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.
Comments
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)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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)
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.
I guess this is the "tone is subjective" thing! As a stand alone drive, I'd just max all three controls.
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein