plenty of it myself. The audience will almost never hear a difference unless something sounds undeniably bad.

 

[Brent Hutto]

My conclusion about obsessing over subtle nuances in pedals is that no one but you is going to care or hear the difference. We like to immerse ourselves in these things because it matters to *us* - and there's nothing wrong with that- I do plenty of it myself. The audience will almost never hear a difference unless something sounds undeniably bad.

For me the good news/bad news thing is my audience is just myself. It's good because it simplifies the "who can hear the difference" thing. It's bad because I sometimes wish I had better guitar playing to listen to

 

[11 Gauge]

My conclusion about obsessing over subtle nuances in pedals is that no one but you is going to care or hear the difference. We like to immerse ourselves in these things because it matters to *us* - and there's nothing wrong with that- I do plenty of it myself. The audience will almost never hear a difference unless something sounds undeniably bad.

The thing is, it can sometimes be a slippery slope between subtle nuances and dialing in your sound to where you can set it and forget it.

I also find that some rigs are pretty easy to dial in and go w/o much need to get hung up with anything subtle, which is pretty much the case with using my Teles with my '71 VR. I can pretty much throw any variety of dirt boxes on the board and have it good to go in just a couple of minutes.

OTOH, when using a Strat with my Origin 20H or Katana 50, I have to take a little more care, to ensure that things don't slip towards sounding undeniably bad, especially at gig volume. There are absolutely some dirt boxes that sound way better than others with these rigs, particularly with the right midrange and treble frequencies. As the volume goes up, I typically have to take a little time adjusting the tone controls, especially.

I also tend to back down the gain on the pedals more as the volume goes up, with the Strat & Origin or Kat, but I can typically just leave them as is, with volume adjustments when using a Tele and the VR.

 

[user name]

The thing is, it can sometimes be a slippery slope between subtle nuances and dialing in your sound to where you can set it and forget it.

I also find that some rigs are pretty easy to dial in and go w/o much need to get hung up with anything subtle, which is pretty much the case with using my Teles with my '71 VR. I can pretty much throw any variety of dirt boxes on the board and have it good to go in just a couple of minutes.

OTOH, when using a Strat with my Origin 20H or Katana 50, I have to take a little more care, to ensure that things don't slip towards sounding undeniably bad, especially at gig volume. There are absolutely some dirt boxes that sound way better than others with these rigs, particularly with the right midrange and treble frequencies. As the volume goes up, I typically have to take a little time adjusting the tone controls, especially.

I also tend to back down the gain on the pedals more as the volume goes up, with the Strat & Origin or Kat, but I can typically just leave them as is, with volume adjustments when using a Tele and the VR.

Sure some people obsess, and some set it and forget it. Also, what works in basement, doesn't always work live n a band situation.

 

[11 Gauge]

Sure some people obsess, and some set it and forget it. Also, what works in basement, doesn't always work live n a band situation.

IME, what works at home rarely works for the gig. You could almost build two separate rigs for either one.

 

[Brent Hutto]

You are correct. It's not a subtle circuit in most of its settings. A lot of it is to do with the way the clipping diodes are set up. Germanium diodes wired for hard clipping = low clipping voltage plus hard clipping in a circuit with a fair bit of gain = not subtle. As soon as the circuit goes above a pretty mild level those diodes clamp down hard. The high volume low gain setting you posted about earlier is about as close to sweet and subtle as you can get with a distortion +. It's just not designed for the mild tone shaping thing like a lot of the other standard OD circuits, at least not unless you take some of the piss and vinegar out of it with circuit changes like in the OD250 (and even then it can get ugly if you push too hard).

My first try at venturing out of my clean tone comfort zone was an MXR Timmy. I guess it was so much in the "mild tone shaping" realm it just didn't seem to do much into the Clean channel of my Katana unless I cranked it pretty high and used the most aggressive clipping option. Then it sounded too loud and kind of clippy/fizzy.

Distortion+ was admittedly kind of from left field, not a mainstream choice nowadays for sure. Pretty crude and not-subtle style of distortion. But in the end I think I've found the "...high volume low gain...as close to sweet and subtle as you can get..." is something I can get into. In fact, I'm close to deciding to use the Distortion+ pedal into the Clean channel of my Katana (with the Gain turned way down) as my Dirt channel. I've got the Volume knob up around 3:30-4:00 and the Distortion knob just a smidge above 9:00 and with my Telecaster's single coils it's a fairly restrained, slightly dark kind of constant-breakup tone.

So pretty weird, huh? Modern digital modeling amp be used as a low-gain, clean, neutral-EQ pedal platform with all the effects turned off, combined with an ancient nearly obsolete hard clipping pedal being used as basically a dirty boost. Or something like that. But I like it!

 

[cyclopean]

1: i think the distortion + is more of an overdrive than a viable distortion pedal on its own.
2: it’s kinda bland by itself.
3: that blandness makes it fantastic for stacking with all kinds of other pedals. It’s one of the most flexible pedals i have ever had on my board in terms of playing nicely with other effects.

 

[cyclopean]

Been messing with the Distortion+ just recently, again.
It has that something in the frequency response that I really enjoy, it retains a nice, full sound with distortion set up to 12-14 on the dial, provided that you use it in front of an already overdriven sound (pedal, amp and/or such). In my experience it really doesn't behave the same way if you use it in front of a cleaner sound, unless you leave it with distortion set at zero, for a "slightly dirty boost".

I find the distortion itself grainy and saturated, quite like some high gain channel of some amps.

Having said that, to me it still falls short as a high gain distortion sound. It doesn't have the smoothness and focus for that. The Proco Rat is better for that sound, to me, in some applications at least.
Nor, it seems to provide a nice fuzz sound like proper fuzz boxes.

However, it still has a nice distorted sound, which, in a peculiar way, provides both complex, amp-like as well as quite dissonant harmonics to the sound.

It’s not a high gain distortion at all. I don’t think it was designed for that.

That being said, that pedal and a chorus or flanger gets you to husker du awfully fast.

 

[getbent]

SHORT VERSION

On my Boss Katana amp, I like the built-in "Dist+" effect (emulation of an MXR Distortion+) better than any of the other distortions.

What are the odds that I would dig the sound of the actual MXR pedal?

Is liking the DSP-emulated version sufficient evidence that it's a pedal worth trying?

LONG VERSION

I've recently been dipping my toes into the world of distortion. I got an MXR Timmy pedal and somewhat surprisingly was able to find a couple light breakup tones I kind of like. But turning the Gain up past halfway gets into a kind of distortion that I don't care for.

My amp is a Boss Katana and I've played around a lot with many of its Boost effects which are emulations of anything from a clean boost to SD-1/BD-1 type Boss drive pedals all the way up into fuzz and heavy metal territory. For whatever reason the only one I seem to find interesting is called "Dist+" which is an emulation of the ancient MXR Distortion+ pedal. It doesn't jack the overall gain through the roof like most overdrive/distortion effects and it seems to be right in the Goldilocks zone where it's distorted enough to hear on even single notes (not just chords) but it doesn't degenerate into a wall of crud when I do play a really dissonant or closely-voiced chord.

Googling the MXR pedal tells me it's a very crude, simple "hard clippping" op-amp circuit. About the only thing that seems out of the ordinary (I think?) is the clipping is done by germanium rather than silicone diodes. Or maybe that's not unique at all, it's all above my pay grade to even know what that means. Basically, I don't know if it's an unusual sound at all or if it's just a historical curiosity and modern pedals cover the same tones even better somehow.

first pedal I ever owned... mxr distortion +!

loved it, used it for several years until I went all purist for about 3 years...

 

[Brent Hutto]

The thing 11 Gauge mentioned near the start of the thread, where Distortion+ tends to stays bassy when the gain is low and then knock off some bass as you raise the gain, seems to create little sweet spots with particular settings I really like.

Normally I'm at the very low gain range (Distortion control set to 9:00 give or take half an hour) and it's definitely letting all the bass through. And if I go up above 12:00 there a lot of crunch but some of the bassiness dies off.

Today I was playing around in between those settings with the Distortion at 11:00 and Output around 2:00. That's where it gets saturated, starts compressing but there's still a bunch of bass in there as well. On the neck pickup of my Telecaster, by working the guitar volume knob and be careful with my pick attack I can get an absolutely wonderful, dark, simmering tone that's kind of like what I've heard on some albums where a heavily gained-up tube amp is being played lightly. And at that setting it is extremely touch-sensitive.

Pretty cool stuff for a basic op-amp plus diode clipping pedal into the clean channel of a digital amp!

 

[cousinpaul]

I've mostly used the D+ with single coil strats but I've currently got a neck humbucker in my tele. With distortion set around 8:00, it does edge of breakup really well. The middle switch position reminds me a little of Larry Carlton's Jazz Crusaders tone. No idea if he ever used one but it's got that kind of vibe.

 

[bettyseldest]

My first pedal, bought in late 75 or early 76, along with a Cry baby which I never quite mastered. Didn't buy another pedal until 2012 (Joyo American Sound). Some say that the tone is in the script logo others the battery. I don't think that we can ever re-create those vintage tones, even NOS PP3 9V batteries will have deteriorated with age, and new Alkaline batteries just don't have the same characteristics.

 

[Brent Hutto]

I'm still like my Distortion+ pedal for the type of distortion it gives (on low-med settings). It distorts in a different, lower register than my Katana amp's Crunch channel or than the Tube Screamer pedal I've recently added to my setup. And not at all like my Fuzz Face either.

It's a lower midrange growl or grind kind of distortion. The opposite of fizzy or "cuts through". And I do think it is somewhat volume-knob sensitive, it won't completely clean up (unless maybe I turn the guitar volume like 90% of the way down) but it can be adjusted to get a rather harsh grind with the guitar volume dimed and then back off to a subtle, edgy sound with the volume dialed back halfway.

Kind of cool that a style of dirt pedal nobody really talks as much about today (simple op-amp with Germanium hard clipping diodes and little EQ shaping) is turning out to be something I like better than the more commonly talked-about types.

 

[cyclopean]

My first pedal, bought in late 75 or early 76, along with a Cry baby which I never quite mastered. Didn't buy another pedal until 2012 (Joyo American Sound). Some say that the tone is in the script logo others the battery. I don't think that we can ever re-create those vintage tones, even NOS PP3 9V batteries will have deteriorated with age, and new Alkaline batteries just don't have the same characteristics.

View attachment 1093428

Can’t different types of batteries be emulated through the power supply?