Distortion III Review

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monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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Last week at Gear Fest East the very excellent @mike_l lent me his favorite pedal the MXR Distortion III to see how well it worked with my new H&K Puretone on the proviso that I wrote a review with some thoughts about it. 

I'm not going to post clips because Andy has already done a better job than I ever will:


Well despite having it a week I've only had the chance to try it today for the first time and I must say I'm rather surprised by it. 
When you see the name Distortion III certain things spring to mind. My assumptions were: It would be mega high gain pedal, aimed at a nasty metal type sound which would sound fizzy into a bright amp. These suspicions proved to be unfounded. 

Firstly the pedal isn't massively high gain, in fact the gain range isn't huge at all. With it near minimum you still have a reasonable amount of dirt and with it fully cranked you can still be only just on the edge of breakup with a neck single coil and a light touch. Moving the gain also highlights the smallish range as it doesn't jump massively in volume as you wind it up.

Despite PGS Andy mentioning it's got loads of headroom it doesn't have the scary level of output that something like the 18v Super Crunchbox on my board has and at low gain it needs to be at about 2pm to be at unity, but you can get a decent amount of volume jump out of it.

If you google this pedal you will hear a lot of people grumbling that it isn't a really a distortion pedal because it's not high enough gain, or nasty enough (and also because it's apparently only a couple of components away from the Zakk Wylde OD), but I think it is at least in the sense that it's clearly been designed to work into a clean amp rather than push a dirty amp. 

It produces a big, gutsy, dynamic rock sound. Even with the wick up full and with another pedal pushing it, it doesn't really want to go into metal territory. To compare it to a high gain pedal the DIII dimed is about as drivey as the Super Crunchbox half way up on it's lowest clip level. The DIII has a slight mid hump, but not so much that it's obviously a solo pedal and I like it best for big chunky rock rhythm. I'm thinking Black Crowes, Aerosmith, Stereophonics type stuff. For lead stuff it's again more on the raw rock side and definitely not for the smooth Santana type noodling. The string to string clarity is excellent probably my favorite thing about the pedal and one of the best I've ever tried. 
I usually prefer pedals that have a bass control, but the III seems to get the balance right with a chunky, but not overbearing low end without the need for adjustment (at least on my amp).
On a lot of dirt boxes the tone control is a waste of time where deviation from 12 o'clock results in either bee in a tin mode or blanket over the amp mode. With the MXR pulling back the tone just seemed to add woolliness, but upping it adds aggression without fizz and there is a lot of usable sounds to be had. Even cranked it never gets fizzy which makes me think there must be some low pass filtering going on somewhere to take out the extreme high. I suspect this would be a pedal that would work pretty well into a Fender. Again you can find people on the web who grumble about the somewhat limited range of the tone, but as with the drive and the level it seems like they have put a lot of thought into giving the controls usable ranges. 
It's all very well having pedals that go into mental oscillating feedback and splattery fuzz, but rarely are those settings any use for live and it's actually quite refreshing to have a pedal where you can put the dials anywhere you like and get a decent sound. 

So where would I put this in the pantheon of dirt boxes?
Well it's certainly not an "amp in a box" type pedal, or a vicious fuzzstortion, it's happy being a really good, usable distortion. 
Compared to the DS1 it's less compressed, has chunkier low end and is considerably less fizzy. 
It's not as aggressive, or as versatile as a RATII and considerably lower gained.
The Turbo RAT is probably a closer fit soundwise though the MXR doesn't have the insane levels of boost on tap and it doesn't go as clean or as dirty as the ProCo.  
The closest distortion pedal I've had to this is probably the distortion side of the GT500 though I must say I think the DIII has a fuller, more dynamic sound despite the GT500 having a much more versatile EQ. 

In summary I think the DIII is an excellent pedal. It's not massively versatile, but for a range of always useable rock distortion tones that don't get fizzy or muddy it's pretty hard to beat. I'm not sure I'd find a home for it on my board, but that's more to do with the type of band I'm in. If I was doing rock covers I'd definitely give one a go.
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Comments

  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    @monquixote
    excellent review. I tend to use it as an alternative to the dirt on the marshall, put into the clean channel. With that in mind, i can go from a hendrixesque sound with a strat to an ac/dcish sound with 'buckers. It doesnt sound too good into a dirty amp.

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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    mike_l said:
    @monquixote
    excellent review. I tend to use it as an alternative to the dirt on the marshall, put into the clean channel. With that in mind, i can go from a hendrixesque sound with a strat to an ac/dcish sound with 'buckers. It doesnt sound too good into a dirty amp.
    I agree with you totally. 
    I'm baffled by all the Americans whinging that it should be called an OD when it's clearly designed to go into a clean amp.
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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    its because they get it expecting a boss metalzone or similar.

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  • mike257mike257 Frets: 374
    Great review, nice one. Stoking the gas fires for sure!
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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    mike257;38794" said:
    Great review, nice one. Stoking the gas fires for sure!
    thats what we're here for...

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    I'm baffled by all the Americans whinging that it should be called an OD when it's clearly designed to go into a clean amp.
    It is definitely a 'distortion' in the sense that the clipping is hard to ground, like a Distortion+ or a Rat. It's actually very like a Tube Screamer/SD-1 circuit with hard clipping, in fact.

    It's such a fluid concept though - the DOD "Overdrive" 250 is also a distortion in the sense that it also clips to ground... although it uses asymetrical clipping like a Boss OD-1. (So how did Boss patent that? The DOD was earlier.) And the Rat can sound passably like an overdrive...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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    ICBM said:
    It is definitely a 'distortion' in the sense that the clipping is hard to ground, like a Distortion+ or a Rat. It's actually very like a Tube Screamer/SD-1 circuit with hard clipping, in fact.

    It's such a fluid concept though - the DOD "Overdrive" 250 is also a distortion in the sense that it also clips to ground... although it uses asymetrical clipping like a Boss OD-1. (So how did Boss patent that? The DOD was earlier.) And the Rat can sound passably like an overdrive...
    That would explain why people were claiming it was virtually the same as the Wylde OD as I think that's an SD-1 with a bit more gain. 
    I'm guessing they tweaked some stuff to get less bass cut compared to a TS and it would seem that there is something taking off the very top end almost like a low pass type of thing as it seems to remain non fizzy even with the tone cranked. 
    I'm assuming it's silicone diodes to ground?

    Having played with it a bit more I'm liking this even more. I've been trying to work out how to describe the sound and actually what I think it captures is the sort of guitar sound on The Colour and The Shape by Foo Fighters. Heavy, but not especially metal, or classic rock. I think that was probably a RAT into an AC30, but for me it nails that tone.

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  • One of my favourite pedals.  Works great into a Marshall that's already angry (a la zakk).  

    My one had loads of headroom/volume boost.  It was at unity at half way around, then after that things got crazy loud - much more so than any 'normal' 9v pedal I've used since.  Very good pedal, affordable...

    But a pain in the arse to change the batteries!
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    edited September 2013
    monquixote said:
    That would explain why people were claiming it was virtually the same as the Wylde OD as I think that's an SD-1 with a bit more gain.

    Zakk Wylde

    http://analogguru.an.ohost.de/193/schematics/Mxr_ZakkWylde.gif


    Distortion III



    As you can see they're almost identical except for the position of the clipping diodes and some component value differences - the bulk of the layout and most components are identical. (The Distortion III has an extra transistor, but it's just for muting in bypass, presumably to cure a leakage problem.)

    monquixote said:
    it would seem that there is something taking off the very top end almost like a low pass type of thing as it seems to remain non fizzy even with the tone cranked.
    C5.

    monquixote said:
    I'm assuming it's silicone diodes to ground?


    Silicon. Silicone is what they make fake boobs out of :).

    Actually I made a small mistake earlier, the diodes are to the half-voltage point not to ground, but that will do the same thing in signal terms.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • mike_lmike_l Frets: 5700
    @ThePrettyDamned i'd disagree and think it doesnt sound good into a dirty amp. It has been trialed with both marshall and blackstar, both head/cab and combo. And at gig and lower volumes.
    As for the sd1/wylde, personally i prefer the sd1. Although i'd use a bad monkey over either of those with a valve amp.

    Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21) 

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  •   I wonder if this is the same as the MXR Classic Distortion I picked up a while back.  I think the CD is a Guitar Center special.

      I had the same take as you: a bit surprised at how low gain it really was- I was expecting something nasty, like a RAT...  Be that as it may, it still makes some joyful noise.  It hasn't usurped my OCD or Blues Driver as my go to dirt pedal, but I do like it.
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  • mike_l;39095" said:
    @ThePrettyDamned i'd disagree and think it doesnt sound good into a dirty amp. It has been trialed with both marshall and blackstar, both head/cab and combo. And at gig and lower volumes.
    As for the sd1/wylde, personally i prefer the sd1. Although i'd use a bad monkey over either of those with a valve amp.
    Oh man, I love it into a driven amp. It didn't sound so great with the ac30 sound, but when a Marshall was already driven, this sent it into crazy gain. It's how zakk uses his - jcm 800 (I think?) with his sig pedal just giving it a bit more. The dist 3 does the same thing, really lets pinch harmonics come out, I used to max the tone, volume nearly all the way up and gain at about a quarter.

    I guess this is the "tone is subjective" thing! As a stand alone drive, I'd just max all three controls.

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  • daveyhdaveyh Frets: 681
    Had one, definitely more  useful as an OD than a dist. Nice pedal but paled to insignificance next to my FD2.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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    For me it's a very different pedal to the FD despite the similarity in circuit. 

    I think if you were going to use it as an OD there are a lot better choices out there. 
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  • daveyhdaveyh Frets: 681
    monquixote said:

    I think if you were going to use it as an OD there are a lot better choices out there. 
    That's the problem right there, there are better choices for OD, and it isn't interesting enough as a distortion where there are also other pedals that can do what it does and more.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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    I don't tend to care about versatile anymore. 

    In practical terms I buy a pedal off the classifieds, give it a try and see if I like it and provided I do I work out what settings sound best and it gets a place on my board. I then leave them set like that until the pedal gets replaced. 

    Provided it does the one sound I like I don't really care what else it can do because past the first week I own it I don't tend to touch it ever again and having lots of knobs and switches just leads to potential problems if it gets knocked (Fuzz Factory anyone?)

    My Super Crunchbox is a ton more flexible than the DIII, but for a med gain alt rock rhythm sound the DIII works better to my ears so it would supplant it should that be my requirement.
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    If it's similar to the distortion side of the GT500 it might be worth me checking out. I like the GT500 but it takes a lot of space given that I don't use the boost side much.

    Is this like the old MXR pedals or is it properly bypassed? 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    crunchman said:
    If it's similar to the distortion side of the GT500 it might be worth me checking out. I like the GT500 but it takes a lot of space given that I don't use the boost side much.

    Is this like the old MXR pedals or is it properly bypassed? 
    True bypass according to the schematic. I didn't actually check the one I tried, but it was on a board with buffered pedals before and after so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    Thanks.  Might have to try one.
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
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    crunchman said:
    If it's similar to the distortion side of the GT500 it might be worth me checking out. I like the GT500 but it takes a lot of space given that I don't use the boost side much.

    Is this like the old MXR pedals or is it properly bypassed? 
    The DIII is reasonably close to the Dist side of the GT500, but it doesn't have as much gain or eq that is as flexible. I prefer the sound of the DIII though.
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