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Re: MXR Dist+

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9/5/1999 12:52 AM

Re: MXR Dist+

Hi Everybody,

I had a bit of spare time on my hands so I had a look at the circuit boards at both Dist +'s,and 2 caps in the script logo were 2.2uF and in the block logo were 1uF(I think this is right,getting very late),everything else was the same.I don't have a schematic to look at either.

Does the distortion 2 sound similar to the dist +?,Ive never come across one,but I do have a Commande series Overdrive and that has a very nice distortion,doesnt really sound like the dist + to me.

But I suppose it gets down to this:someone somewhere will like something no matter how good or bad it is.Here is myself and Mark saying the Dist + sounds bad but someone like Bob Mould(guitarist with Husker Du and Sugar)saying its the best distortion pedal ever made.And guitarists who think solid state amps are better.Its all about personal taste.Just my thought.

Matt

9/5/1999 1:06 PM
Jay	I've never been able to get even CLOSE to a Bob Mould/Husker Du sound with my distortion +! I've tried just about everything w/ it and no matter what it'll always sound tinny/thin and crappy It's even the one w/ the script logo!

9/5/1999 7:33 PM

Sometimes it's a case that two musicians share *identical* tastes, but one plays through a rig whose total effect is to produce the sound that both crave, while the other one plays through a rig that results in a sound neither like...for the same single piece of equipment.

This is not confined to fuzz boxes either. I'm sure there are plenty of amplifiers with appalingly poor high end stemming from cheezy design and cheap speakers. Player A walks into a store and tries out a nifty single-coil equipped instrument through said amplifier and mutters "Overpriced hype" to themselves and walks out. Player B walks into another store and tries out same guitar through a better-chosen amp that brings out the soul of the instrument, and goes "Wow! When can I pawn my car and get one of these!". Superficially, when comparing notes, they may appear to have discrepant tastes, because one says they like guitar X and the other says they hate it. In reality, they have experienced the same instrument under different conditions, and disagreed about the END-RESULT, mistaking the instrument for the source.

I'm still not convinced that diode-based "splat-fuzzes" like the Dist+ could ever be my taste, but I'll concede that there are no doubt more favourable conditions for using one than I may have tried. I'm not familiar with the entire Bob Mould discography, but I can't remember ever having heard a song with his playing that made me wince and say "Good lord, what was he THINKING!?", so there must be some good in this thing somewhere.

9/6/1999 9:27 AM

I found an interview with Bob Mould around 1992,when he just formed Sugar and this was his setup to record the album Copper Blue:

Strat Plus

MXR Dist +

TC Electronics boost pedal(probably the line driver-booster)

Roland SDE 3000 delay

DBX 166 stereo compressor

Pair of Fender concerts

Pair of Roland JC-120 heads and Marshall 4x12 cabs

This is the same live and is in stereo.

In the studio also uses Pultec valve EQs

He says that he has used this setup for the last 3-4 years so was probably around the time Husker Du broke up.What he used before that I dont know,I do know he used an Ibanez Flying V back then ,cos I've seen a photo with him using one.

Just had a thought:Maybe the Dist + sounds better through a tranny amp rather than a valve amp.Some fuzz boxes do sound better that way.I've never used one through a tranny amp.

Matt

9/7/1999 9:41 PM
Adrian	In Bob's Husker DU era he used two marshall half-stacks, one mixed for low freqs and one for high (and both cranked). I loved that sound but it was a pretty messy one. I'm sure you could have thrown any one of a number of buzz boxes into the maelstom without really being able to tell what it was up to.

9/7/1999 10:00 PM
Jay	It's good to see that people on this BBS actually like Husker Du.. This was the last place i thought Husker Du would come up in conversation!

9/7/1999 10:49 PM
Dave James	Hey - you have an HM-2 too? It's a great (but subtle) effect. Maybe a tad hard to master, but very tasty! I got mine during a local store close out of that effect. I thought for $19.95, if I didn't like it, I could use the nifty box. Later, DJ

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