New MXR distortion+

[hippieguy1954]

I've searched and Googled this to death and can't get a good answer. Maybe someone here knows. Does a new MXR distortion + have good quality Germaniun diodes? Thanks in advance!

[jackevorkian]

Get the Whirlwind Yellow Box if you want a new D+.

[hippieguy1954]

Get the Whirlwind Yellow Box if you want a new D+.

Thank you very much for the info. Have you tried one? Also, do you know if there is a difference between the Yellow box and the Gold box?

[hippieguy1954]

Nevermind, I found out that the Yellow and the Gold boxes are the same.

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

I do believe that the new Dunlop MXR Dist+ has the right diodes (1n270), BUT for some reason, these new MXR's don't sound right. Maybe it's the crappy resistors in the new one. Really not sure yet. The new MXR is a bit thin and overly crispy. Maybe the choice of tantalum cap's, not sure. I'd definitely go for the Whirlwind pedal over the MXR. That appears to be pretty true to the original and a better quality build.


Brad

[eric]

, BUT for some reason, these new MXR's don't sound right. .
The new MXR is a bit thin and overly crispy. Brad

FWIW , I totally agree with that statement. Ive had mine for about a year now. It's an instant drop out of the mix. Even with a full sounding hollowbody, the guitar volume on 10, the output of the pedal nearly dimed, tone rolled down a bit, it is still extremely thin sounding. Absolutely No balls .... Really noisy too... It reminds me more of a background Bobby distortion from the 80's. It's tough finding workable settings while maintaining consistent rig settings.
It's easy to see the settings on JK's setup with the +. Ive tried playing around with them , and in the end , just really dislike the pedal.
Though lately I've been getting somewhat better results. But I have to add a considerable bass at the preamp, then rolling the dist on the pedal to only about 10% with output at 100%, using it more of a "bump" for a little mojo , but I still have to juice the pre with a volume pedal. Still, its difficult to dial out any of that tinny, crispness. I think at the least the Boss OD-3 is a much more versatile pedal with more usable tone options. It blows the MXR out of the water, IMHO. Haven't tried the WW, but it's got to be better than the MXR DIST+.

[jeffm725]

To anyone who has even the most rudimentary skill with a soldering iron, the Dist + is one of the easiest circuits ever to build for a first timer.

There are kits all over the web that are very affordable and compare favorably with the original script logo D +'s.

[eric]

I've actually spent the last couple months thinking that I got a bum pedal and that something was wrong with it ...
Thanks for the info Brad...

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

I would recommend using "carbon film" resistors as I think that's what was in the original. Also be sure to use ceramic disc capacitors (where applicable) like the original too. And in my experience, the high voltage ceramic cap's don't always sound as good in this kind of circuit as the lower voltage rated ceramic discs. And finally, the one main tantalum cap that's near the output of the circuit, I do think that's a cap that could be causing some of this thin-ness we hear in the newer pedals. That definitely should be a tantalum cap, but I've found over the years that not all tantalums sound alike. And the other factor is that ALL tantalum cap's sound overly crispy and bright when new, and can take dozens and dozens of hours of run-time to settle in. So see if you can find an old tantalum cap from a surplus place, or if you do happen to have a newer cap there, power up the pedal, plug in the input so it's powered on, and just leave it on for a couple of weeks to really help break it in. It would break in even better if you feed it some sound source so it's actually passing audio. I can't stress enough how significantly tantalum cap's change in tone over time. Maybe that's the the issue here, needing a 100 or more hours of break in time.

I've got a home brew MXR Distortion+ with 1N34a diodes and all the other cap's are correct, and it sounds pretty much like an old, worn Script logo. Warm and full and just the right amount of fizz. That .001uF low voltage ceramic cap at the diodes is also crucial to tame the highs.

Brad

B

[hippieguy1954]

Thanks for all the info, Brad! Very interesting. One more question...how do you think the Earth Drive complares?

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

The Earth Drive is a very different animal. With dirt pedals, there are generally two main camps based on the way the diodes get used for clipping. The Earth Drive does the traditional "overdrive" topology. The MXR Distortion+ is the "distortion" style circuit. The MXR is the quintessential "distortion pedal" that basically defined the category.

The Earth Drive has much warmer overdrive harmonics and a more compressed feel as you drive it harder. The MXR+ is a hard-clipped kind of thing with more "fizz" in the distortion harmonics. I love them both for different reasons.

A good MXR+ is really so totally cool and useful and really quite transparent with regards to letting your guitar still sound like itself. It's from the days before distortion pedal did all that crazy EQ'ing to the guitar tone. The MXR is virtually flat in response, so your guitar sounds like itself. Actually, now that I mention it, the Earth Drive is very similar in that respect.


Brad

[helio]

Adding my vote to the quality and sound of the Whirlwind "Rochester" series pedals. I haven't used their Gold Box, but I do own their Orange Box (vintage Phase 90 replica) and their Red Box (Dyna-comp). Both sound fantastic. Smooth, warm tones without a hint of fakeness, harshness, or mechanicalness (nice words, huh?).

So I'm clearly just extrapolating here, but if the quality of the Red and Orange boxes speak to a trend, then I'd say their Gold Box is worth a good look.

Side-bar: If you every come across an old MXR Distortion II ("two," not "three"), give it a try. I did on a whim, and it hasn't left my board since. Terrific amp-like behavior in it's tone, smoothness, compression, and ability to clean up in a very gradual, "realistic" way with the guitar volume knob. One of those old "distortions" that, with gain set low, really shines in an "overdrive" role.

[jeffm725]

Side-bar: If you every come across an old MXR Distortion II ("two," not "three"), give it a try. I did on a whim, and it hasn't left my board since. Terrific amp-like behavior in it's tone, smoothness, compression, and ability to clean up in a very gradual, "realistic" way with the guitar volume knob. One of those old "distortions" that, with gain set low, really shines in an "overdrive" role.

You just added an interesting comment there that I was just discussing with someone just this past weekend.

There are many benefits to the garcia/obel setup and the way effects behave with them. The one thing you lose with all your pedals in a loop is the exact thing you just mentioned: they way Overdrives behave when rolling guitar volume up and down.
I have taken a OCD clone I built out of my loop and put it in after my final output just for this reason.

[hippieguy1954]

I've been looking at the pics of Jerry's rig when he was using the mxr D+ and trying to figure out what position it is in the chain. I read a few posts (in here somewhere) that mention Jerry being able to change the order of the efffects in the chain with his foot switches. Does anyone know what order he used most, when he was still using the mxr D+? Also, did he ever use the mxr before the the octave and the envelope? I've been tryin to get it straight for a while.

[SarnoMusicSolutions]

I believe that it's been pretty well confirmed that Jerry's effects rack went in this order:

top left #1
top right #4
bottom left #5
bottom right #8

And he did NOT have the ability to re-sequence that order with his pedals. It was a more simple, hard wired, relay controlled effects looping device.

To the best of my knowledge.

Brad